Staff Reporter

Rehana Rossouw=20 WHEN Chris Ball was Barclays Bank managing director=20 in the 198Os, he became the victim of a bizarre=20 witch-hunt where National Party commie-spotters=20 pronounced they had found a bunny resembling an=20 African National Congress symbol in the bank’s tree=20 Coupled with numerous accounts the bank attracted=20 from anti-apartheid groups, “evidence” surely=20 mounted that […]

Classical Music: Coenraad Visser AFTER the drought, the deluge. For too long was it rare for overseas string quartets to visit South Africa. Then, within a space of three days, two of the leading United Kingdom-based quartets appeared in the Wits Great Hall in Johannesburg. Interestingly, their performing styles could not have contrasted more sharply. […]

RUGBY: Jon Swift WHO would have imagined on that tumultous day Francois Pienaar held the William Webb Ellis trophy aloft at Ellis Park that the domestic competition could have come close to matching it in intensity? Few would have chanced a wager on it. And yet we have been graced with just such a domestic […]

Simon Segal Encouraged by declines in the inflation rate and money supply growth, economists are increasingly changing their forecasts and talking about the next movement in the Reserve Bank’s (RB) interest rates being down rather than up. This will herald a decline in the prime and bond rates for the first time since November 1993. […]

Pop/Rock: Malu van Leuuwen IF the name The Springbok Nude Girls conjures up images of nubile strip-artists decked out in cheeky cheerleading outfits in the old green and gold — think again. In fact, the name belongs to an all-male, five- piece band based in Stellenbosch where, in the band’s early days, half their audience […]

Karen Harverson South Africa has the opportunity to leap-frog ahead using other countries’ technology and experience to do things right the first time. “This country should take advantage of California’s advances in environmental issues, computers, communications and electronics,” said California Trade and Commerce Secretary Julie Meier Wright, speaking at the Made in the USA Expo […]

Marion Edmunds=20 GOVERNMENT anthropologist Jan van Wyk is in a=20 quandary over who should be South Africa’s real=20 traditional leaders: “The definition of ‘leader’ is=20 easy, but ‘traditional’ creates more problems.=20 Basically, I think it’s about handing over the=20 goods, the values and culture from the past=20 generation to the present.”=20 That definition is not, […]

They’re black, they’re pretty small and they believe they can beat the best teams in the Premier Basketball League BASKETBALL: Rowan Callaghan IT IS early evening and the End Street basketball courts are still drenched in sunlight and the usual sounds of the playground can be heard above the traffic. A small noise can be […]

Dear Walter,=20 I AM in trouble. It came on Monday morning in the=20 form of a letter from Oslo. The envelope was=20 immediately recognisable, featuring heavily- embossed scenes of people being blown to pieces.=20 The Nobel people have a sense of history.=20 Inside was a note from senior management at their=20 gunpowder factory, advising that […]

Rowan Callaghan Bayathenga 2000 has joined the call for increased local content, only this time the issue is not broadcasting but support for locally manufactured goods. Bayathenga — meaning all the people are buying — is a section 21 company which plans to embark on a massive “buy South Africa” campaign to promote increased support […]

The Boland town of Worcester is as divided as ever.=20 But the local government elections could change all=20 of that, reports Gaye Davis=20 WORCESTER’S Durban Street once drew the line=20 between the Boland town’s white and coloured areas.=20 Now town clerk Neels de Bruyn talks about an=20 “integrated town” — with its black township,=20 Zwelethemba, […]

Artists are teaming up with designers for the Johannesburg Art Gallery’s Spring Fashion Show. HAZEL FRIEDMAN takes a peek behind the seams THE Friends of the Johannesburg Art Gallery can’t be accused of timidity. In fact, in their efforts to turn art into entertainment, they sometimes walk recklessly where purists fear to tread. A few […]

The unequal racial balance in South Africa’s=20 justice system makes it quite possible that race=20 becomes a feature of South African trials as it did=20 in the OJ Simpson circus, writes Justin Pearce=20 COULD South Africa have its own version of the OJ=20 Simpson trial? The tensions that shifted the focus=20 of the Simpson case […]

Peter Vale writes that the clash between gay people=20 and President Mugabe showed that civil society can=20 play a powerful role in Southern Africa=20 WHEN Robert Mugabe savaged the common law rights of=20 gays, he may well have initiated a geological shift=20 in the regional balance of power.=20 In the wake of his comments, South […]

Head of the Occult-related Crime Unit, Colonel=20 Kobus Jonker, in The Mark Gevisser Profile=20 There’s a child’s drawing, on Colonel Kobus=20 Jonker’s pinboard, of two stick-figures with arms=20 flailing against each other in a crayon-sea of=20 bileful yellow. One figure is labelled, in=20 childlike script, “Oom Kobus”; the other is=20 labelled “Satanis”. The drawing was […]

