Staff Reporter

Last week=D5s IBA report could lead to the closure of Bop Broadcasting=20 services, writes Neil Bierbaum Bop Broadcasting Corporation is to lose its television and radio services a= a result of the Independent Broadcasting Authority report. BopBC=D5s=20 television and radio services will be closed if the IBA=D5s recommendations= regarding the TBVC broadcasters are accepted by […]

THEATRE: David Le Page KARNAVAL, at the Johannesburg Civic, is a reminder that one of South=20 Africa=D5s great dramatic talents is hiding inside Evita Bezuidenhout. Twen= years old, it remains poignant and very funny. Though it was undoubtedly=20 more outrageous in its language, and politically provocative, in the=20 Seventies, the loss of those resonances serves […]

Neil Bierbaum=20 Residents and owners of flats and townhouses could face difficulties if the= opt for satellite television. Most municipal by-laws only allow for one aerial stack or satellite dish.= However, existing units do not have the correct wiring to carry the high=20 frequency (IF) signal from a satellite dish to the Integrated Receiver=20 Decoder […]

Brigadier Roland de Vries and Colonel Solly Mollo in The Mark Gevisser=20 Colonel Rocky Williams, an Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) commander now=20 at the defence secretariat, remembers how officers from MK and the South=20 African Defence Force bonded, courtesy of Charles Glass, round the=20 braaivleis fire. An MK guy would look at his watch and […]

Nicoli Nattrass and Jeremy Seekings take issue with Eddie Webster=D5s=20 social democracy SOCIAL democrats must come out of the closet, says sociologist Eddie=20 Webster in a recent article (M&G August 18 to 24). Indeed they should.=20 But Webster=D5s vision of social democracy is an impoverished one. His=20 enthusiasm for the labour movement seems to have […]

Steuart Wright ALMOST 160 illegal squatters who received confused messages from=20 politicians including President Nelson Mandela about their future were=20 charged with contempt of court this week. The squatters, from Mandela and Slovo Parks outside Umtata, are accused=20 of defying a court order compelling them to leave their piece of prime land= In June they […]

Shaun de Waal AT the James Phillips Memorial Concert at Mega Music in Johannesburg=20 this weekend, you will be able to hear a wide variety of bands paying=20 tribute to the late songwriter and bandleader; you will also be able to=20 contribute to the Sunny Skies Trust =D1 raising money to cover medical bill= =D1 […]

Amendments to the Income Tax Act cut back on the loopholes to which=20 firms have become accustomed. Karen Harverson reports A tax loophole, which effectively meant Inland Revenue made a loan to the= taxpaying public, has been stopped.=20 This was one of the 1995 amendments to the Income Tax Act, passed in=20 July and reviewed […]

SOCCER: Lungile Madywabe THE South African team, which assembles on Monday in preparation for=20 the Africa Nations Cup finals which take place in South Africa from=20 January 13 to February 3 next year, know that they have a momentous task=20 ahead of them. This week they were drawn in a group with Cameroon, Egypt and […]

Marion Edmunds =D4NO comment,=D3 was the response from Auditor General Henri Kleuver =20 and the chair of the Parliamentary Portfolio Finance Committee, ANC MP=20 Gill Marcus, this week when asked if they had faith in the financial=20 management of those provincial governments which have inherited bits=20 and pieces from the former TBVC states.=20 The Democratic […]

ACRIMONY at the women=D5s forum at Huairou has provided an unhappy=20 prelude to the United Nations women=D5s conference which opened in=20 Beijing on Monday.=20 The forum is made up of hugely diverse non-governmental women=D5s=20 organisations. They have come as legitimate pressure groups, invited under= the UN banner, to press their interests at the Beijing conference. […]

Rehana Rossouw CAPE TOWN either has an Olympic bid which benefits the poor, or the=20 Games will not take place in the city in 2004, a coalition of organisations= has warned. Slamming the initiative as a =D2big business bid=D3, the Coalition for=20 Sustainable Cities (CSC), representing 35 trade union, political,=20 environmental and development organisations, this […]

If centralism dominates the new Constitution, we will have wasted an=20 opportunity for grassroots empowerment, argues IFP MP Farouk Cassim IS THE most memorable epoch in the history of Africa about to be=20 witnessed with the finalisation of the Constitution of the new Republic of= South Africa? (The Second Republic?) Will our Constitution provide, in […]

Neil Bierbaum Times Media Limited is to transfer its M-Net shares to holding company=20 Omni Media =D1 part of an empowerment scheme which will also free TML=20 to invest in electronic media. The planned transfer of the shares will also clear the way for Omni Media= unbundling. Inside sources claim that Omni shareholders are prepared […]

With a draft Bill banning almost all child labour about to be presented to= the Cabinet, trainee journalist Fumane Diseko posed as a child labourer,=20 and ended up being fired without pay Fumane Diseko It is 6.30 in the morning at a petrol station in Leandra. More than 35 peop= stuff themselves into the back […]

