Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

Part museum, part holiday resort, Lesedi Cultural Village offers a =D4Real= African Experience=D5. JUSTIN PEARCE asks: What=D5s wrong with=20 THE American tourists are in traditional dress: golf shirts and polyester= slacks. Looking quietly excited and a touch apprehensive, they meet Xolani= Dludla, their guide, at the reception area of Lesedi Cultural Village and= follow him […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Slam poetry is all about liberating the audience, discovered MALU VAN=20 LEEUWEN at its first hearing in Cape Town THE staid conventions of the poetry reading received their first warning of= a shake-up last week when slam poetry =D1 a concept imported from the=20 United States and Canada by two Cape Town enthusiasts =D1 was […]

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 […]

The South African porn market is thriving, with=20 new and more daring titles every month. =20 Justin Pearce took a (very) close look The only magazine that’s explicitly aimed at gay men,=20 Adonis doesn’t waste its time with articles and gives=20 you 24 pages of naked men mostly in outdoor settings,=20 proving for once and […]

NO national commercial licences on FM. A number of=20 private radio stations will be licensed at a regional,=20 provincial and local level on both FM and MW. According=20 to an IBA official these could be licensed “within nine=20 Regional windows should also be provided for on public=20 service radio stations (duration unspecified). Several =20 radio […]

Meshack Mabogoane The road to a full-scale market economy in Mozambique=20 is, like peace, “irreversible”, President Joachim=20 Chissano said in Sandton recently when he addressed a=20 special meeting of businesspeople. He said joint ventures for the development of major=20 infrastructure were the “only policy option available”=20 and “we may no longer guarantee the development of […]

The sale of a prime Telkom-owned property, apparently at a fire-sale price, has the telecommunications minister lambasting his officials, reports Stefaans Posts and Telecommunications Minister Pallo Jordan has questioned Telkom’s sale of a prestigious Cape Town Waterfront property, suggesting that the deal lost the state-owned company millions or rand. Documents in possession of the Mail […]

Philippa Garson THE proposed closure of the central unit of Wits University’s Academic Development Programme — which offers support to educationally disadvantaged students — has met with dismay in some student and staff circles and raised questions about the direction being taken by the university on its academic development The decision to close down the […]

Jon Swift IN A week of momentous change for world rugby, the=20 opening of the professional gates by the greybeards of=20 the International Rugby Board has been overshadowed by=20 the concussion of Chester Williams in a tackle on James=20 Small, and the subsequent two-step across the stricken=20 winger’s back. It cost Williams his place in […]

BALLET: Stanley Peskin IN Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty (presented by=20 Pact Ballet at the State Theatre), there are three=20 potent centres of power: the king and the ceremonious=20 nature of his court; the evil fairy Carabosse, who,=20 performed en travestie, makes a parody of the=20 christening rites at the beginning of the ballet; and=20 […]

SOCCER: Lungile Madywabe LIKE a child who has been burnt a number of times and=20 has vowed never to touch the fire again, Moroka=20 Swallows coach Walter Da Silva has learnt his lesson=20 well in dealing with National Soccer League teams.=20 In the space of six months he has lost two months’=20 salary because D’Alberton […]

Coach Bob Woolmer is full of innovative ideas that will=20 have the old guard choking on their gin and tonics CRICKET: Ahitisham Manerjee PIONEERS in sport come in many guises. Occasionally=20 they are even unaware that they are breaking new=20 ground. The South African under-24 cricket squad,=20 having just completed a highly successful month-long=20 tour […]

Rehana Rossouw THE low poll in Student Representative Council elections at the University of Cape Town has divided the student body, with black students citing racism as the reason white students didn’t vote. SRC elections failed to achieve the required 25 percent poll, the first time SRC elections failed to attract enough voters to constitute […]

Ann Eveleth UNIVERSITY of Durban-Westville officials are mystified by the bugging of a campus union official and a mysterious “investigation” of campus affairs by suspected National Intelligence Agency (NIA) agents, who apparently claimed they were sent by President Nelson Mandela. The conversation-monitoring device was discovered by private investigators in the office of Combined Staff Association […]

Cash donations made by developers to the civics organisation are to be investigated by police, writes Stefaans Brummer THE South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) acknowledged this week its relationship with business donors was “open to manipulation” following charges that the movement had accepted bribes from developers in the Free State. Free State MEC for […]

Gaye Davis TENSIONS have been rising since Leader of the House, Trade and Industry Minister Trevor Manuel, read the riot act to state law advisers over the legislative He went after the law advisers — responsible for vetting Bills before they go to Parliament — in a bid to speed up the processing of major […]

Consol is restructuring its glass operation in a drive=20 to becoming globally competitive, reports Karen=20 Packaging and rubber manufacturer Consol of Germiston=20 is undertaking a major restructuring of its glass=20 operation to become globally competitive through=20 greater throughput and better utilisation of man hours. Speaking at the annual financial results, chairman Piet=20 Neethling said a […]

Justin Pearce While the South African music industry sings the=20 praises of the Independent Broadcasting Authority over=20 the local-content provisions in this week’s report, the=20 film industry is wondering whether the report will make=20 any difference at all to the amount of local=20 independently produced material seen on television. Some players have welcomed the IBA’s […]

Good leaders will do anything to maintain morale, which is the only apparent explanation for President Nelson Mandela’s enthusiastic assessment of this week’s Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit. It must be conceded that they did approve the Sappigmou (the Southern African Power Pool Inter-Governmental Memorandum of Understanding, for those who do not keep up […]

The National Party found a new weapon at its weekend bosberaad — fear. Marion Edmunds reports THE spectre that looms large in National Party nightmares is a one-party state, belonging to the ANC in 1996. This fear motivates the party in its low moments, it’s a focus at bosberade and bands the members together when […]

CINEMA: Justin Pearce KEN LOACH’S Raining Stones is the cinematic equivalent=20 of protest theatre — only without the protest. After a=20 decade and a half of Tory government, working-class=20 council housing estates in the north of England are not=20 happy places, and Raining Stones is an account of the=20 misery created by unemployment, a broken-down […]

Rowan Callaghan Global investors rate competitive tax rates a=20 surprising fifth behind currency, political stability=20 and infrastructure on a list of criteria to evaluate=20 countries’ suitability for investment devised for Ernst=20 & Young’s Strategic Trends report.=20 A survey of 230 investors was conducted for this year’s=20 report which, for the first time, details world tax=20 […]

The Independent Broadcasting Authority report released this week is an important step towards a healthy and open broadcasting system. The juggernaut SABC is to be reduced to a manageable size to allow space for other broadcasters. Local content regulations will stimulate the television production and music industries without being unachievable. Cross-media ownership limitations should help […]

The only possible threat South African banks face is=20 foreign competition.=20 Reg Rumney reports Foreign competition is the biggest threat to the=20 margins of the banking industry — but foreign banks=20 are unlikely to want to upset the domestic applecart. Alan McConnochie of broker Ed Hern Rudolph, writing in=20 accountancy firm KPMG’s 1995 Banking Survey, […]