Staff Reporter

Toyota South Africa’s founder was an unlikely motor mogul. Reg Rumney reviews a new book about the company he founded THE real truth behind the management philosophy that spurred the Japanese economic miracle is “the last fart of the ferret”, according to the man who started it all. This fascinating fact is disclosed in a […]

THIS week’s imprisonment of stockbrokers Greg Blank and Andrew Forbes has been hailed by some experts as a victory against white-collar crime, yet their convictions in fact highlight inadequacies of our legal system. “Rather than demonstrate the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s ability to rid itself of insider traders,” says a corporate lawyer, “the convictions set unwanted […]

What has happened to Penny Siopis, painter of lush excess? Hazel Friedman asked her whether she has `gone conceptual’ REACTIONS to Penny Siopis’ current exhibition range from slight discomfort to outright dismay. Maybe it’s got something to do with the cloying smell of mothballs and cheap perfume wafting from her sarcophagus-like installations; the neatly arranged […]

The White Paper on the government’s reconstruction and development programme could be a black day for fringe benefits. Reg Rumney reports THE White Paper released this week on the ANC’s grand plan to right the economic wrongs created by apartheid could spell bad news for the few perks employees have left. The White Paper released […]

British prime minister John Major led a host of international sports stars and the media around township sports facilities, writes Paul Martin WITH Wednesday’s rival attractions conveniently divided by that compulsory cricket tradition, the lunch-break, cognoscenti had the mouth-watering prospect of admiring the 12 or so balls Brian Lara stroked in the Soweto nets after […]

Krish Mackerdhuj believes that conditions for cricket unity are now worse than three years ago CRICKET: Paul Martin THE President of the United Cricket Board, Krish Mackerdhuj, has made an unprecedented attack on “old regime” attitudes and actions — especially internationally — among senior cricket administrators and officials. He said the united front forged three […]

COME Not everybody who wants to see the Currie Cup final will be able to do so in Bloemfontein and that’s how its going to be at the World Cup too RUGBY: Jon Swift FREE State’s insistence on holding the Currie Cup final at Springbok Park in Bloemfontein should the uncertainties of this weekend’s provincial […]

Undaunted by the crackdown on the truckers’ blockade, Turning Wheel is gearing up for more action. By Sibusiso Nxumalo IN an exclusive interview, the leader of the Turning Wheel International Workers’ Movement has shed the first light on the mysterious organisation behind the Mooi River Plaza truckers’ blockade. Richard Madime is a member of the […]

Basil Douglas has popped up in some unusual places, and now he has popped up to lead the `popcorn civics’, writes Gaye Davis BASIL DOUGLAS, the man behind the rates protests which convulsed Johannesburg’s coloured townships last week, leaving one person dead and 28 injured after clashes with police, has had a chequered political career. […]

Moveable Feast Marino Corazza DURING our courting years one of the simple treats my wife and I would indulge in when we had a little spare cash was to have dinner at La Lampara in Norwood. La Lampara is a fishing boat lamp used at night to attract the fish. The eaterie had similar beckoning […]

FINE ART: Ivor Powell In the 1960s Norman Catherine was something like the heir apparent or maybe it was Brand-and- Revered-Raspberry to the throne of Fook Island. Fook Island, for those who don’t remember that whimsical nonesuch nonsense, was a diligently documented and solemnly certified place of the mind, invented and ruled with a rod […]

AREAS ACT Drew Forrest AN inner-city housing specialist has warned that the tough official line on illegal immigrants is hampering the regeneration of South Africa’s urban slums. Carien Engelbrecht, Planact’s housing co-ordinator and former legal adviser to the South African National Civics Organisation, sees a parallel in the effects of the Group Areas Act on […]

Well-known figures have been blamed for the waste of millions of rands by the National Co-ordinating Committee for the Return of Exiles, says a confidential report. Wiseman Khuzwayo reports A CONFIDENTIAL report on the disbanded National Co- ordinating Committee for the Return of Exiles (NCCR) charges that the organisation was dogged by fraud and corruption […]

Wiseman Khuzwayo STOCK exchange whizzkid Greg Blank, now serving time for fraud, will be treated the same as any other prisoner, says the Department of Correctional Services. Blank began serving his eight-year sentence last Saturday after exhausting his opportunities to appeal against it. But South Africa does not have US-style special prisons for “white collar” […]

Chris Louw THE squabbles that marred the negotiation process are repeating themselves in the cabinet — and again Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi is at centre stage, shadowed by his Italian/American adviser, Dr Mario Ambrosini. Buthelezi lost a battle to control next year’s local government elections when he left Wednesday’s cabinet meeting as the […]

CRICKET: Jon Swift IN THE aftermath of Mike Proctor’s departure as coach of the national cricket team, there have been a number of decisive moves on one hand and some dithering on the other. The old warhorse, Clive Rice, was effectively ruled out of any possible confrontations with captain Kepler Wessels, by being named as […]

