Justin Pearce in Grahamstown National Festival of the Arts: With more events on offer than=20 anyone could hope to attend, the Grahamstown festival becomes=20 whatever its thousands of visitors want it to be CULTURE is still a weapon of struggle. At least, the Wimpy=20 workers seemed to think so when they drew attention to their=20 […]
Mapula Sibanda A security briefcase fitted with 41 000 volts of electricity, a=20 piercing alarm, and a red smoke dye-bomb is becoming popular=20 among businessmen transporting cash takings in the=20 Johannesburg central business district area. Looking like an ordinary black briefcase, Safe Case operates in=20 such a way that only the authorised bearer can carry […]
Some commentators see the current crisis in the National Party as a sign that it is on its last legs, reports Gaye Davis SCENTING blood, the pundits have been quick as piranhas in pouncing on the National Party. As it thrashes about in new, uncharted political waters, analysts have set to dissecting it, stripping it […]
A Science magazine poll has rated the University of Cape Town the top institution in the country for scientific research. The magazine has based its ratings on the number of citations scored by researchers working in South African institutions. Since 1981, UCT researchers have garnered 18 122 citations. The University of the Witwatersrand has placed […]
The appointment of Sello Aggrey Matsabu, 40, as an executive=20 chairman of Motorola SA, may have come as a surprise. For a=20 South African to head the local operation of this giant,=20 multinational is a vote of confidence in local management=20 Virtually unknown in the corporate world, Matsabu, nonetheless,=20 has had many years of training […]
Education Ministry bureaucrats are trying to prevent ideological changes to schools’ history syllabuses, reports Philippa Garson THE education department has launched an inquiry into the role played by one of its “old guard” officials in allegedly sabotaging the process of amending the history syllabus. Participants in the National Education and Training Forum’s curriculum sub-commitee on […]
Leon Perlman reports=20 on Telkom’s new range=20 of high-tech services State telecommunications monopoly, Telkom, is discovering the=20 joys of high-tech innovation and marriage with the=20 Reconstruction and Development Programme. But it had to be=20 dragged to the altar. Swiftnet, formed last month to run the FastNet service, is touted=20 by Telkom insiders as the beginning […]
THE “Woman Friday” profile on Judy Sexwale (M&G June 30 to July 7) makes Janet Wilhelm sound like a feminist Robinson Crusoe who’s been stranded on a desert island with nothing to read but The Female Eunuch. Wilhelm invokes Germaine Greer as her foil to a supposedly anti- feminist Judy Sexwale. While Greer’s rapier wit […]
The government spent R140 000 on a glossy new magazine — and closed it after the first edition, writes Bronwen Jones THE government-run South African Communication Service (Sacs) is facing a dramatic reshuffle of resources as its chic, sleek, new magazine Women Today bit the dust upon With severe understaffing and a battle underway between […]
THE cyber-corporation may be nearer to South Africa than many=20 people think. The Internet has featured ever more prominently in=20 discussions, articles, computer exhibitions, new software packages=20 and marketing strategy discussions over the past few months. What sounded like futuristic predictions a year ago, have moved=20 from being virtual to partial to actual reality. American […]
The closure of the Goodman Gallery points to disturbing trends in=20 the art market, reports IVOR POWELL THE news is out: after 29 years as an institution in the art world,=20 the Goodman Gallery in Hyde Park will be closing its doors at the=20 end of August, pulling down its lighting tracks, clearing its=20 storerooms, […]
South Africa’s real economic challenges are beginning to=20 Reg Rumney reports Alarm bells have begun to ring for the economic outlook for=20 South Africa. As the election “miracle” begins to be discounted,=20 doubts about the underlying soundness of the economic structure=20 have begun to mount. It is not only that economists are by nature pessimists […]
THERE’S a popular game in town and everyone’s playing it. It’s called baseball, but instead of hitting balls, participants are hitting rocks of cooked cocaine. There’s nothing new about freebasing cocaine, or batting, as it’s commonly called. But, in the past, it was a sport confined to the very rich and the very foolish. But […]
Chris Louw SOUTH AFRICA will decide before the end of the year on=20 assuming diplomatic relations with the giant People’s=20 Republic of China. Early indications are that Taiwan=20 will be told to close its embassy in Pretoria. Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad, reacting to a=20 report in last week’s M&G, said his department was=20 under […]
Business is seriously starting to turn its collective=20 mind to combating crime. Reg Rumney reports There is little disagreement that combating crime is=20 the top priority in South Africa today. Barely a day=20 goes by without one business leader or another=20 identifying crime as the greatest retardant of=20 investment and barrier to prosperity. South African […]
Producer and promoter David Marks will be ‘coming home’=20 when he takes the stage in Grahamstown. PETER RORVIK=20 THAT veteran mover and shaker of the South African=20 music industry, David Marks, trades backstage for=20 centre stage this month when he performs a collection=20 of his songs at the Grahamstown festival. Well known as a recorder, […]
