Staff Reporter

Ruth Sack SCHOOL outings to the museum … Does this conjure up dark images of well- meaning but remote guides leading footsore trails of children? If so, you must be a bit of a museum-piece yourself. Because things have been changing. At the Johannesburg Art Gallery, education officer Dammon Rice is developing a programme in […]

The huge fine imposed on Kobus Wiese has highlighted the problems associated with rugby becoming a pay for play sport RUGBY: Jon Swift THERE are any number of issues which remain unresolved following the massive R50 000 fine slapped on Kobus Wiese as rugby sets sail into the new and largely uncharted waters of professionalism. […]

THE Attorney General of KwaZulu-Natal, Tim McNally, is suing the Mail & Guardian for R250 000 over reports published last month detailing criticism of his handling of investigations into hit squad activities. McNally, charging that the reports “cut at the very heart of his reputation and dignity”, has demanded publication of a “complete, unconditional and […]

Fruit and vegetables, masks and cloth are just some of the props called into play at the African Puppet Theatre Festival. DAVID LE PAGE reports LUNCH-HOUR traffic crowds the streets in Rosebank, Johannesburg. An unusually hot sun beats down. At the junction of Oxford and Glenhove roads, two photographers and several traffic officers wait. The […]

‘As German chancellor I do not have any intention of interfering in the internal affairs of this country,” said Helmut Kohl in Johannesburg this week. On the first visit to South Africa by a German chancellor, Kohl was at pains to avoid political controversy, concentrating on trade and economic co-operation between the two countries. But, […]

Craig Hedderwick ARTS ALIVE this year has a particularly lively dance component — a 24-day celebration and exploration of the diverse styles of South African dance, to be held at the Dance Factory in Newtown. More than 300 performers will present a feast of contemporary, African and jazz dance. The entire spectrum of dance culture […]

Neil Bierbaum A NUMBER of radio stations — some of them leaders in the field — have had a decrease in audience figures, according to research just released by the All Media and Product Survey (Amps). The Amps survey is conducted twice a year by the South African Advertising Research Foundation (Saarf) and provides in-depth […]

The sentencing of 18-year-old schoolboy Uwer Rayner Campher to four years’ jail without the option of a fine, just a few hours after his arrest, has been described by Lawyers for Human Rights as “absurd”. “Bizarre”, “asinine” and “idiotic” are just a few other adjectives which spring to mind. Campher was caught dealing in LSD […]

The first official papal visit to South Africa spells the end of the era of ‘Roomse gevaar’, reports Pat Sidley SOMEWHERE in the Free State is a garage owner who will be wondering if the Vatican will spend a penny in his toilets this weekend. It happened in 1988, when the pope landed unexpectedly at […]

Philippa Garson ROSEMARY MANGOPE, daughter-in-law of former Bophuthatswana president Lucas Mangope, still reaps the benefits of her former job as executive director of the Mabana Cultural Centre in Mmabatho, even though she left the centre when she fled the homeland 18 months ago. After the homeland uprising, which toppled her father-in-law, she was suspended from […]

Meshack Mabogoane reports on the political and racial issues that have arisen as the African Bank closes its doors The closure of the African Bank (AB), pioneering black financial institution, has sparked off racial emotions, political heat and personal anguish. The AB has been more than just a business venture; its symbolic value — reflected […]

CINEMA: Justin Pearce IT was a genius who cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as an android in Terminator II. No longer did apologists have to make excuses about the man’s perpetually stony countenance — androids don’t express emotion, after all, so all Arnie had to do was to say “hasta la vista, baby” in a talking-clock monotone […]

At least debate about this country’s media can take place now without fear of government clampdown. No longer do editors have to respond to every government criticism by warning of the dangers of action which might inhibit press freedom. Even if Deputy President Thabo Mbeki had such activity in mind when he criticised the media […]

Itumeleng Mosala takes issue with last week’s article by Dr Mamphela Ramphele DR MAMPHELA Ramphele (Mail & Guardian September 8 to 14) makes several serious claims that need challenging. I am a member of the Azanian People’s Organisation; in fact, an immediate ex- president, but, contrary to the opportunistic claims of Ramphele, I was not […]

The Skweyiya Commission, which examined corruption and political destabilisation in the former Bophuthatswana homeland, should set an example for other provincial governments, argues Dr John Seiler BOPHUTHATSWANA’S only president, Lucas Mangope, has taken to the political hustings with the cynical, self-serving argument that only he, of all former homeland leaders, has been subjected to an […]

The IBA has made its report: now the lobbying begins, reports Neil Bierbaum Fierce lobbying is expected in response to the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s report on television. Prospective commercial broadcasters want the licensing of a commercial television channel to happen sooner, while the SABC will lobby to retain its third channel. But even if prospective […]

