Staff Reporter

The government’s attempts to push through a politically attractive health plan are being shot down. Pat Sidley reports THE government’s controversial plans for a national health insurance scheme face a determined challenge from several influential quarters. A crucial meeting on Monday will determine the nature of an inquiry into the plan, who will join the […]

Reg Rumney LOOK skywards at the Cairo skyline to get a glimpse of where newly established MultiChoice Egypt, launched in Cairo at the weekend, sees future growth. The buildings bristle with costly satellite dishes, testimony to the desire of Egyptians for alternatives to the output of state-owned Egyptian Radio and Television Union, the Egyptian equivalent […]

The CP is hoping to use the local government elections to win back supremacy of the rightwing, writes Jan Taljaard NOT shouting it out too loud, the Conservative Party is hoping to once again enter the race for rightwing supremacy after being virtually sidelined from mainstream politics. And it hopes to achieve this by gathering […]

Jacques Magliolo reports on black business’ opposition to proposed JSE changes this year BLACK business cannot bid for the Anglo-controlled JCI if proposed changes to present regulations relating to pyramids go ahead this year. New Africa Investment Limited’s chairman, Dr Nthato Motlana, one of South Africa’s most prominent black businessmen, says: “We will oppose the […]

The premiere of South Africa’s first full-length opera tops the bill at the Cape Town Opera Festival. Peter Frost reports COCKING a snook at the dark budgetry stormclouds brewing, Capab launched the Cape Town Opera Festival in the mother city this week. The festival, which runs until Febuary 5, combines local and international talent, and […]

Steuart Wright in East London EASTERN Cape health officials, battling to form a unified administration, are being distracted by constant firefighting as the health system crumbles around them. But they are coming up with some innovative ways to cope with the situation. In recent weeks senior health officials have been forced to run from one […]

The veterans who have n ever been given a chance and the young hopefuls all have the opportunity to represent their country now CRICKET: Jon Swift PERHAPS the most intriguing aspect of the upsurge of spirit and enthusiasm the South African cricket side took into the one-off Test against Pakistan at the Wanderers this week […]

As early as 1910 a South African court declared that all men were created equal. It’s a pity a clause in the Bill of rights dilutes that principle, argues David Beresford There must be a particular satisfaction, if a slightly selfish one, in being right while in a minority. An instance particularly to be envied […]

Marketing Clive Simpkins THE “grey” market has always posed a problem for marketers of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) brands in South Africa, with notable wars between the likes of Panasonic and the sassy Western Bazaars with their “Hong Kong prices”. The impression has been created that the big guys simply want to milk every […]

THE “Deeble” option for a national health insurance policy — the one favoured by the Ministry of Health –may be the best of the three currently under consideration. That has yet to be proven. In fact, a number of highly-respected health policy experts have suggested that it is flawed and the government is allowing itself […]

Simon Segal DESPITE the re-emergence of El Nino, the harbinger of drought in this region, there is still a reasonable chance that South Africa could have a favourable agricultural season. The rains over the past few days have done no harm, noticeably boosting the morale of farmers. With the vital February-March rains still to come, […]

FW DE KLERK’S first instinct when confronted with the information that 3 500 security force members and two cabinet ministers had secretly applied for indemnity on the eve of the April elections was to defend his men. He later changed his tune, going along, it seems, with a cabinet decision not to recognise the validity […]

The NECC and the provincial education department clashed as pupils returned to school in the Cape this week, writes Justin Pearce CHAOS greeted the beginning of the school year in Cape Town this week as Western Cape schools opened amid conflicting instructions from the National Education Co-ordinating Committee and the newly formed provincial education department. […]

Sankie Mthembi-Nkondo is a poet and writer and, more recently, minister of housing. Mark Gevisser met and read her `DEAR Comrade Wife,” wrote ANC poet and diplomat Zinjiva Nkondo to his wife, Sankie, during their years of separation in exile, “I know you are not afraid/ of spears/ your thighs and breasts of humanhood/ have […]

Jan Taljaard in Pretoria THE new chief of the army has encountered a serious problem since moving to Pretoria to take up his new post: the gymnasiums in Pretoria only open at 5.30am. “No man, that’s much too late,” says Lieutenant-General Reg Otto. Gesturing towards the rather forbidding facade of Army HQ, he remarks: “We […]

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 […]

