THE Norgaard principles are named after Carl Aage Norgaard, a Danish national and president of the European Commission on Human Rights, who was asked at the time of the Namibian settlement to frame guidelines defining the concept of a political prisoner. For a crime to be deemed a political offence, he stipulated the following should […]
Anton Harber ponders the political future of arch-populist Winnie Mandela, now free to speak her mind Watch Tokyo Sexwale. He’s our one true television politician, the master of the sound bite. “We love you,” he said this week, clearly referring to Winnie Mandela, though not by name. “We love you. Don’t abuse our love.” It […]
The concerns of commercial farmers should be taken into account, argues Graham McIntosh ALTHOUGH some of our farmers have a racist prejudice that blacks can’t be good farmers, they represent a lunatic fringe. Commercial farmers who produce the nation’s food are hardy, realistic, resilient, cautious and adaptable. They are a precious national asset and their […]
THEATRE: Guy Willoughby=20 IT’S nearly two months to go before the World Rugby Cup,=20 and Paul Slabolepszy’s getting in early. The country’s=20 chief analyst of the white male ego couldn’t hope for a=20 better setting, and in his rumbustious new comedy Heel=20 Against the Head (at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town) he=20 scores nearly […]
The Markets=20 Jacques Magliolo=20 Stockbrokers are slow to accept change and nothing=20 upsets them more than when their old boys’ club is=20 interfered with. =20 Now, only seven months after being forced to allow=20 institutions to become corporate members of the=20 exchange, the realisation that they have no choice and=20 no way out is finally […]
The Mandela daughters have sided firmly with their mother after her sacking, writes Justin Pearce Winnie Mandela may have suffered the most devastating defeat of her political career this week. Yet she has won the battle for the loyalty of the Mandela children, leaving her estranged husband — one of the world’s best-loved national leaders […]
Jacques Magliolo reports on Pepgro’s moves to improve=20 its competitiveness both locally and internationally=20 Pepgro’s R208-million rights issue came as no surprise=20 to market analysts. The move is yet another strategic,=20 well-planned step to make the group stronger and better=20 prepared for local and international competition, says=20 Mathison & Hollidge industrial analyst John Thompson.=20 Market […]
It’s not one of Tony O’Reilly’s 57 varieties, and you won’t find it in an Angela Day recipe book. It’s also kind of tricky to inhale … but soon to be available overseas is marijuana salad dressing. Those who have tasted it say it leaves Thousand Island in the dust. The oil is one of […]
Eddie Koch A COMMISSION set up this week to probe Thor Chemicals’ importation of toxic waste to South Africa may be presented with evidence of links between employees of the British multinational and a covert weapons The Environmental Justice Network Forum (EJNF), a coalition of environmental groups, this week said it feared the commission would […]
The police have agreed in principle they are responsible for frauds committed by convicted murderer Michael Bellingan, reports Stefaans Brummer This week’s murder conviction of security police captain Michael Bellingan has strengthened the quest of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) for compensation for police dirty tricks Agreement has already been reached […]
THE Restitution of Land Rights Act passed through parliament in November last year. It allows for the creation of a Land Claims Court and a five-member commission to hear claims by groups who suffered at the hands of apartheid forced removals. The commission, which has already been appointed, has regional offices in each of the […]
A new airline brings more travel options to South=20 African travellers. Andre van Zyl reports=20 A new airline, Avia Airlines, has taken over the slot=20 created by Virgin Atlantic Airlines to bring an end to=20 the domination of South African Airways and British=20 Airways on the lucrative and historic Johannesburg- London route.=20 Avia’s crew will […]
Nicholas Lezard=20 CIGARETTES ARE SUBLIME by Richard Klein (Picador,=20 R39,99) =20 AN academic of Richard Klein’s — middlingish — age=20 would normally by now have published three or four=20 unreadable books. This is his first, and it’s excellent.=20 A valedictory hymn to the poetry of cigarettes, as well=20 as a thrilling work of literart criticism […]
The Budget did not reflect RDP priorities, according to the country’s biggest organised force, Cosatu. This is an edited version of the ANC-alliance partner’s Compared to apartheid Budgets, the 1995/6 Budget does have a number of positive features. Judged in terms of the fundamental shift required by the Reconstruction and Development Programme, however, the Budget […]
All has been relatively quiet on the industrial action=20 front so far this year. Reg Rumney reports.=20 Strike action has been relatively subdued so far this=20 year — but it is early days. Man days lost in the first=20 quarter of this year are low compared to the first=20 quarter of last year, according to […]
Justin Pearce THERE’S almost R1 000 in banknotes taped to the window of the manager’s office at Hillbrow’s Fontana bakery. Well, it looks like a thousand bucks’ worth. In fact, all of the notes are fakes, and all have been handed over the counter since January this year. “It’s rife around here,” says manager Basil […]