The International Rugby Board has finally opened the door to professionalism, but it has also left the door open for amateurism RUGBY: Jon Swift YOU can’t help feeling that the International Rugby Board (IRB) has done yet again what history shows it to have done best … dither. Certainly, the latest set of guidelines — […]

For women to have any real power in society, they=20 need to be represented in the Budget, argues ANC MP=20 Pregs Govender=20 WHILE women have won initial victories by filling=20 positions of political power, economic power still=20 lies where it always has — with a few new black=20 faces — in the all-male white echelons […]

Supporting ‘smart’ mines ignores the international=20 landmine crisis, writes David Bruce=20 IT WAS a shock for the Ceasefire Campaign to hear=20 last week that the government had decided to=20 implement a ban on “dumb” or “long-life” mines=20 while adopting a position of support for the use of=20 “smart” or “short-life” mines.=20 While all landmines are […]

Peter Vale argues the Comoros coup shows the time=20 has come for the government to expunge the=20 mercenary impulse from South African national life=20 THE proverbial fly on the foreign affairs wall must=20 have raised a wry smile when news of the Comoros=20 coup came rattling over the wire. “Hello, we’ve=20 been here before,” it […]

Marion Edmunds=20 THE National Party has a strategy to solve this=20 coming week’s fight with the ANC over local=20 government legislation. Talk of the strategy makes=20 Nats smile, but they’re not going to show their=20 hand yet.=20 Parliament meets in a special session next week to=20 debate the Local Government Transition Amendment=20 Bill, a move […]

Lynda Loxton In today’s world, competitiveness is everything but no company can hope to be in a world class competitive position unless its suppliers deliver on time — and in South Africa that can be a major problem. With 60 percent of its turnover based on exports, Epping-based marine and general engineering company Petrel Engineering […]

WAS it bought? Would a poor unemployed black man=20 have received the same verdict? Was this a triumph=20 of lawyers over justice? The questions in the wake=20 of the “not guilty” verdict in the OJ Simpson trial=20 are unending.=20 Commentators who believe the trial was hijacked by=20 the 17 lawyers on the Simpson defence team […]

Charles Nupen=20 Appearance: New mannish. The kind of guy to have=20 around the house — he’d never complain when it was=20 his turn to take out the garbage.=20 Present occupation: In between mediating the=20 municipal strike he hopefully did his bit to ferry=20 the family’s uncollected rotting rubbish down to=20 the dump like the rest […]

A proposed French/South African accord could revitalise the SA film industry, reports TREVOR STEELE TAYLOR FIRST steps have been taken towards a collaboration which could be of resounding importance to South African film. At a symposium in Johannesburg last weekend, organised by the French Institute, plans were mooted for a film treaty between France and […]

Small-scale mining operations find it difficult to tunnel a path into South Africa’s mainstream mining industry, reports Meshack Mabogoane Attempts by small and medium enterprises (SMMEs) to carve a significant niche in the mining and minerals sector are fraught with such minefields that “constructive intervention” by the government may be more necessary to level the […]

Karen Harverson Columbus Stainless is sceptical of carbon steel producer Iscor’s R100-million plan to convert its Pretoria works into a stainless steel facility for the production of slab and black coil. “While I believe Iscor had little option but to close the operation which wasn’t efficient as a carbon steel facility, or do something different […]

The sound of poetry rocked gently against the walls of Pretoria Central Prison last weekend. Hugh Lewin, a political inmate of Central in the 60s, reports on a day with LKJ and eight South African poets Ask any prison graduate: there’s one fear greater than the fear of going to prison. It’s the fear of […]

An innovative idea for small cinemas will bring the movies to the townships, writes Neil Bierbaum Ster-Moribo’s purchase this month of a 60-percent share in the Maxi Movies franchise operation has provided it with the growth it has been seeking among black audiences. Maxi Movies has a new concept for cinemas: a SuperVHS video system, […]

Jack Rampou The SABC is competing with new community radio stations by providing regional language services countrywide. But community stations say they are not threatened and can compete effectively. SABC radio has created extra services for specific language groups by using transmitter splits in the different regions. For example, since July 3, both Radio Zulu […]

The teams who have had the most Currie Cup success this season have been playing Buurman van Zyl’s way with forward domination to the fore RUGBY: Jon Swift IT is perhaps a trite observation, but this has been a long, hard rugby season. No team typifies this more fully than Transvaal. Champions of virtually all […]

CRICKET: Jon Swift CRICKET is big business. You only have to weigh the R5- million Standard Bank are going to pour into the one- day game over the five years from the start of the 1996-97 season to gauge that. The massive sponsorship will back the national team in all one-day internationals in this country […]

Parliamentary questioning of Kwazulu-Natal Attorney- General Tim McNally started off looking like a wild west duel, but ended in a stand-off, writes David It was 12 midday exactly — “high noon” in gunfighter parlance — when Tim McNally took his seat in Room 153 at the Union Buildings on Wednesday. A slight, grey- haired figure […]