Staff Reporter

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 […]

Hugh Lewin, who spent seven years in the Sixties as a political prisoner in Pretoria, joined last weekend’s gathering of some 1 200 ex-political prisoners for a reunion on Robben Island IT IS a weekend of rituals. The ritual of resurrecting the ghosts, re-uniting them, dancing with them from lime quarry to cell-block, and (perhaps […]

Despite the collapse of USAfrica, the domestic airline business is not saturated, reports Andre van Zyl Paradoxically, the collapse of United States airline USAfrica has focused attention on the domestic airline business in South Africa. Is there enough room for everybody? A quick runaround of some of the local airlines suggested that, contrary to conventional […]

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser CONCERTOS for piano and violin by Mozart had mixed success in the first two concerts of the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by visiting British conductor Meredith Davies. Francois du Toit, standing in at short notice for Tessa Uys, gave a carefully considered reading of the composer’s A Major Piano Concerto. As […]

Jacques Magliolo IN an era of increasing “transparency” it is curious that Gencor chairman Brian Gilbertson has not held a press conference to answer questions about the sudden dismissal of senior executive Trevor Rees after allegations that he had tried to blackmail Gencor. The matters raised in the press already, after all, could seriously affect […]

Black pupils near Durban take their struggle into an Indian township. Farouk Chothia reports ONGOING violence at a black school in Amaoti, near Durban, spilled over into the adjacent Indian township of Phoenix this week with Indian pupils being attacked by black pupils. A large group of pupils from Amaoti’s Amandlethu Secondary School, some armed […]

A young woman is busy teaching hardened police about the importance of early-age fixations in serial killers. Jan Taljaard reports WHEN in 1982 John Duffy embarked on a raping and killing spree that would eventually earn him the name of Britain’s Railway Ripper, initial investigations threw up a possible 5000 suspects. Two years, 18 rapes […]

THEATRE: Guy Willoughby WHAT can one say about a play that tells two interrelated stories, separated by nearly 200 years, that take place simultaneously in the same room? Welcome to the casually unusual world of Tom Stoppard, a world whose oddity comes uneasily to resemble the one you and I live in. Stoppard has long […]

Justin Pearce SOUTH AFRICA’S non-govermental organisation (NGO) community is reeling from the shockwaves of the allegations of theft and fraud made against Dr Allan Boesak’s Foundation for Peace and Justice (FPJ). Last week’s revelations of the scale on which money disappeared undetected from the FPJ have prompted NGO trustees to re-examine their roles and duties […]

Former police commander Eugene de Kock’s trial next week promises a taste of things to come, reports Stefaans Brummer TOP police officers and politicians will be watching closely when Eugene Alexander de Kock goes on trial in Pretoria on Monday. A number of them have been implicated in the “Third Force” misdeeds for which the […]

Illegal occupants defiantly laid claim to vacant homes in a Lenasia suburb this week. Mapula Sibanda spoke to them OVERGROWN shrubs surrounding the houses testified to desertion, but there were newspapers pasted up to serve as curtains and white crosses marked on the windows to show that people were living there. On Wednesday afternoon, this […]

Eddie Koch visits a northern Cape army base with land minister Derek Hanekom THE owner of a game lodge in Namibia which goes under the name “Intu Afrika”, called up the Schmidtsdrift army base last year, and asked to borrow some bushmen who could perform their ancient traditions for tourists on his farm. Schmidtsdrift army […]

Relics of the past or living legends? Shaun de Waal explains why The Rolling Stones are still exciting 30 years into their career `BLAME it on the Stones,” sang Kris Kristofferson in 1970, mocking the “Mr Modern Middle Class” who saw in The Rolling Stones the personification of evil and all that was corrupting of […]

Moveable Feast Barbara Ludman SHIMON’S Bistro and Arlecchino have both found the perfect spot for a sidewalk cafe — away from the petrol fumes and panhandlers but nonetheless out under the stars — in Tyrwhitt Mall in Rosebank. They’re separated by four small shops and flanked by a bandstand, non-working fountains and planters. Along, around […]