Gaye Davis JOHANNESBURG City Council is owed more than R44-million by residents of its south-western townships and Lenasia. If the debt is not written off by central government, it will almost double the council’s accumulated operating deficit of R54,7-million. Roger McCulloch, assistant general secretary of the Civic Associations of Johannesburg (CAJ), blames a National Party […]

In his first interview since the royal shake-up, Prince Mcwayizeni Zulu talks to Ann Eveleth THERE was an emotive ritual outside King Goodwill Zwelithini’s palace gates last Tuesday to mark his rapprochement with Senior Prince Mcwayizeni Zulu. “In accordance with tradition, we each stood outside the palace gates and a man poured fire ash into […]

Arts Alive visitor Salif Keita had to shrug off his noble ancestry to pursue his first love: music. He spoke to Bafana Khumalo AFTER reading reams of interviews and profiles of Salif Keita in the American press, one could be forgiven for expecting him to be a 10-foot warrior god. In most of what has […]

Lesley Cowling and Chris Louw QUESTIONS about the state’s funding of General Lothar Neethling’s defamation case against the Weekly Mail & Guardian are to be raised in parliament. ANC MP Dave Dalling has given notice that he wants Minister of Safety and Security Sidney Mufamadi to reveal the total cost to the state of Neethling’s […]

Two South Africans set off this week in the gruelling eight-month, 27 000-mile BOC Challenge SAILING: Jonathan Spencer Jones AFTER months — and in some cases, years — of preparation, the fourth BOC Challenge single-handed around the world race got under way in Charleston, USA, last weekend with a rousing sendoff from some 2 000 […]

Jacques Magliolo COCA-COLA International will be back in South Africa before the end of this year, say the experts ahead of Coke’s planned Friday press announcement and following rumours that Coke Group president for Africa Karl Weir has been seen in South Africa. Though a press conference has been called for Friday, little information has […]

THE Storyland Carnival — part of the Arts Alive festivities — offers a golden opportunity to keep the children busy and entertained for a day. A host of thrilling events will take place, from an appearance by the popular Capetonian rap group Prophets of da City to participation in a crafts workshop — plus a […]

Weekly Mail Reporter THE abortion debate looks set to start all over again with the appointment this month of a parliamentary committee that is likely to have the pro-choice and anti-abortion lobbies fighting it out. The 26-member committee, which will hear submissions from the public before recommending legislation to the cabinet, represents a wide spectrum […]

MIKE PROCTER lost his job as the South African team cricket coach last weekend because he had failed to rekindle South Africa’s famed fighting spirit on the recent tour to England, according to Krish Mackerdhuj. The side ended up losing the third Test, as well as the two one-day internationals, and was humiliated by Holland […]

ENGLAND and Wales are likely to make a joint bid to stage the 1999 World Cup. This week Dudley Wood, the Rugby Football Union secretary, said his union would be considering a formal bid along with the Welsh Rugby Union, though so far neither union has discussed the matter at executive committee level. Wood believes […]

Justin Pearce WHEN Sister Clara Williams asked two unauthorised visitors to leave the hospital ward, they pressed a knife against her stomach. Dr Hennie Steenkamp has been assaulted four times while treating injured patients. And hospital volunteer Simon Jacobs was stabbed with a pair of scissors when he tried to stop a fight between two […]

Gambling’s main players revealed their hands this week, but they’ll have to wait for the referee to call the game. Stefaans Brummer reports WITH only a week left for submissions on the future of gambling, the main players are caught in a flurry of posturing and positioning to carve as large as possible a slice […]

CINEMA: Buddy Bradley QUO VADIS the action movie? Who among us has not posed this fundamental question on returning, sick at heart, from the local cineplex after enduring yet another actioner which seemed promising … but then totally sucked? This year’s roll of dishonour is already a long one, including stinkers like Beverly Hills Cop […]

The king has severed ties with his `keeper’, but the battle for control will be put to the test on Shaka Day, reports Farouk Chothia AS Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini paced in the courtyard of the Enyokeni kraal after his Monday indaba with President Nelson Mandela and Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, he turned to princes […]

Louise Flanagan GETTING Sun king Sol Kerzner to court to face bribery and corruption charges might be more difficult than hitting the jackpot in one of the Sun International (SI) casinos. The attorney general in the former Transkei homeland, Christo Nel, has determinedly chased the SI chairman for four years and he’s not ready to […]

Media & Marketing By Clive Simkins KEEPING a finger right on the pulse of market change is vital. Here are two more of Ogilvy & Mather’s seven recently researched trends, unique to South Africa, that fly with joyous abandon in the face of Faith Popcorn’s American “future”: Informalism: The sheer inability of economic growth, as […]