The white paper on education released last week is revolutionary, as far as it goes — but it doesn’t go far enough, writes Ahmed Essop THE white paper on education and training released by the Ministry of Education last week marks a watershed in its content, its context, and its development. It commits the government […]
Moveable Feast Marino Corazza WE’RE all part of the global village — or are we? There are still suburbs (however few and small) where the inhabitants nonchalantly live in their own worlds. Like the Glamour Village, where people on the hoof sport helenca jodhpurs, velour protective hats, that frothy, horsey smell and dung on their […]
A fast rise for the Malagasy lassie TENNIS: Stephen Bierley SUDDENLY and — judging by her performance this week — refreshingly, a talent of quite exceptional ability has emerged from Madagascar. Dally Randriantefy is only 18 but already has poise beyond her years. It would be invidious to liken her to any of the greats […]
THE deputy minister of arts, culture, science and technology should have been the government member with the longest title and the shortest job-lifespan. Instead, her political survival is being assisted by incompetence and prevarication. The South African Police Services may have changed its title, but it still lacks the savvy to know that when you […]
Will Kader Asmal’s new disciplinary committee be able to curtail the ‘corrupt and hungry elite’ that has put the ANC into a tailspin? Eddie Koch reports KEY members of the ANC are holding thumbs that a new high-powered disciplinary committee, headed by Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Kader Asmal, will be able to pull the […]
ANTON Harber has been named sole editor of the Weekly Mail & Guardian. Harber has been co-editor since the paper’s launch a decade ago. The other co-editor, Irwin Manoim, has been appointed to head the planning for a new publishing venture that is part of the WM&G group’s development “Changes in South African politics and […]
She is 20, and she’s the editor and chief pinup of a porn magazine that’s taking South Africa by storm. Anouk Mommer reports ‘Hi, I’m Satinder and … I will be editing all letters sent in by you, the South African reader. Please don’t hesitate to write to me to ask me about whatever’s on […]
Jacques Magliolo Diamond giant De Beers released its unaudited results for the year to December 1994 this week and promised investors virtually unchanged earnings per share and a mere 4,5 percent increase in dividends. It seemed that the sole focus of the presentation was to voice their annoyance at Russia’s refusal to adhere to signed […]
CINEMA: William Pretorius IF, as Situationist Guy Debord announced would happen in the 1960s, the rise of the mass media has turned society into spectacle, then serial killers are the prime exhibits. They are no longer regarded as murderers, but as gruesome celebrities. That’s why Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers got it right: the movie […]
A rather unlikely witness gave evidence at the Eugene de Kock trial this week, writes Jan Taljaard AS the prosecution this week trotted out its star witness in the case against former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock, Judge Richard Goldstone’s “Mr Q” turned out to be an incongruously boyish policeman with an itchy trigger finger. […]
Combating discrimination was the main focus of the international Aids conference held in Cape Town this week. Justin Pearce reports BURIED in the agenda of this week’s Cape Town International Conference for People Living with HIV and Aids was a session entitled “Identities”. Delegates split into interest groups — sex workers, heterosexuals, drug users, lesbians/gays, […]
OPERA: Coenraad Visser DONIZETTI’s comic masterpiece Don Pasquale fares very well in Pact Opera’s restaging of its 1990 production. Against the backdrop of Anthony Farmer’s beautiful sets and with the characters splendidly and sometimes zanily dressed by Lindy Grindlay, Neels Hansen’s production sparkles with many deft comic touches deriving from the music. Hanli Stapela is […]
As Pick ‘n Pay loses its lead in the stores market and Pepkor gains ground, Jacques Magliolo explains why Pepkor is the horse to back Behind the scenes battles took place in two of South Africa’s largest stores listed companies in 1994. While Pepkor finished the year by concluding a major corporate deal and seeing […]
Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela will speak on the same platform in Copenhagen this weekend, but South Africa still seems to have mixed feelings about Cuba, writes Peter Vale TEN months after the election, South Africa still seems unable to articulate a coherent and cohesive policy towards Cuba. Certainly foreign minister Alfred Nzo’s performance on […]
Clive Simpkins Years of recession and the new reconstruction-and- development-programme spirit have bred a healthy clutch of street intersection entrepreneurs — but buying from them is not for the incautious or the unwary. The bunch-of-flowers brigade are particularly slick operators. I recall a businessman friend of mine with all the Seigel-Sand-nous that comes from eastern-block […]
Ann Eveleth analyses the outcome of the special IFP meeting in Ulundi last weekend All eyes focused on Ulundi last weekend, when the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) met to decide its fate in the government of national unity (GNU). The parliamentary walk-out nearly two weeks earlier appeared to signal the death-knell of the reconcilation politics […]
