Staff Reporter

THEATRE: Bafana Khumalo YOU Fool, How Can the Sky Fall? could be the beginning of a new trend in black theatre — or it could be a one-off. One hopes it is the former, signifying a new phase in post-apartheid theatre where playwrights move away from the hackneyed formulae of the past, in which a […]

Dunhill Challenge: Bland misses out as Player opts for Buhrmann GOLF: Jon Swift IT is ironic that Gary Player, the Southern African team’s non-playing captian in next week’s inaugural Dunhill Challenge at Houghton, opted for the youth of Hendrik Buhrmann ahead of the experience of John Bland in finalising his line-up. As the current holder […]

Katz commission member Pierre du Toit argues that critics haven’t read the report SOUTH Africa is finding that tax reform within a real democracy is very different from the old days. Regardless of the Katz Commission’s specific terms, submissions came from a much wider representation of society and were much more fundamental than those received […]

Jan Taljaard in Pretoria FEELINGS are running high among former security police members after they were apparently told they have no real future in the new South African Police Service. Since being informed of serious cutbacks in the Crime Intelligence Service (CIS), many of its members are now threatening to disclose sensitive information that they […]

Rank-and-file members of the South African Police Union want more control of the union that was allegedly created by police generals, writes Stefaans Brummer THE South African Police Union (Sapu), rival to the more “radical” Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), is battling to purge itself of a past which sources say was conceived […]

In this year’s asset allocation, brokers move away from equities towards gilts, reports Jacques Magliolo The investment climate for 1995 will be less favourable than in recent years because of increasing interest and inflation rates, and a reduction of international investment in emerging markets. Frankel Pollak Vinderine’s Asset Allocation document for this year, released at […]

By Reg Rumney Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg this week expressed concern about the effect of so-called “private label” credit cards on the country’s savings. Liebenberg said that aside from inflation, the other factor decreasing savings was financial deregulation. “When credit is more freely available, there is less saving.” In that context he was concerned about […]

Anouk Mommer and Inge Ruigrok A PRETORIA pharmaceutical company claims to have developed a drug that will improve the length and quality of the lives of Aids sufferers. Dr Roy van Brummelen, a director of Biomox, said this week clinical tests indicated the new product, Equimmune, could be the most successful drug in Aids treatment […]

Julian Drew SPORT today is big business and nowhere is this more apparent than with the multi-billion dollar industry that goes by the name of the Olympic Games. Professionals in sports such as golf, tennis, basketball and football can make a good living out of their chosen vocations and the top stars become millionaires overnight. […]

Native tongue Bafana Khumalo DEBI, come back, my love. All is forgiven. I apologise for treating you badly. I know that when we decided to call it quits last year — when you doffed your hat at me, clenched that cigarette at the corner of your mouth and said, “Keep the peace black brother, I […]

Trevor Steele-Taylor A FESTIVAL of Spanish cinema — to be attended by four leading Spanish filmmakers — will be presented as part of the fringe at the Johannesburg Biennale. The programme comprises 18 films, including two masterpieces by Luis Bu-uel, Viridiana and The Young One. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1962, Viridiana, […]

Enoch Mthembu THE only life that Daluxolo Luthuli has known is that of a professional fighter. He joined Umkhonto weSizwe at the age of 14 and since then has taken part in numerous armed operations, first for the ANC and then for Inkatha. Luthuli went into exile in the early 1960s and received military training […]

CINEMA: Stanley Peskin THE arresting title sequence in Robert Redford’s Quiz Show identifies television with Kurt Weill’s acerbic song Mac the Knife from The Threepenny Opera. Although the song is given a romantic interpretation by Bobby Darin (who was a matinee idol in 1959, the year of Quiz Show), it loses none of its bite. […]

THE withdrawal of sociologist Eddie Webster from the race for the post of vice-chancellor of Rhodes University has left a conservative as the only contender. To the dismay of Grahamstown progressive organisations and academics, Webster has chosen to stay at the University of the Witwatersrand. Academic sources said his work on proposed new labour legislation […]

Gaye Davis HARD questions will be asked at next weekend’s meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) in the wake of repeated scandals shaking the movement and the crisis wracking its Women’s League. The concern goes beyond the impact on the ANC’s image within South Africa and abroad. “It goes to the heart of […]

Shadley Nash in Port Elizabeth South Africa’s judicial profession was still a divided and conservative one, said Cecil Somyalo, the country’s first attorney to be permanently appointed a judge in the Supreme Court. In an interview on following his appointment by President Nelson Mandela on Tuesday, Judge Somyalo said his appointment signalled a big break […]