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 […]

THREE Members of Parliament have contacted the Mail & Guardian about=20 last week=D5s story on absenteeism in the National Assembly. The African National Congress=D5 David Dalling has pointed out he has been= absent because of major surgery to his foot. The failure of this surgery ha= prevented his return and forced him to have a […]

Shaun de Waal NEIL YOUNG: Mirror Ball (Warner Bros) ON this magnificent album, the godfather of grunge teams up with some of=20 his godchildren, namely Pearl Jam. Less eccentric than last year=D5s Sleeps= with Angels, this is deceptively simple rock=D5n=D5roll exactly as it shoul= d be=20 =D1 three-chord-wonders (one after another), tangled in Young=D5s wailing,= […]

Swiss director Daniel Schmid grew up in the family hotel =D1 now a=20 recurrent image in his films, writes TREVOR STEELE-TAYLOR =D4I WAS The American Friend,=D3 Swiss film director Daniel Schmid told us= over lunch in Johannesburg. =D2It was me that Bruno Ganz killed in the=20 subway.=D3 The film he referred to is Wim Wenders=D5 […]

Karen Harverson The deregulation of an industry may bring about more competition and=20 lower prices but it could also result in increased prices and less protecti= for consumers. =D2Competition does not always result in prices coming down especially=20 when regulated industries deregulate such as the airline and broadcasting= businesses,=D3 says John Ford, senior lecturer in […]

Many of South Africa=D5s representatives have good prospects for gold in th= upcoming All Africa Games in Zimbabwe, writes Julian Drew AFTER International Olym-pic Committee president Juan Antonio=20 Samaranch opens the sixth All Africa Games in Harare next Wednesday=20 South Africa=D5s 407-strong team is expected to claim a sizable proportion = the available medals over […]

If enough money can be raised, Kruger Park elephants will be relocated=20 instead of culled next year, writes Eddie Koch THE controversial elephant cull in the Kruger Park will stop next year if= the National Parks Board succeeds with an ambitious plan to raise funds=20 from international animal rights organisations to expand South Africa=D5s= game […]

Philippa Garson WHAT would we do without the Sanlam babies? Most would agree that=20 the entertainment value of seeing children playing adults is greater than= that of seeing adults play themselves. Certainly Sanlam, churning out one baby ad after another, believes in the= success of using children to market adult products. Alternatively, using=20 adults to […]

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 […]

CINEMA: Stanley Peskin IN Priest, director Antonia Bird clearly believes that two of the feathered= species in the hand are better than one in the bush. This is to say that Pr= is not the most subtle film. In complicity with Jimmy McGovern=D5s blunt=20 screenplay, Bird directs with a brashness that is sometimes overwrought.=20 Nevertheless, […]

Julian Drew NEXT week=D5s All Africa Games in Harare will be only the sixth edition of= this Pan African equivalentof the Olympic Games which were first staged=20 in the Congolese capital of Brazzaville in 1965, but although their entry= into the annals of sporting history is relatively recent, the idea behind t= is not. In […]

KwaZulu-Natal=D5s embattled attorney general has agreed to reconsider a hit= squad prosecution to avoid a major confrontation, reports Ann Eveleth EMBATTLED KwaZulu-Natal Attorney General Tim McNally ths week=20 stepped back from the brink of a major confrontation with the Investigation= Task Unit (ITU) probing hit squads in the province. In a remarkable volte-face on Wednesday, […]

Philippa Garson WHILE supporting the provisions in the Draft Child Care Amendment Bill=20 on child labour, the National Children=D5s Rights Committee (NCRC)=20 describes the bill as a =D2band-aid=D3 for glaring problems and calls for t= drafting of an entirely new Act. The Bill uses a =D2pathology-centred model of dealing with children in need= of care […]

Justin Pearce M-NET=D5S African Film Awards are coming out of hiding for the first time= this year, with a festival which will bring the best of the competition ent= to audiences in Cape Town and Gauteng. The festival line-up comprises seven films from West and North Africa,=20 something which is made possible by the opening […]

Lack of funding is behind last week=D5s resignations at Pact, reports Barba= THE arts community cheered in May when the Minister of Arts and=20 Culture saved the Market Theatre with a R3-million grant. On Friday last=20 week, Pact=D5s chairman and chief executive officer resigned, and five head= of department announced they would follow. The events […]

A former national serviceman has claimed that SADF involvement in illicit= ivory smuggling continued well into the 1980s, writes Ann Eveleth A JUDICIAL commission of inquiry heard claims this week that the old=20 South African Defence Force (SADF) was involved in ivory smuggling on=20 behalf of Angola=D5s Unita rebels until at least 1987. Testimony by […]

Car sales surge August new car sales, benefiting from renewed demand by the car rental=20 sector and recently introduced competitively priced small cars, rose to 20= 969 units. This is 24,8 percent up on the 16 805 units sold during the same= month last year. Sales of new light commercial vehicles, bakkies and=20 minibuses rose […]