Bruce Cohen Winnie Mandela may have angered Nelson and upstaged Thabo, but she’s been thrilling the northern suburbs of Johnnesburg with an urban legend of epicurian The rumour started last November and goes something like this: Winnie and party of 10 or so arrived at the famed Ile de France restaurant in Bryanston, owned by […]
The hiring of the chairman’s daughter as a PR for a JCI wine estate has caused mutterings in the firm. Reg Rumney reports The appointment of the daughter of the chairman of the soon-to-be-unbundled Johannesburg Consolidated Investments as a public relations officer for a subsidiary company raises prima facie questions of Frances Retief, daughter of […]
Late bloomer: Bungu can add to belated acclaim against BOXING: Gavin Evans VUYANI “The Beast” Bungu is a young man who was groomed to be one of life’s worthy supporting acts, and yet has somehow risen to the foothills of fame, fortune and more than a dollup of mass acclaim. Of all South Africa’s boxing […]
GOLF: Jon Swift WHILE this country basks in the glow of a memorable inaugural win in the Alfred Dunhill Challenge at Houghton, there are some areas which requrie some thought before next season’s professional tour kicks for next year, there is no Dunhill Challenge to take the edge off some of the problems which lurk […]
Stefaans Brummer ONE of the men allegedly involved in the 1982 bombing of the ANC offices in London is now an Anglo American security supervisor. John Adam is one of the seven alleged bombers named by former South African agent Craig Williamson two weeks ago when he confessed to his own role in the London […]
They may be provincial teams but the Super 10 matches will be vital as a pointer to the strength of the international teams for the World Cup RUGBY: Jon Swift THERE is more than just Super 10 points riding on the outcome of the opening games in this matching of the top rugby sides in […]
Stop treating racists with kid gloves, Cosmas Desmond urges the government. The continuing crime of racism makes even a visit to your favourite bar a depressing experiencePRESIDENT Nelson Mandela has been hailed, acclaimed, canonised and even deified by the press for the firm stand he took in his address at the opening of parliament on […]
THERE is a common belief that the ANC’s fiery four — Winnie Mandela, Bantu Holomisa, Peter Mokaba and Rocky Malebane-Metsing — are too powerful and too popular among the grassroots for the party to deal with them firmly and adequately. This is a myth that needs to be Most of the power and influence of […]
Gaye Davis A BID to democratise the selection of a new rector for the University of the Western Cape appears to have backfired. While a decision is expected next week, the process has sharply divided the campus community. UWC’s founding statute was specially amended to throw open the selection process to include workers, students, academics […]
# What about coloured fears, Mr President? THE ANC has failed to heed the concerns raised by activists from the coloured community. These concerns centre around the continued marginalisation of the community and access to resources. Fears around affirmative action are not taken seriously, yet the ANC has bent over backwards to address white fears […]
Tales of incompetence emerged during the trial of the 26 rightwingers who allegedly went on a bombing spree on the eve of the April elections, reports Gavin du THE rightwing bombing campaign on the eve of South Africa’s first non-racial election, in which at least 20 people were killed, proved to be as vicious as […]
RUGBY: Luke Alfred GLADWELL MAJALIMA and I are sitting next to each other watching the members of his club practising against a distant backdrop of fir and eucalyptus trees. It is the last day of February and the first chill of winter is in the air. We could be in southern Scotland or parts of […]
South African institutions and stockbrokers say * ocal trading is too small to suffer a Barings Bank-style collapse, reports Jacques Magliolo The collapse of Britain’s 300-year-old Barings Bank has reverberated around the world and forced local institutions and stockbrokers to reassess their own security systems and prevention mechanisms. The announcement that Nick Leeson, a Singapore-based […]
Winnie’s fall could spell the end of the populist elite in the ANC, report Stefaans Brummer and Eddie THE fall of Winnie Mandela may sound the death knell for the “populist” faction within the ANC and could have strong repercussions, reaching as far as the race for succession to President Nelson Mandela. The extraordinary occurrence […]
… but when The Rolling Stones took the stage last weekend, it was a show to rival the biggest-budget Hollywood movie, writes Shaun de Waal ARE you going to The Rolling Stones? That was the question everyone seemed to ask everyone else for weeks, and the answer usually seemed to be yes. And when the […]
An activist who campaigned for rent boycotts during the apartheid years now uses the same tactics to persuade people to pay for services, reports Gaye Davis AS a young activist, Chris Ngcobo used to go door to door persuading Soweto residents to boycott rent and service payments. That was in the late 1980s, when the […]