Staff Reporter

What does your business card say about you? Reg Rumney has some suggestions. The most impressive business card I received last year was that handed to me by the venerable head of Anglo American chairman’s trust Michael O’Dowd. It states simply in black print, “M. C. O’Dowd, 44 Main Street, Johannesburg,” and gives the relevant […]

CRICKET: Jon Swift THE enduring memory of this summer’s cricket will be an incident on the boundary ropes rather than any of the truly exciting things which happened out in the middle. It was the sight of Fanie de Villiers in the middle of the Kingsmead Test following the umpires and their lightmeters off the […]

MUCH fuss was made in the last week over the crisis in the government of national unity and FW de Klerk’s threats to abandon the ship. But there was never a real crisis. For one thing, De Klerk’s threats were hollow. It was a tantrum by someone who is still coming to terms with the […]

CRICKET: Luke Alfred WITH Kepler Wessels’ retirement from the international scene and Hansie Cronje’s promotion as national captain, we seem to have been liberated from our fear of failure. At provincial level the youth policies followed so diligently by Natal have brought handsome rewards, with other provinces following suit. The Plascon Academy is up and […]

Native tongue Bafana Khumalo I BOUGHT a book this week. Yeah, I did. You probably think that it is a trite observation on my part, but I will have you know that it was a watershed moment for me. It was the first time in a very long time that I had bought a book […]

Burning issue: More than 70 people have been killed in the Northern Transvaal owing to witchcraft since April 1994 … The malevolent tokoloshe and the snake that drinks blood. Amid flashes of lightning and under a new moon, Eddie Koch, Edwin Ritchken and Vusi Khoza, investigate a strange case of sorcery in the Eastern Transvaal […]

Farouk Chothia in Durban THERE is a new Battle of Blood River. This time it’s over a bid by the Voortrekker Museum to upgrade the kwaZulu/Natal monument to the original 1838 battle at a cost of about R1-million. According to sources, the Voortrekker Museum wants to build a “British-style medieval fortress with battlements, towers and […]

TS Monk, son of the great jazz pianist, is visiting South Africa. He spoke to Gwen Ansell TS MONK is a drummer, but he doesn’t see that as his main skill. “I have a talent for explaining what jazz is about — to anyone. I’m a doorway into jazz.” Monk, fortysomething son of late legendary […]

Weekly Mail Reporter THE Weekly Mail & Guardian hired a private investigator to “bug” the offices of former Civil Co-Operation Bureau chief Staal Burger in 1992 after receiving evidence from a number of sources about secret meetings at his Hillbrow hotel, the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court was told this week. The intention, senior staffer Eddie Koch […]

Critical Consumer Pat Sidley SOUTH AFRICAN consumers should be getting used to the notion of debating critical issues around their health care. But one issue that needs a bit more attention is the rationing of health care. More precisely — who should live and who should die, a question facing hospitals and health maintenance organisations […]

OPERA: Peter Klatzow VERDI’S Nabucco (Cape Opera Festival) may not be one of his most popular masterpieces, but it offers plenty of evidence of the mastery which was to follow in Rigoletto and La Traviata. Already present is his astonishing ability to weave disparate characters and melodic lines together into a cohesive ensemble. As is […]

TOKOLOSHES, these creatures which do the work of witches, are central to the culture of the people who live in the Lowveld. It is widely believed that anyone who owns one of these animal-like beings can acquire great wealth at the expense of others. The tokoloshe — which looks like a baboon or a short […]

Mark Gevisser THE deadlock over the future of ex-bantustan broadcasters — notably Bop-TV — may have been broken. Broadcasting Minister Pallo Jordan has created a ministry-led task group to investigate the issue and will promulgate an omnibus Broadcasting Bill this year that will set conditions for “provincial public media”. These two initiatives are the result […]

Peter Mokaba has denied the accusations levelled against him and has blamed the director of the NTF for the financial crisis, writes Mduduzi ka Harvey AS the National Tourism Forum (NTF) chaired by former ANC youth leader Peter Mokaba heads deeper into financial crisis, divisions have been drawn in the upper echelons, with two factions […]

Eddie Koch and Vusi Khoza THE Zoeknog coffee plantation near Acornhoek was the site of a novel labour dispute late last year. After a driver died in a motor vehicle accident, the 150-strong workforce went on strike and demanded rights to consult a sangoma and sniff out the witches among them who had caused the […]

Farouk Chothia THERE have been seven attacks on prominent Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) members involved in peace initiatives with the ANC since last September. The Human Rights Committee (HRC) suspects these attacks are being carried out by hardliners who oppose the peace initiatives of their moderate colleagues. But IFP senator Philip Powell vehemently denied this. […]

