Staff Reporter

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. […]

Cosatu and the ANC are determined to stem the rising tide of xenophobia, reports Drew Forrest RESISTANCE to hardline Home Affairs Ministry policy on illegal immigration is crystallising in both the ANC and its trade union ally, the Congress of South African Trade Unions. This week Cosatu’s Neil Coleman hit out at “the narrow chauvinism” […]

Humphrey Tyler EVERYBODY interested in drama, arts and music is being asked to help raise funds to restore the 1820 Settlers National Foundation Monument building in Grahamstown in time for the Standard Bank National Arts Festival next July. The building was almost gutted by fire last month. The luxurious 920-seat Monument Theatre, heart of the […]

THERE is a real danger of the reconstruction and development programme becoming a holy cow, with no criticism being brooked, say the editors of new publication focusing on the RDP. Centre for Southern African Studies consultant Gavin Lewis and Centre for Developing Business consultant Mel Brooks note in RDP Monitor that the ANC’s grand plan […]

Mondli waka Makhanya THE ANC’s Western Cape region has elected a new leadership that is younger, less controversial and more black — as opposed to coloured — than the outgoing executive led by Dr Allan Boesak. It has emerged seemingly united, lashing out at the press for speculation about division in its ranks. The new […]

THE sight of people toyi-toying on the toppled statue of Dr Hendrik Verwoerd in Bloemfontein would naturally inflame Afrikaner sensitivities. But removing the graven image of a man who more than any other historical figure stands as a symbol of the country’s apartheid past surely does not warrant the hysteria being whipped up around the […]

CINEMA: Fabius Burger Lars von Trier’s Zentropa is, in a way, about speed — most of the film takes place on a train. But at least some members of the audience will fall asleep: the opening sequence is a mesmerising, extended shot of railway tracks, with narrator Max von Sydow hypnotising us, taking us into […]

Moveable Feast Marino Corazza FOR 20 years, my father-in-law and I had season tickets to Ellis Park. Initially the seats were those green, rickety wooden benches on the grass; then they became plastic bucket-seats set in cement. Both were in sort of the same place, halfway up the stand to the left of the players’ […]

Pat Sidley I OWN no property, says PWV premier Tokyo Sexwale. What he doesn’t say is that his wife has bought three flats in a large Johannesburg block. Sexwale recently told a newspaper which raised questions about his new Houghton home: “This house is 60 years old and it’s not even mine. I am renting […]

In marked contrast to previous congresses, Cosatu’s policy resolutions grapple with labour’s role in economic policy-making, productive investment and tax reform, reports Drew Forrest `THE devil’s in the detail,” quipped textile union boss Ebrahim Patel in the aftermath of Cosatu’s fifth national congress. Patel was referring to the vexed issue of tariff reduction in his […]

That pumping sound in the pool is from a machine which has sucked a fair amount of foreign exchange into the country. Reg Rumney reports THE swimming-pool cleaner is one uniquely South African product that has made its mark internationally. Small wonder the two main brands, Kreepy Krauly and Baracuda — as South African as […]

Former SADF soldiers are training their old enemies in Angola. To counter accusations of being mercenaries, they are expanding into civilian operations, reports Stefaans Brummer FROM the hilltop an ex-South African Defence Force soldier gave the order. On the dusty plain below a ragtag bunch of adolescent Angolan army recruits advanced, artillery rounds bursting metres […]

Tough competition between cell phone companies is resulting in cheaper rates for customers, writes Annie Mapoma A PRICE war is raging between South Africa’s cellular phone giants, with both Vodacom and MTN planning cheaper rates and package deals. MTN began the fight for consumers’ cash with price cuts planned for October; Vodacom swiftly followed suit, […]

Eric Naki THE French car giant, Peugeot Motor Company, is considering opening an assembly plant in the Eastern Cape. The move — which would add another competitor to the club of South Africa’s already arguably overcrowded vehicle manufacturers — was confirmed by Eastern Cape MEC for Economic Affairs Smuts Ngonyama this last week. Ngonyama, who […]

FINE ART: Ruth Sack `METALS seem to have been in fair supply for weapons and tools, but perhaps not in sufficient quantity to allow for much ornamental use, as only one bangle was found, and no other ornaments, of iron or copper …” So wrote archaeologist TM Maggs of findings from the Iron Age in […]

Chris Louw THE Inkatha Freedom Party’s power base in kwaZulu/Natal is under serious threat following the disclosure of government plans to extend property rights to tribal land. In reply to a question in the senate this week, Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom revealed that plans are afoot to grant freehold title — including in the […]

