Staff Reporter

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 […]

Dr Olive Shisana, special adviser to the minister of health, discusses the reasons behind the parlous state of health services — and the way forward THE health status of the majority of South Africans remains poor, and the distribution of death and disability reflects the inequities of the past. In 1992, the number of children […]

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 […]

THREE cheers for Frene Ginwala, speaker of the National Assembly, for apologising for the role of her predecessors, now colleagues in the government of national unity, in devastating neighbouring Mozambique. She said what had to be said, and she did it with appropriate dignity and forthrightness. It is unusual for a speaker of parliament to […]

SOCCER: Clinton Asary WHEN the 24th BP Top 8 final kicks off on Saturday afternoon there will be two contrasting eras in South African soccer on view. Wits defender Peter Gordon (31), in the twilight of a distinguished career that has spanned 11 years of professional soccer, 10 of them at Wits, might well be […]

Opinions differ widely on how Muslim law can be brought into line with the new constitution, writes Justin Pearce When Nelson Mandela visited Cape Town in 1993, he made sure his itinerary included a turn through the Bo-Kaap, that venerable neighbourhood which is home to South Africa’s oldest Muslim community. Here the president- in-waiting assured […]

THREE times British wrestling champion Dave Morgan promises to have his opponent carried out of the ring in a coffin when he meets India’s Gama Singh at Turffontein’s Wembley Indoor Arena on Friday night. Described by promoters as a wrestling explosion, this is the first South African event to attract five international wrestlers. Four of […]

Justin Pearce AIDS is the linking theme among the 70 films which have been brought together for a festival starting in Cape Town tonight — and they range from Aids — Life at Stake (a Kenyan Jim-goes-to-Nairobi tale about a migrant worker who contracts HIV in the city) to Safe is Desire (“learn how to […]

The property market has turned, but it has not yet gathered momentum. Reg Rumney reports The property market is at long last showing signs of a sharp revival. Boland Bank’s latest Economic Review notes that both the value and volume of property market transactions have been accelerating gradually for around 12 months. The reason is […]

The unbundling of Johannesburg Consolidated investments has been a damp squib. Reg Rumney reports The unbundling of Johannesburg Consolidated Investments into three, separate and more focused companies has been received with little enthusiasm. It was announced this week that JCI would be split into three separately listed companies on May 15: * Anglo American Platinum […]

As a ship filled with nuclear waste heads for South African waters, environmental groups are concerned by the government’s lack of action, writes Inge Ruigrok DOES silence mean permission? A ship conveying 14 tons of the most concentrated nuclear waste ever transported, including a deadly cargo of bomb-grade plutonium, is likely to sail through South […]

Julius Kaliya in Blantyre Malawians are up in arms over a unilateral decision by the government to triple the producer price of the staple maize. The government announced the producer price of maize will go up from April 1, but did not indicate how much the retail price will be. ”I don’t think most people […]

Vusi Nhlapo is either hailed as a hero or reviled as a mindless militant. Eddie Koch meets the man in charge of the union behind the conflict at Wits BURLY, tough-talking, and uncompromising would be useful adjectives to describe Vusi Nhlapo, except for the fact that they belie an air of loneliness, a hint of […]

It’s been a long season for South Africa’s cricketers and in their final match they have a tough task against New Zealand CRICKET: Krish Mi’rams SOUTH AFRICA’s final international appointment of the 1994/95 season will be, perhaps, their most difficult assignment. On the face of it New Zealand would not seem to pose too many […]

Sugar cane fields are at the centre of a conflict involving a Natal community which says it has been left out of the land-restitution process. Weekly Mail THE electricity poles disappear on the road to Ezimwini just before the tarred road turns to dust, but sugar cane cloaks the surrounding hills almost to the first […]

Analysis: Anton Harber AN Inkatha Freedom Party decision to quit the Government of National Unity will set the scene for a period of intense conflict between the central government and kwaZulu/Natal. The IFP agenda is clear and has been expressed by senior leaders: to cement their provincial base and launch a strong push for regional […]