Thami Mazwai of the Black Editors’ Forum in The Mark Gevisser Profile Last Saturday night at the Carlton Hotel, while a band trundled tonelessly through a rendition of Stand by Me in the function room next door, Thami Mazwai’s Black Editors’ Forum (BEF) gathered to contemplate its relationship to press freedom, to the white mainstream […]

Our continuing series of extracts from Parliamentary Whip, the publication of Idasa’s Parliamentary Information and Monitoring Service (Pims), the most comprehensive Parliament-watching team Christelle Terreblanche and Richard Calland THE African National Congress last week rejected reports that Parliament was in crisis while, off the record, MPs and chairpersons of committees continued to relate frustrations over […]

Local-content rules will help the industry, writes IBA chair Peter de Klerk in a response to the M&G THE new local-content rules for television are designed to build a South African TV-programme-making industry —so that South Africans can see and hear themselves on our TV screens, and to create jobs in a key industry of […]

Meshack Mabogoane and Reg Rumney If any government aid is granted to the closed African Bank (AB) it will not come from the Reserve Bank. Pressure built up this week to throw the AB a lifeline, but Registrar of Banks Christo Wiese is adamant the Reserve Bank will only lend support to solvent institutions — […]

What must South Africa do to attract — and keep — Japanese investment? Karen Harverson reports The Southern African region will almost certainly get Japanese investment in the future, but it needs to learn from the experiences of Asian countries which have attracted the bulk of Japanese investment and continue to attract it. Speaking at […]

Exciting Currie Cup matches cannot disguise the unhappiness of players at their treatment by Sarfu RUGBY: Jon Swift THIS season’s Currie Cup has proved, in many instances, to be a memorable one. Matches have been hard-fought and no one side can truly be said to be running away from the opposition. On paper, the season […]

Karen Harveson Over the next two decades, three-quarters of world trade will take place in the emerging markets, of which South Africa is one. Speaking at a Bell, Dewar and Hall presentation on trade and business in South Africa last week, United States Minister Counsellor for Commercial Affairs Millard Arnold said the US, along with […]

Rehana Rossouw MINERAL and Energy Affairs Minister Pik Botha this week blamed the Strategic Fuel Fund (SSF) for allowing a “rust bucket” tanker — which spilled 66.5 tons of crude oil into the sensitive Saldanha Bay area — to slip through safety controls. The spill, some of which seeped into the Langebaan lagoon reserve, fulfilled […]

FINE ART: Ruth Sack SONGS and Monuments by Bongi Dhlomo is an exhibition of drawings, paintings and assemblages in which the central, recurring image is of an African headrest, standing alone and without context — as, of course, they now do in museums. Some of these paintings make it easy to think of headrests as […]

Four world-renowned musicians, playing together for the first time at Arts Alive, discussed the merits of jazz with MESHACK MABOGOANE GETTING four musicians from three continents together in a Braamfontein hotel and sounding them out on a range of views is like combining a classic jam session – – in which each player improvises on […]

Concerns have been raised that German funding is being used for IFP paramilitary purposes, report Paul Stober, Marion Edmonds, Eddie Koch and Ann Eveleth Evidence has emerged that the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) plans to rebuild its paramilitary and intelligence capabilities — using German funds earmarked for development — ahead of a possible showdown with […]

ANC MP Phillip Dexter used to lead health workers’ strikes. Now he is sharply critical of the conduct of nurses The strike action by nurses in the Gauteng area has thrown to the fore the issue of the public service in the new democratic dispensation. It is not the first such action. There have been […]

CINEMA: Justin Pearce THERE=D5S something strangely fortuitous about the South African release=20 of Before the Rain coinciding with Nato=D5s long-awaited decision to slap= Serbia on its blood-spattered wrists. The film is, after all, an examinatio= n of=20 the relationship =D1 or, rather, the lack of relationship =D1 between Weste= Europe and the Balkans at a […]

Simmering tensions over land rights have boiled over after a dispute about= the burial of a teenager, reports Eddie Koch There is a war of the graves taking place in the Badplaas district that=20 shows, in a strange way, how the everyday lives of farmers and their labour= tenants are being shaped by a silent […]

RUGBY: Jon Swift WEARING a crown is one of the most uncomfortable and unwieldy=20 burdens given to sporting champions. Certainly, this proved the case for=20 South Africa at Ellis Park last Saturday. Even the 40-11 final scoreline=20 against the 14 Welshmen who remained on the field at the final whistle=20 didn=D5t quite re-gild the tarnish […]

Marion Edmunds Despairing of the difficult conditions under which they work, a number of= parliamentary officials are seeking relief from the long, hard days in song= More than a hundred parliamentary officials have formed a choir, and have= already had two practices.=20 The chairperson of the new choir, Hansard official Marina Griebenow, said= she had […]