Michael O’Reilly SOUTH AFRICAN troops may have pulled out of Namibia years ago, but deep in the Angolan bush, Rocco de Wet — Grensvegter — battles on. Clad in the brown South African Defence Force uniform and sporting a butch moustache, the photo-comic hero is still waging his one-man war against the likes of the […]

The Markets Jacques Magliolo AT last: excellent news for all those analysts who were retrenched between 1990 and 1992. This week’s announcement that United Kingdom stockbrokers James Capel is to acquire a 51 percent stake in local firm Simpson McKie hails the return of demand for Johannesburg Stock Exchange mining and industrial analysts. Following the […]

After severe disappointment at the Commonwealth Games, Okkert Brits has soared back to his best and is aiming even higher next year ATHLETICS: Paul Martin FROM shattering humiliation to glorious victory in the space of a fornight: it’s a Boys Own success story for the pole-vaulting African record-holder and now World Cup gold medallist Okkert […]

Slow bowlers selected but seamers still rule CRICKET: Jon Swift IT IS not beyond the bounds of reason to suggest to the South African cricket selectors that they should take note of the recent goings-on in the camp of their rugby counterparts. For, with the senior tour of one-dayers looming in Pakistan and the A […]

RUGBY: Jon Swift THE thing you have to admire most about South African coach Kitch Christie is that in his own quietly determined way he gets what he wants. Evidence enough of this is Ray Mordt’s inclusion as his deputy — no matter what title the former union test great and rugby league star carries […]

Media & Marketing Clive Simpkins A DEBATE is on about whether Occidental, Eurocentric, dominantly Caucasian lifestyle and attitudinal trends have marketing relevance in Africa. The emerging answer would appear to be “sometimes” or “partially” but largely “not much”, other than at the top end of the socio-economic scale. In this country this is a miniscule […]

The political parties will gain R1,5m a month from a new proposal to pass on state subsidies. Chris Louw reports A SCHEME to give political parties large state subsidies is being slipped quietly into place in the guise of a “constituent’s allowance”. The plan, approved by the Speaker of Parliament and put to the Cabinet […]

Sibusiso Nxumalo THE much-anticipated performance of London-based dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson with The African Axemen in Johannesburg has been called off. While a poetry reading session and workshop are scheduled to go ahead as part of the Arts Alive festival, the Jamaican-born Johnson has cancelled the one-off concert on the grounds that he only […]

ROCK: Elizabeth Williams WITH the hippie era now the focus of one-generation-on nostalgia, it was to be expected that someone would tackle Janis Joplin. Like contempories Jim Morrison and Cas Elliot, she epitomised the late Sixties — the Summer of Love, flower power and drugs — and their deaths marked the end of the era. […]

Native tongue Bafana Khumalo IF ever there was a darkie with a serious identity problem, it’s got to be yours truly. For all my life I thought that I was black and I acted black. I always insisted on being called black, something which some of my liberal acquaintances were not comfortable with. You see, […]

Pat Sidley THE new unity within the black churches of the Dutch Reformed family is being beset with bitter claims by black congregants for the land their churches have stood on for decades. The issue of land in the church rose after the Dutch Reformed Mission church (coloured) and Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (black) […]

Myra Alperson reports on the formation of a new grant- making group A NEW acronym has recently entered the local business vocabulary: Saga, the Southern Africa Grantmakers Association. If you think this doesn’t quite sound like a business activity, it’s in part because Saga represents what many in corporate South Africa still won’t admit is […]

Critical Consumer Pat Sidley “AN equal opportunity killer needs equal opportunity management,” says consultant cardiologist Graham Jackson in an editorial in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). He was not talking about South Africa’s employment problems but about the fact that women get less — and inferior — treatment for heart disease. In a particularly damning […]

An exhibition running in Johannesburg rediscovers six `lost’ South African photographers, writes Hazel Friedman `WITHIN the black zone, every square inch is occupied … It’s like being buried in people. Their shoulders, hips, bellies and buttocks press against yours. You cannot shift your weight or raise an arm or turn around without displacing the various […]

The listing of publishing group Naspers forespells the growth of a major publishing group, writes Jacques Magliolo KEEN interest shown by banks and major insurance companies in the shares of newspaper and magazine publisher Nasionale Pers Limited during its listing this week came as a complete surprise to numerous industrial analysts. It signalled to the […]

Eric Naki Karl Zimbiri, an Azanian People’s Liberation Army fighter often cited as responsible for terror attacks in news reports, claims he is being defamed. Or, at least, someone claiming to be him claims this is the case. Apparently there’s an imposter out there making the real Zimbiri out to be a bad guy. The […]