Gaye Davis CONTINUING unhappiness in party ranks over the National Party’s blurred identity and lack of direction are expected to come to a head at its caucus meeting in Stellenbosch tomorrow. NP sources discounted the possibility of a split but indicated NP leader FW de Klerk would face a challenge from a “new right” coalescing […]

CRICKET: Jon Swift ONE of the oldest maxims in cricket, whether it be the one-day pyjama game or the more serious stuff of five-day tests, is this: you have to get the runs on the board to have any chance of succeeding. It is a truism which was rubbed into the noses of the South […]

Shadley Nash in Port Elizabeth A reward has been offered for the return of Port Alfred’s mayoral solid silver chain of office, valued at R10 000. Former taxi driver Gordon Bavuma, recently elected as the chairperson of the Port Alfred Transitional Local Council, now has the dubious distinction of being the first “mayor” since the […]

CINEMA: William Pretorius SEX happens — but mainly outside America, to judge from the featherweight romantic comedy Only You and the Australian sex-pic Sirens, on circuit today. They’re both about sex, love and all that, but while the Australian film celebrates sexuality, American movies, it seems, are toning things down. The glimpse of Bruce Willis’ […]

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 […]

Eight-Legged Groove Machine’s over-the-top outfits are just the beginning of the band’s appeal, writes Johnny de Goede AMONG the latest wave of bands to emerge on to the national scene, including B-World, Urban Creep and Nine, one in particular stands out as a potential voice for our time — Eight-Legged Groove Machine. These four musicians […]

Gaye Davis in Parliament FRONT-RUNNER for the post of public protector — who will stand between citizens and government corruption, maladministration and abuse of power — is Brian Currin, the former national director of Lawyers for Human Rights. Democratic Party senator James Selfe said “hundreds” of nominations had flooded in for both the post of […]

Critical Consumer Pat Sidley REPORTERS from time to time ask local authorities how safe street foods are, and are always assured that there has not been any marked increase in food poisoning since stalls and stands began to crowd on to inner city pavements as well as the beach and informal But a survey just […]

ARCHITECTURE: Hannah le Roux HAVING exhausted the supply of design commissions for gallery walls in Johannesburg, architects are putting work up within them. Last year’s exhibition of apartheid and space, (… setting apart) at the Gertrude Posel Gallery, introduced plans to the realm of the artefact and artwork; now, at the Standard Bank Gallery, in […]

Many South Africans are opting to send their children for a Christian education, but this does not mean the rod is spared at these schools, writes Gavin Evans WHEN Pastor Steve Maritz tells you that “if little Johnny needs a hiding, he’ll get one”, he wears the smile of a benign paterfamilias. This middle-aged founder […]

The IBA is considering hundreds of applications for temporary community radio licences. Bruce Cohen looks at the colourful entries RADIO that will entertain the historically disadvantaged. Radio that will contribute to reconstruction, reconciliation, self-esteem, pride, peace and self-sustainability. Radio that will be non- racial, non-sexist and non-derogatory. Radio that will establish and promote a living […]

THEATRE: Peter Frost TALK to Pieter-Dirk Uys and the phrase “hard-on” keeps coming up. Not the pelvic kind, but a theatrical response performers should be provoking in traditionally flaccid South African audiences. His new show, Bambi Sings the FAK Songs, currently filling houses Upstairs at Elaine’s in Cape Town, does just that, going straight to […]

The man who exposed the `Verwoedian’ methods of Unisa’s education faculty now faces disciplinary action. Pat Sidley reports AFTER 25 years of editing and translating University of South Africa (Unisa) study guides, Sam van den Berg blew the whistle on the “morally outrageous” material the correspondence university was providing to education students. As a result, […]

Finance Week editor Alan Greenblo has left the magazine — or has he? Jacques Magliolo reports BUSINESS magazine Finance Week’s editor Alan Greenblo bid a lengthy, sad, farewell in the latest issue of the magazine, in what seemed the last chapter of a long battle for control of the independent financial publication. However, he was […]

THEATRE: Robert Greig HYSTERIA is an impudent, sprawling, funny and splendidly perverse farce about the fantasies of Sigmund Freud. It turns the person whom WH Auden described as “a climate of opinion” into a bumbler floundering in the nets of his own theories. As with Tom and Viv, one may learn little about Freud or […]