Bafana Khumalo Native tongue ‘Things are bad, B-man, I am telling you. They really are.” The man in the business suit took a slug of a three-finger scotch and lit me a cigarette. “White folks should not be behaving like this, productivity will be at an all-time low with this Rugby World Cup thing. “Already […]
Julian Drew IT is early morning in Johannesburg’s trendy suburb of=20 Yeoville. I venture into the street and am greeted by=20 three blond Swedish girls. “Can you tell me the way to the=20 Pink House?” they ask in chorus. “Just follow the yellow brick road,” I am tempted to say.=20 But this is no fairy […]
Bronwen Roberts Thousands of Eastern Cape taxi commuters were terrified this week as they rode from one town to the next. Many sang and prayed to God to save them from the very people whose service they were using as a vicious war between rival taxi groups fighting over routes continued unabated. The slaughter has […]
The theme of this year’s World Environment Day, being=20 staged in South Africa for the first time, is rooted in the=20 struggle for democracy and unity Eddie Koch reports SOME years ago Albie Sachs, then the ANC guru on=20 constitutional matters, wrote that an end to apartheid was=20 the balm that would mend the scars […]
Let’s look a gift horse in the mouth, Reg Rumney suggests Promotional material the Mail & Guardian staffers received this year ranged from the sublime — a useful desktop calculator — to the ridiculous: that is, the grey concrete brick that arrived at reception for me. At first I thought it a veiled threat, but […]
Reg Rumney=20 While the world waits for South Africa to spell out its=20 privatisation plans, next door, Mozambique has thundered=20 ahead with a far-reaching privatisation programme. By the end of February this year, Mozambique’s government=20 had privatised 21 large, strategic enterprises, and plans=20 to privatise a further 40 or so over the next two years,=20 […]
Shaun de Waal=20 CHEAP LIVES by Antony Sher (Little, Brown, R79,99)=20 SOME years ago, as the first buds of a new South African=20 dispensation began to open, much ink was expended in=20 speculation about what new forms our literature would now=20 take. It was assumed that the exigencies that drove the=20 apartheid-era novels of such […]
CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser A STRING of world-class performances — what a rare treat for Gauteng classical music With the National Symphony Orchestra, Swedish cellist Torlief Thedeen confirmed that he is one of the most exciting and proficient cellists on world stages today. His compelling and passionate performance of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 1 was […]
Nicholas Lezard WHEN asked “Read any good books this year?”, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernires (Minerva) is the one that has most consistently sprung to mind. It is a story of the Italian occupation of Cephallonia in World War II — a conventional historical epic, it’s the kind of book you’d take on […]
His body told him it was tired but the messages on Shaun Meiklejohn’s arms helped him to victory in the Comrades Marathon ROAD RUNNING: Julian Drew A CURSORY glance at many photographs of Shaun Meiklejohn could present the newly crowned Comrades Marathon champion as a trendsetter in the sphere of body adornment. As was the […]
Reg Rumney While the government is pressing on with attempts to get South Africa preferential trade access to the European Union (EU) in terms of the Lome Convention, business seems lukewarm. The Lome Convention gives products from underdeveloped countries access to European markets, and could boost sales in Europe of certain South African products, particularly […]
M-Net is planning to unbundle MultiChoice. Jacques Magliolo=20 asks whether this move will benefit shareholders=20 Electronic Media Networks (M-Net) is once again warning=20 shareholders to trade their shares with caution.=20 M-Net is proposing to unbundle MultiChoice into two=20 separate entities and has returned to the market with=20 promises that the unbundling will benefit shareholders. In=20 […]
KwaZulu/Natal’s People and Parks conference was a new=20 milestone in conservation policy, reports Ann Eveleth THE future of game reserves in KwaZulu/Natal will de-pend=20 on how the question of land reform is resolved in that=20 province. This was the central issue to emerge from a=20 landmark conference about conservation and community=20 development held in Durban […]
CINEMA: Stanley Peskin=20 THE title of Tim Burton’s Ed Wood, which is about the real- life film-maker Edward D Wood Jr, is perhaps a play on the=20 word Hollywood (a name we see emblazoned more than once on=20 the famous Beverly Hill) as well as a reference to his own=20 Edward Scissorhands (1990) which, like […]
Crime has taken over from politics as our country’s major source of instability, the largest brake on development, the most common reason for emigration and the greatest fear of investors. A solution requires a combination of cash, public support and involvement, and — most important of all — imagination. One of the oddities of the […]
Despite its small size, Malawi sparkels with quickly=20 accessible variety, writes Stephanie Nettell FOR a while the road south from Lilongwe, Malawi’s spacious=20 but somehow amiably suburban capital, closely follows the=20 Mozambique border. On its right are the remains of=20 pathetically blasted dwellings, on its left neat undamaged=20 huts — but they are empty and […]