ATHLETICS: Julian Drew SOUTH AFRICA’S top middle distance athlete got a far=20 from ideal send off at Jan Smuts Airport last week when=20 he flew to Europe to begin his campaign in preparation=20 for August’s world championships in Sweden. Shadrack Hoff and his coach Kenny Bouwer were checking=20 in for their flight when the sister […]
Indian economic involvement in South=20 Africa has mushroomed. Reg Rumney reports The purchase by Indian brewery United Breweries=20 Investments (UB) of a 30 percent stake in National=20 Sorghum Breweries — reportedly for R70-million — is=20 the most visible sign of the growing economic co- operation between South Africa and India. UB had previously bought Mabula […]
The parliamentary ethics subcommittee is divided=20 over MPs’ outside financial interests, write=20 Eddie Koch and Marion Edmunds STRONG pressure for South African MPs to continue=20 earning lucrative salaries on top of their pay from=20 Parliament is coming from inside an ethics subcommittee=20 set up to devise rules on the controversial issue. Six of nine MPs […]
Rehana Rossouw DURING the July parliamentary recess, when the nation’s=20 leaders flee from Cape Town to service their=20 constituencies or simply take a break, their seats in=20 parliament will be filled by the future leaders of=20 South Africa when the South African Youth Parliament=20 Organised by the Street Law project, the initiative is=20 bringing together […]
Wits deputy vice-chancellor Professor MW Makgoba, in The Mark Gevisser Profile
HERE are extracts from Goldstone’s report given to then=20 president FW De Klerksome weks before the April=20 Commisssion of Inquiry regarding the prevention of=20 public violence and intimidation. Report to the=20 International Investigation Team. 1. Introduction 1.1 In the first report dated 18 March 1994, the=20 Commission set out prima facie evidence of the=20 involvement […]
Sitting on a crate in a far corner behind the shelves,=20 a Drum magazine in his hand, Mabutho Dube looks like an=20 ordinary doorman as he buzzed customers in and out of=20 an emergency pharmacy in Rosettenville. The twenty-one-year-old, former Mofolo, Soweto, SDU=20 member is one of two Sibuyile security men hired after=20 armed robbers […]
Gaye Davis IN terms of workload and resources, South Africa’s=20 members of Parliament have to be among the most over- stretched and under-funded in the world. Management consultants hired by National Assembly=20 Speaker Frene Ginwala and Senate President Kobie=20 Coetsee, to recommend ways of re-organising support=20 services for Parliament, will be consulting MPs,=20 management staff […]
Win or lose on the field, the South African under-19=20 team’s tour to England is a victory for development CRICKET: Rupert Cox RUGBY may have stolen cricket’s thunder as far as the=20 media spotlight is concerned in South Africa, but when=20 it comes to development and expansion of the respective=20 games, Ali Bacher and the […]
Patrick Goodenough in East London Former Transkei military strongman Bantu Holomisa took=20 a leaf out of the CIA’s book when he sent a military=20 signal to abduct a wanted man from Johannesburg in 1991=20 “like the Americans did with Noriega”. Holomisa effectively confirmed this week that=20 Vulindlela Mbotoli, the prisoner pardoned and released=20 on Monday […]
The labour ministry has brokered a compromise=20 on the stalled Labour Relations Bill,=20 report Eddie Koch and Marion Edmonds LABOUR Minister Tito Mboweni is set to break the=20 deadlock over the new Labour Relations Bill with a set=20 of compromises that have won broad support from=20 organised labour and also industry on flashpoint issues=20 which […]
Chris Louw MOVEABLE FEAST TO me, the Fountains valley near Pretoria holds merry=20 memories of late-night revelry after our newspaper –=20 the late Oggendblad — had been put to bed. That was=20 more than 20 years ago, but I still hear the sounds of=20 songwriter Koos du Plessis, then an unknown sub-editor,=20 singing Kinders van […]
Barney Simon, theatre director and writer, born April=20 13 1932; died June 30 1995. Friends and colleagues pay=20 # Lionel Abrahams THE last time I saw Barney Simon was in January this=20 year at the memorial function for the late Joe Slovo in=20 the Johannesburg City Hall. Among the many eulogies=20 from a rack of […]
Without going into any details, Masa has apologised for=20 its past errors, reports Pat Sidley THE Medical Association of South Africa (Masa) last=20 week apologised, seemingly out of the blue, for its=20 attitude during the apartheid years. The apology has been a long time coming, and it did not=20 directly address the issues for which […]
CINEMA: Stanley Peskin THE OX, which has as its background the severe drought=20 suffered by Sweden in the 1860s, is described as a true=20 story told by director Sven Nykvist. The narrative is=20 presented with the utmost clarity, but not without=20 subtlety. Although the director is self-effacing in the=20 presentation of his ostensibly simple homiletic, […]
Clive Simpkins FREE enterprise is posing problems as South African=20 sexuality creeps out of the closet.=20 The vague limbo of the present censorship regulations=20 has led to a plethora of skin magazines and videos=20 flooding the marketplace. In many instances this has=20 led to grave concern by parents whose children are=20 unwittingly exposed to adult […]