Accusations of leaks to the police and links to an army propaganda unit are at the centre of a row at the SABC, write Mark Gevisser and Stefaans Brummer SABC television faces a fresh internal controversy over spying in the newsroom — and the revelation that the new acting editor of Agenda was the commanding […]

Bronwen Roberts THE Rhodes University Council has been accused of using “dirty tricks” to hijack the selection of the university’s next vice-chancellor. The allegation comes from the Forum for the Democratic Transformation of Rhodes (FDTR), a group of community-based organisations, in response to a council decision to restructure the selection panel. In December the council […]

The 3 500 amnesty applicants will remain shrouded by secrecy if a controversial Bill is passed. Gaye Davis reports A CABINET compromise allowing Truth Commission hearings on amnesties to be heard behind closed doors has set the stage for a major showdown between the government and non- governmental organisations — and could lead to a […]

Gillian Slovo remembers a very different funeral of her mother, Ruth First, who was killed in a bomb blast THE morning after her death, I woke early. Not from her typing but from the lack of it. I walked with my father by the seaside. We didn’t talk. As the day began, we drove to […]

Eddie Koch braved the generation gap and took his daughter to see Roxette IT’S Saturday night at Ellis Park and a swarm of adolescents hover around the turnstiles. The man at the gate eyes my receding hairline. “Tickets?” he asks, although the subtext of his query is written in the baffled look on his face: […]

Morne du Plessis is a popular choice as manager of the South African rugby team, but we haven’t heard the last of Jannie Engelbrecht RUGBY: Jon Swift THERE is one fact Morne du Plessis cannot have failed to arrive at: the managership of the South African rugby side can be either a sudden springboard or […]

FORMER Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock, who faces 106 charges ranging from fraud to eight counts of murder when his trial starts next month, allegedly tried to discredit Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi by portraying him as an erstwhile police informer. Sources close to the investigation into De Kock and police Third Force activities […]

General Johan van der Merwe’s alleged meddling in Third force investigations is the real reason behind his resignation, reports Stefaans Brummer POLICE Commissioner General Johan van der Merwe’s announcement last week that he would retire at the end of March was the result of pressure by Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi, well-placed sources say. […]

Winnie Mandela stands accused of storming Contralesa’s headquarters in a struggle for control of the organisation, reports Mduduzi ka Harvey WINNIE MANDELA is at the centre of a new political controversy: a struggle for control of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa). She is accused of storming the organisation’s headquarters, changing the […]

Pat Sidley YOU have dropped off your precious child at her first school and you imagine that as well as educating her it will take good care of her. But you are likely to have second thoughts if you read the indemnity form many schools require parents to sign. At their worst, these forms require […]

FINE ART: Ivor Powell WHAT we blithely and generally unreflectively call “art” — as though that made sense of it all — is a complicated, frequently opaque and often bizarre process. “Art” is what makes a Van Gogh worth $50-million, or whatever it is that hard-headed business consortiums pay for the work of that artist […]

Forty-four percent of all South Africans are classified poor — with whites making up only a fraction of this figure, reports Andrew Whitefield LESS than half a percent of whites, or 20 000 individuals, were living in poverty in South Africa in 1993. This estimate, from the World Bank-funded Living Standards and Development Survey, flies […]

CRICKET: Paul Martin PAKISTAN’S speed twins say “Hello” and “How are things?” to each other these days. The fact that Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, arguably the world’s pre-eminent fast-bowling combination, have been exchanging pleasantries at all reflects a new maturity: they had been in opposite trenches during the Great Rebellion a year ago. Wasim […]

He was endearingly messy and relaxed in life — and so was his farewell. Mark Gevisser reports on the symbolism that emerged at Joe Slovo’s funeral AS I drove the 12 kilometres from Orlando to Avalon on Sunday, crawling through the human avenue of thousands of people, a young man rushed up to me, carrying […]

Justin Pearce WESTERN CAPE environment and tourism MEC Lerumo Kalako has spent the past week defending himself against smears made by a man who allegedly masqueraded as an official in his department. Kalako has promised to sue Nick Malherbe, who has publicly accused him of misappropriating public money. Malherbe made these accusations claiming to be […]

Two community projects received only a fraction of aid money handed to Dr Allan Boesak’s foundation, reports Justin Pearce THE Weekly Mail & Guardian has uncovered two incidents where only a fraction of donor money given to Dr Allan Boesak’s Foundation for Peace and Justice (FPJ) appear to have reached the communities for which they […]