International literary celebrities select their favourite reads of 1995 John Updike Shaken and enlightened by Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers (to be published in 1996 by Abacus), starring a computer that holds within its circuits a little girl as tear-wrenching as any orphan in Dickens. While winging my way to England, I kept myself calm […]
Moveable Feast Humphrey Tyler THERE just has to be a rather special atmosphere about a really good curry restaurant. No, no — not sleazy. But often fairly ordinary chairs, for example, and generally inexpensive tables. Like the sort you find in cafes. Hopefully you will also see determined women in saris striding out of the […]
CINEMA: Justin Pearce=20 THE tombstone inscriptions used as title credits in Ed Wood=20 seemed like a touch of macabre Tim Burton inspiration. In=20 fact, the credit for the credits should go to Ed Wood=20 himself, as is demonstrated by Plan 9 from Outer Space –=20 on for a short run at the Seven Arts — […]
Themba waKashe, chief director of the Ministry of Arts and Culture, is reluctant to identify possible candidates for the most powerful cultural positions in the land — members of the National Arts Council —“because the people will be doing the nominating”. But a glance at the present make-up of the performing arts councils, the current […]
JAZZ pianist Moses Molelekwa admits to a degree of=20 schizophrenia. “Musically, I’ve always lived in two=20 worlds,” he says. “First, there’s the jazz world of home=20 and of the Fuba Academy where I trained. My grandfather was=20 a musician, although I never knew that — or him — until=20 just before his death in the […]
Eddie Koch SLEAZE, secrecy and corruption are targets of the toughest action taken in Britain this century to enforce ethical behaviour by MPs in the House of Prime Minister John Major’s cabinet last week accepted the broad thrust of the controversial Nolan Committee’s report, which laid down “seven principles of public life” to guard against […]
The Japanese will always be at a disadvantage when they clash with the giant forwards of the other nations in the World Cup RUGBY: Barney Spender THERE is the old joke: “For this week’s winner the big prize is a one week holiday in Bloemfontein, and for our loser it’s a two week holiday in […]
Angeline Oyog in Paris Industrialised nations may in the long term have more to=20 gain than lose from the rapid expansion of emerging=20 economies in certain developing countries, says the=20 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development=20 (OECD) in a new report. Looking at long-term economic interests, the report said=20 the industrialised OECD members should be […]
The Kriegler Commission report on last year’s prison unrest went largely unnoticed, but it made some important recommendations on penal reform, writes Bronwen Manby THE long-awaited publication on May 5 of the final report of the Kriegler Commission, appointed by the President to look into the causes of the unrest in prisons following the election […]
Trade unions are planning a major offensive against the new Labour Relations Bill, reports Eddie Koch ORGANISED labour flexed its muscles this week as talks between trade unions and employers over the new Labour Relations Bill headed for deadlock. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will hold an emergency executive meeting at the […]
Clive Simpkins takes a look at the Loeries — the Comrades=20 Marathon of advertising and marketing THE advertising industry Loerie Awards have come and gone=20 and the usual hangover-impaired postmortem is in full=20 The awards, where the marketing community recognises=20 advertising excellence, have always been controversial and=20 this year was no exception. Even as the […]
Fred de Vries=20 EDUCATION, information and entertainment: that’s what South=20 Africa’s first music industry exhibition, Samix ’95, is=20 about If you’re not interested in the workshops and the=20 equipment, you can still come along and have fun listening=20 to the music, says Samix director Karl Heinz Lang.=20 An industry effort to develop music in the […]
Jane Rosenthal If giving books as presents is a matter of principle to you, then prepare to part with a fair bit of money this Christmas. But console yourself that relatively speaking at least you get value for your money with a book. If you consider that a ball of common string costs R7,50 and […]
Investors expected SAB’s centenary year to be a good one=20 and they were not disappointed, reports Jacques Magliolo The South African Breweries’ (SAB) centenary year was a=20 momentous one. The country experienced a successful=20 transition to democracy and the group heralded its 100th=20 year of operation with record results — attributable=20 earnings rose by 30 […]
Marino Corazza MOVEABLE FEAST=20 IT’S Sunday May 29, and I’m at Sol’s very own, charming Sun=20 City. In the Soup Bowl, to be exact. At 6:30pm, it’s=20 showtime, folks: the Loeries.=20 ‘Twas the time of year for the pulp and celluloid maestros=20 to receive their just accolades. Fiction, but nevertheless,=20 let’s not kid ourselves, this […]
Access to cheaper drugs is one of the main benefits for patients in the new health care plan about to be announced by the Ministry of Health, writes Pat Sidley AFTER months of haggling, the medical gurus have finally come up with a new primary health care plan for the country. Although Minister of Health […]