The Democratic Party performs well in parliament but leader Tony Leon wants growth in support as well, writes Gaye Davis DEMOCRATIC Party leader Tony Leon says he was sounding a “wake-up call”, rather than a death-knell, by warning that the party’s future depended on its performance in local government elections. Leon told a public meeting […]

Stefaans Brummer A CHARGE of theft is being investigated against Dirk Coetzee, the former Vlakplaas commander who exposed police hit squads, in what Coetzee believes is a campaign of revenge against him. Coetzee was informed on February 1 that Middelburg police were investigating a charge that he had stolen R6 000 from a man in […]

A brilliant Indian student was refused entry to medical school — an apparent victim of affirmative action. When she took legal action, she was admitted. Farouk Chothia reports from Durban A young Pinetown matriculant, refused entry to medical school despite getting six distinctions, has started a flood of court challenges to affirmative action. Karin Singh […]

Gavin Evans and Stefaans Brummer SOUTH african National Defence Force military intelligence is still interested in bugging its enemies, although these days it prefers to call them This much emerged from a “feeling out” session monitored by the Weekly Mail & Guardian, between a Wits student “spotted” by an SANDF talent scout, and a senior […]

The presence of a Krugersdorp riot unit fanned the flames of racial tension in the violent clash at Orlando police station, writes Stefaans Brummer THE strike at Orlando East police station in Soweto last month exploded in ugly racial confrontation — and resulted in the death of a striking policeman — because of the chance […]

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser A STUNNING performance of Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge gave the South African tour of the London Philharmonic Orchestra a flying start at the Johannesbiurg City Hall this week. The Variations, one of Britten’s early creations for string orchestra, was a perfect choice for the LPO strings […]

A clause in the FPJ’s trust was designed to indemnify its trustees . Justin Pearce and Pat Sidley report THE trustees of Allan Boesak’s Foundation for Peace and Justice attempted to indemnify themselves against allegations of fraud after R400 000 of Children’s Trust money had already been removed from its account into that of the […]

TV viewers can expect radical changes in their watching habits, writes a Weekly Mail reporter THE South African Broadcasting Corporation is thoroughly revising what viewers see on their screens and the three TV channels as we know them are likely to disappear within weeks. The current NNTV signal — which serves only metropolitan areas — […]

Phila Ngqumba TRANSKEI police and prisons departments tried to help themselves to a 150 percent pay rise in May last year – – simply by altering computer records. However, East Cape government officials this week insisted that the computer fiddle had been stopped before millions in unauthorised money went into the pay packets of the […]

Mondli waka Makhanya AFRIKANER business has its back to the wall as it tries to hang on to government contracts which have been its preserve for the past 40 years. Just a week after Volkskas — now under the Absa umbrella — lost the Gauteng government’s R10-billion account to Standard Bank, the two Afrikaans press […]

Jan Taljaard in Pretoria THE rightwing has stashed away arms caches containing a Buccanneer fighter aircraft, G5 and G6 cannons and several nuclear warheads, if a report this week by Britain’s Channel 4 is to be believed. Said to be behind these arms caches is the once shadowy Volkseenheidskomitee (Vekom) of general Tienie Groenewald, now […]

In the debate about whether South Africa should ally itself with Beijing or with Taipei, the choice is between a huge potential market and an immediate investor. But, argues Peter Vale, it doesn’t have to be an `either/or’ option South Africa’s great China debate has ignited inconsequential arguments which have pitted one China over the […]

Mondli waka Makhanya AN Eastern Transvaal National Party organiser has started an organisation for Mozambican refugees, sparking fears among non-governmental organisations in the area that the NP is providing identity documents to refugees as a way of boosting its performance in the October municipal elections. Concerned Refugees and Immigrants of Mozambique (Coreimo) is ostensibly a […]

As Arcadia set out to tease audiences in Johannesburg, Guy Willoughby spoke to Tom Stoppard between West End rehearsals of his latest play THERE can be few more incendiary British playwrights living than Tom Stoppard — an evening in the theatre with one of his plays is a bit like a mental Guy Fawkes night. […]

FINE ART: James Garner WITH the cultural boycott a thing of the past, the idea of cultural exchange has taken on a new currency as practitioners feverishly cast off the shackles of For many, Three Ways: An Exhibition of Contemporary British Paintings at the South African National Gallery will be their first opportunity to come […]