SAILING: Jonathan Spencer Jones AFTER 29 days and 16 hours at sea, Frenchman Christophe Auguin on Sceta Calberson arrived in Punta del Este, Uruguay, to win the third leg of the BOC Challenge singlehanded around the world race with a new record, some one day 11 hours better than the previous record set by compatriot […]

Steuart Wright in East London FORESTRY officials are racing against the clock to find a mate for the sole surviving elephant of the world- famous herd which roamed the Knysna forest at the turn of the century. Trouble is, they’re not sure of the sex of the Three young Kruger National Park cows were relocated […]

Stefaans Brummer THE detailed information on Winnie Mandela’s alleged corruption supplied by police immediately after their raid on her house and other premises came as a surprise to many, not least of them Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi. Police tend to play their cards close to their chest in investigations relating to corruption and […]

Native tongue Bafana Khumalo THE SAUK, nice place that is, has received more abuse than a whore on a good night for business. It started with the Nationalist white male going out of his way to make sure that the good aunt was going to prostitute herself for the cause of apartheid. Well, like a […]

SOCCER: Clinton Asary WITH educational facilities around the country in the news as they fight for transformation, Wits University, at the forefront of the struggle, will be pleased to know that it’s soccer side has completed the process with unqualified success. On Saturday the “new” Wits face their first real challenge when they meet Kaizer […]

THEATRE: Justin Pearce ART imitates life, life imitates art, and theatre imitates cinema ’cause movies are a whole lot more successful than plays … No, no, foul, unfair! It’s tempting to speculate that Ian Fraser’s venture into the world of vampirism, Story of an African Vampire, at the Pieter Roos Theatre at the Civic, is […]

Marius Schoon plans to lay charges against Craig Williamson for the murder of his wife and child, writes Mark Gevisser The conscience of white South Africa is a self-assured Standard Six pupil whose voice has just broken, who is soccer-mad, and who witnessed his mother and sister blown to smithereens when he was two years […]

Moveable Feast Marino Corazza FROM Benoni to Bedfordview, Florida to Ferndale, Swellendam to Sabi, cafes across the country are invested with same nostalgia. Their names refer to the places their owners emigrated from a long time ago — Mykonos, Apollo, Hellenic, Paphos, The Acropolis, like a travel brochure on Greece and the islands — while […]

ATHLETICS: Julian Drew WHEN Shadrack Hoff sliced more than five seconds off Matthews Temane’s eight-year-old national 5 000m record in Stellenbosch two weeks ago, it signalled the beginning of a new era for South African distance running. In the dark years of the apartheid inspired sports boycott distance running turned in on itself in this […]

SOCCER: Clinton Asary WHEN Clemens Westerhof took charge of Sundowns this season he predicted that the “Brazilians” would win the league this year. But it has been a far from satisfactory start for the “supercoach” who led Nigeria to the 1994 African Nations Cup, and the last 16 of the World Cup the same year. […]

Annie Mapoma MANAGEMENT at two of Johannesburg’s most popular flea markets, Rosebank and Bruma, are surveying their traders and intend taking serious measures against those who threaten the city’s flourishing flea market industry by overpricing. The issue was brought to light when customers complained they were being ripped-off by certain traders, especially on items like […]

Weekly Mail Reporters MOST of the 14 regions of the ANC’s Women’s League have condemned the recent decision of 11 members of the league’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to resign their posts without proper consultation. The league’s Northern Natal secretary, Nokwethemba Biyela, said 12 of the 14 regions had “stood up” at the NEC meeting […]

Life assurers are honing their strategies in order to capture the multi-billion rand funeral business, reports Jacques Magliolo How big is the funeral business? Big enough for the life assurers to fight tooth and nail for it. Financial Services Board long term insurance manager Oppie Opperman says: “In 1993 total premium received by the life […]