Staff Reporter

THEATRE: David Le Page REPRESENTING the agonies of a nation like Cambodia is a considerable challenge. It carries with it great responsibility, owed to the memory of the dead, but mostly to the living who must ensure that the 20th century’s dreadful pattern of mass annihilations does not continue into the next. Regretfully, it’s not […]

A health and safety centre has been closed after one of its employees developed lung cancer, reports Eddie Koch A health and safety centre that has played a major role in highlighting the dangers of asbestos has been shut down by the government — because it failed to report that one of its workers was […]

Meshack Mabogoane The National African Federated Chambers of Commerce (Nafcoc), the main black business organisation, which formed the African Bank and has been its main supporter, has spoken out on the bank’s difficulties. Nafcoc president Joe Hlongwane this week announced his organisation, whose members hold 35,3 percent of Afbank’s equity, is determined to get involved […]

Rehana Rossouw NEIGHBOURS of Cape Town gangster killer Harry Joshua believe his crime was not that heinous: he was only cleaning up a little. “He was just ridding the area of some of the vermin,” was one of the descriptions of Joshua’s shooting spree last May which left five young men dead and two wounded, […]

Rowan Callaghan Negotiations between the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC) have gone largely unnoticed until a deadlock in talks caused the corporation’s annual general meeting (AGM) to be re-scheduled last week. The SBDC has long been a target of criticism by particularly small black business, who have […]

How do we see ourselves in our fledgling democracy? NEVILLE DUBOW looks at the SA National Gallery’s exhibition of People’s Portraits PEOPLE’S Portraits — a photographic project sponsored by the South African National Gallery and the Mail & Guardian — carried the following guidelines: “Entrants have complete freedom to express the spirit of humanity in […]

>From the birth of the idea at a council bosberaad to the frantic finishing touches, the Johannesburg Stadium has been clouded in controversy ATHLETICS: Julian Drew THE meeting which launched Johannesburg’s new R97- million athletics stadium last weekend can be pronounced a success judging by the response of the world’s media. Linford Christie’s 9.97 seconds […]

FINE ART: Hazel Friedman IN his lyrical essay accompanying Jane Alexander’s exhibition (now at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg), Ivor Powell writes about the way technology has transformed life into an enhanced virtual-reality show. This has served, on the one hand, to blur the boundaries between self and simulated experience, evoking a more immediate, […]

Marion Edmunds NATIONAL Party leader Deputy President FW de Klerk is to spend as little time as possible in a suit in the run-up to the local government elections, possibly hoping to match President Nelson Mandela’s casual shirts with a range of his own. Sources in the NP say they are doing their best to […]

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, […]

One of the more refreshing aspects of the new South Africa is the sight of government bureaucrats being called to account. Johnny de Lange’s justice committee this week gave a particularly vivid demonstration of the contribution parliamentary oversight can make to good governance with its hearings on the offices of the The highlight of the […]

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 […]

A lack of regulation has allowed some training colleges to charge high fees for worthless qualifications, writes Jack Rampou LOOPHOLES in the training industry allow private colleges to charge high fees for courses that are not recognised as qualifications by most employers or the National Training Board. In the past, there were tax incentives for […]

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 […]

Outside Johannesburg, Cecil John Rhodes is conquering the Matabele all over again. JUSTIN PEARCE visited the set of the BBC mini-series OUTSIDE the old petrol station near Lanseria airport, they’re making Matabele shields. Fifty shield-shaped plywood cut-outs are spread out on the grass, and four men armed with industrial spraypaint equipment advance to give them […]

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 […]

Annicia Reddiar STEPHEN Corry’s efforts to convince his men — former Umkhonto weSizwe soldiers, now employees of his security firm — to trust and work with the police were dealt a blow this week when one of the firm’s vans was allegedly stripped of parts by crooked policemen. The van was recovered by the flying […]

Karen Harverson The power of advertising on television is uncontested but so far only big business can afford the medium. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is now offering small and medium enterprises the opportunity to buy airtime at reduced rates for six “We believe that the television exposure will boost their businesses sufficiently to […]

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 […]

Parliamentarians may soon be governed by a code of ethics, reports Gaye Davis A CODE of ethics could be awaiting parliamentarians when they return for the new session in February, following agreement this week by a majority of parties that members’ financial and other interests should be But the code will initially be governed not […]

Ann Eveleth A WOODEN ladder fashioned from tree branches leans across the trunk of the old gum tree where the lifeless bodies of Vitalis Mthembu and Muzikawubanga Sitholi dangled until the police arrived on Wednesday last The branch above bears no scars from the ordeal, but three rivulets of dried blood down a rock shaded […]

Itumeleng oa Mahabane MeMBERS of the small community of Kagiso will no longer have to taxi-hop if they want some entertainment. They have just had Hollywood delivered to their doorstep, courtesy of Amos Zwane, and the Right Reverend Joseph Mabuela. Zwane (48) and Mabuela (42) are the owners of a Maxi Movies franchise, in Kagiso […]

ATHLETICS: Jon Swift THERE are times in South African sport when you wonder whether the word “development” does not have the Orwellian connotation of separate but equal. The All African Invitational athletic meeting to open the magnificently appointed new Johannesburg Stad-ium last weekend was just such an occasion. A surprisingly sparse crowd had come on […]

SOCCER: Lungile Madywabe EMBATTLED, directionless, em-broiled in a players’ pay dispute, disagreement about the ownership of the team, and trophyless for many seasons. Orlando Pirates have now shed this dark past to emerge with pride and dignity, to carry the hopes of many in South Africa. It is just over two years since Irvin Khoza […]

Justin Pearce MARIA SEKATANE proudly points out the photograph on the wall of her tiny sitting-room in Meadowlands, Soweto. In the picture, her son Montsheng stands next to Chris Hani. Both are in MK camouflage gear, and the tropical vegetation in the background tells that the photo dates to the years of exile. These days, […]

CINEMA: Stanley Peskin LADYBIRDS are conventionally associated with children, fire and loss and it is these associations which are brought to bear upon the female protagonist in Ken Loach’s Ladybird Ladybird. The rhyming title does not in any way soothe the audience’s feelings. Rather it is submitted to a harrowing account, based on a true […]

Gaye Davis WHEN Idasa launched its national survey of parliamentarians, the reaction was immediate — and largely allergic. But, while some MPs and senators fumed and balked, others quietly set about filling in replies to the 161 questions. Those coming up trumps in the transparency stakes so far include such notables as Minister of Posts […]

Marion Edmunds RDP roleplayers in government met this week — without Jay Naidoo — to grapple with the realisation that the RDP is too much “pie-in-the-sky” and needs to be grounded in practical projects that promote economic Senior RDP officials, government leaders and technocrats met for three days in Cape Town to discuss ways to […]

Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris in The Mark Gevisser Profile This week, during Rosh Hashanah, two strange things happened to Rabbi Cyril Harris. They are not unconnected. On Tuesday morning at 6am he received a personal call from Nelson Mandela, wishing the Jewish People a Happy New Year (his awestruck maid had to explain to the […]

Molefe Matlou WORKERS at the remote Vametco mine, which produces vanadium on the outskirts of Brits in the North West Province, say they and their kin in surrounding rural settlements are being poisoned by the mine, and that 10 former workers have already died. “We heard of workers dying, children and old people becoming ill […]

Health care can cost an arm and a leg and is a grave concern for the employers of today, reports Karen The cost of health care has been identified as the priority issue facing employers in the 1995 health care benefits survey undertaken by Old Mutual. Yet the survey also revealed that more than 70 […]