Media and marketing Clive Simpkins THE marketing of our new dispensation is not and should not be to the overseas investment community only. There’s dignity-marketing too. Like many of the people I speak to, I am desperate that we project a mature, rational and dignified national image and example to countries both in Africa and […]

South Africans may never know the truth if the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Bill goes through, argues Paul van Zyl THE recent furore over the clandestine attempt to grant amnesty to 3 500 members of the security forces (including Adriaan Vlok, Magnus Malan and Johan van der Merwe) has strengthened calls for the […]

Gaye Davis in parliament THE huge task of writing the country’s new constitution began in earnest this week as political parties squared up against each other in sometimes acrimonious debate, spelling out their vision for the document which will become the supreme law of the land. Deputy President Thabo Mbeki rejected the notion of continued […]

It is a long time since South Africa has produced a discus thrower of note, but Franz Kruger looks like he can fill that gap ATHLETICS: Julian Drew THE discus throw has been dominated by Americans and athletes from the former Societ bloc. But lately the pendulum has begun to swing as new political doctrines […]

CINEMA: Stanley Peskin IN Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption, the penetentiary of that name is used metaphorically to claim that imprisonment can be a state of mind. Charged with a double murder of which he is innocent, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) spends 19 years in prison. There, reduced to the number 37297, he comes to […]

South African troops are not welcome in Angolan peacekeeping operations. Stefaans Brummer reports SOUTH Africa will not be part of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in Angola because Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos won’t play host to countries previously involved in his country’s war. Zimbabwe Defence Minister Moven Mahachi this week attacked South Africa for […]

Charity tournament: It’s for a good cause but the four teams won’t be handing out favours on Saturday SOCCER: Nelson Rashavha THE 1995 soccer season kicks off in earnest on Saturday, and as usual the Iwisa Charity Spectacular should produce controversies, hype, rousing football, plenty of ball skills and, hopefully, lots of goals for spectators […]

The Markets Jacques Magliolo ‘WHEN restrictions are lifted, overseas investors will come into our country and clean out our cupboard (of shares),” a shareholder told me at one of last year’s Christmas parties. “We have to keep restrictions and, in fact, strengthen them,” he asserted, in a near state of panic. Immediately, he had an […]

Mark Gevisser and Stefaans Brummer AS acting Agenda head Nico van Burick’s career hangs in the balance following Weekly Mail & Guardian disclosures about his military past. It has emerged that the citizen force unit under his command, Saltie, was involved in “dirty tricks” propoganda. Van Burick responded to the disclosure that he headed Saltie […]

The South African team is on a winning streak but now the players have to prove that they can win away from home as well CRICKET: Jon Swift THERE can be no doubting national cricket coach Bob Woolmer’s intentions as the 16-strong South African side prepare to leave for the one-off Centenary Test against New […]

IT should come as no surprise that there are military ghosts in the SABC machine. In a way, it’s a bit unfair to single out new head of Agenda Nico van Burick when there are so many others, in places as influential or more so, who participated in the use of the SABC as a […]

Four new plays are being showcased at the Civic — in the form of dramatised readings. Matthew Krouse, who participated in one, reports DISCONTENTED local dramatists, tired of playing second fiddle to international work, can perhaps begin to breathe a small sigh of relief. As the first two dramatised play readings of New Stages — […]

Is indigenous work going to get its due in the new South Africa’s school arts curriculum? Ivor Powell investigates a muddled situation BLAME it on the government of national unity, if you like, with its guarantees of jobs for civil servants. Or you can blame it on the new government’s White Paper on education and […]

The National Party’s congress was a slick show but it will take more than a good stage performance to restore the NP to its former state, reports Gaye Davis ENERGETIC tannies boogying to township jive, black speakers prefacing their inputs with cries of “Viva, NP, viva!”, the multi-lingual phrase booklet in every delegate’s blue congress […]

Classical Music: Coenraad Visser IN its first two concerts this year the Transvaal Philharmonic Orchestra showcased local artists and composers, in this way setting an example hopefully followed by other orchestras in this country. After a round of competition triumphs overseas Francois du Toit returned home to give a elegant performance of Beethoven’s first piano […]

CINEMA: Digby Ricci IF Mike Figgis’ The Browning Version does not entirely destroy the poignancy and subtlety of Terence Rattigan’s remarkable short play, it cannot be said to have failed to make the effort. Rattigan’s original is an uncompromising study of misconceived love turned rancid, of failed idealism taking refuge in self-caricature, of all the […]