Reg Rumney=20 The listing of black-controlled Real Africa Investments=20 last week made instant paper millionaires of three of=20 the directors.=20 According to the RAI pre-listing statement, executive=20 chairman Don Ncube held 1 472 230 shares indirectly in=20 RAI. At a closing price on the Johannesburg Stock=20 Exchange mid-week of around R2,50, Ncube is worth R3,7- […]
Beninoise artist Romuald Hazoume makes traditional=20 religious masks — out of discarded objects. ‘I’m just=20 sending back the rubbish sent from Europe to Africa,’ he=20 told Tony Karon=20 ROMUALD HAZOUME probably turned more heads than any=20 other artist visiting the Johannesburg Biennale. =20 The young Beninoise exhibited a series of traditional=20 religious masks crafted from […]
Ignorance and greed are behind the plunder of cycads in the Eastern Cape, writes Shadley Nash Ten percent of the cycad species E Altenstienii and the rarer Trispionsis face extinction in a scandal which has horrified environmentalists and revealed a startling ignorance of environmental matters inside Thirty-two tons of the rare and endangered plants — […]
Ann Eveleth The Inkatha Freedom Party’s 30-day deadline for international mediational on constitutional issues runs out next week and so far the party sees no progress on the issue. Unless some agreement is reached by Wednesday, party leaders say they will be forced to walk out of the Constitutional Assembly. IFP constitutional affairs spokesman Sipho […]
Bruce Cohen=20 A bitter battle for the knock ‘n drop newspaper market=20 in Gauteng between the Argus Company and Caxtons has=20 ended — and just begun.=20 The Appeal Court this week upheld an appeal by Caxtons- CTP against an 18-month-old Supreme Court judgment which=20 allowed Argus to publish freesheets in competition with=20 Caxtons, which was […]
THEATRE: Guy Willoughby=20 GRAHAM WEIR is one clever, talented, protean man of=20 theatre. In a number of shows of his own and others’=20 devising, he’s proved he can act, sing, dance and think=20 on his feet — no mean achievement in the local=20 performing arts world.=20 Brief Descriptions is his one-man, award-winning view of=20 human […]
Controversy continues to dog the proposed truth commission as the ANC and NP blame each other for delays, reports Gaye Davis A ROW between the National Party and Justice Minister Dullah Omar over accusations that the NP was delaying truth commission legislation erupted this week. This has put paid to hopes that the bill would […]
Tara Turkington=20 I Want to Tell You by OJ Simpson=20 (Little, Brown, R80,99)=20 Orenthal James Simpson, ex-American football star,=20 congenial endorser of Hertz Rent-a-Car and mediocre=20 actor, ousted the United States’ afternoon TV soaps by=20 leading Los Angeles police on a televised car chase in=20 June last year. =20 Now on trial for the murders […]
Sue Lund has calmly negotiated the ‘landmines’ of the land issue to write a balanced five-year plan for land distribution, writes Eddie Koch TEN years ago she was an idealistic young student who wanted to change the world. Today, still looking wide- eyed and innocent, Sue Lund is doing just that. She is the author […]
Despite all Derek Hanekom’s efforts the ANC might well have to resort to ‘radical measures’ to solve the land issue, argues Richard Levin WHEN white farmers reacted with outrage recently at plans to introduce a land tax in the countryside, Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom made a simple appeal to them: give the landless some […]
Eddie Koch NELSON MANDELA’S air force helicopter was covered in camouflage paint and created a scene from a war film as it thudded over the green hills and thorn trees that surround Weenen. Although unintended, the image was appropriate because the president had come to this farming town in kwaZulu- Natal on Sunday to help […]
RAVAN, one of the stalwart anti-apartheid publishers of=20 the dark years of South Africa’s history, have started a=20 new series of titles called the Ravan Writers Series.=20 It was Ravan that first published JM Coetzee; that=20 published Mongane Wally Serote’s first (and thus far=20 only) novel. Many of their books were banned by the=20 white […]
Jan Taljaard THE first salvoes in the battle for the rightwing vote in November’s local government elections have been fired by two big rightwing guns, Ferdi Hartzenberg and Constand Viljoen. Competing against the rain, rugby and Queen Elizabeth’s visit to the capital last week, neither the Freedom Front’s (FF) Viljoen nor Conservative Party (CP) leader […]
Jane Rosenthal=20 EXIT INTO HISTORY: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE NEW EASTERN=20 EUROPE by Eva Hoffman (Minerva, R48,99)=20 IN Exit into History, Eva Hoffman invites us to=20 accompany her on a thoughtful meander through Eastern=20 Europe. As readers of her first book, Lost in=20 Translation, will know, she was born in Poland in 1946=20 and emigrated […]
Louise Flanagan Defence Minsister Joe Modise says he wants to get to the bottom of the Anton Lubowski affair — but he is refusing to meet a Weekly Mail & Guardian request to view the files which Military Intelligence (MI) supposedly have on the assassinated Namibian advocate. By producing the files, the military should be […]
Despite her ranking as one of the more prominent and most highly-regarded women in the African National Congress caucus, Brigitte Mabandla’s appointment as Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, Science and Technology has come as a surprise. Mabandla, a constitutional and human rights lawyer, has no experience in either the arts or the technology world. […]