Joe Cocker, Sting, Vaya Con Dios… Local bands are having a rough ride in their wake, reports Fred de Vries AS foreign stars flood into South Africa, local bands struggle harder to attract small crowds. Last weekend saw Live Jimi Presley doing two gigs at Tandoor’s in Rockey Street, Yeoville. Friends had been praising LJP […]
We can expect a triple B on our investment report card, writes Simon Segal A TEAM preparing South Africa’s country credit rating, vital for the country to be able to raise money abroad less expensively than it has done, is in the country. The team should have a rating within the next few weeks. Most […]
A FILM crew who followed Nelson Mandela to Oslo last year found him, on the morning he was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, making his own bed.
Estelle Randall EIGHTY-FOUR-year-old Andries Radebe is one of almost 3 000 people who were removed from Crimen in the 1970s and resettled in Ezakheni, near Ladysmith. Radebe and 98 other landowners had the added pain of seeing their land lie unused for 11 years, before being sold to a private owner. After efforts to get […]
Teigue Payne reports on the coming to market of dairy company Bonnita DAIRY products company Bonnita, to be listed this month, could have better prospects than its agriculture-related image might suggest. Farming-related companies have poorer ratings than food companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which probably explains why so few are listed. Raw materials make […]
NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Linder Auditorium, Johannesburg THE FIRST concert in this year’s Glaxo winter series was rather disappointing, mainly because so much more was expected of the young South African pianist, Daniel-Ben Pienaar. In Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 (“the Emperor”) Pienaar had hardly any idea of the structure of the work, and showed a […]
Among the midnight neck nibblers and offbeat cult classics will be movie stars and celebrity directors. Fabius Burger reports on the new South African International Film Festival It’s easy to see that the new South African International Film Festival next month is happening post- election. Among famed directors who will be appearing, introducing their films […]
‘I cried because she was there, she suffered and it is something we feel in all of our hearts.’ Mark Gevisser watches white and black children at the Anne Frank exhibition ‘HOW many people lived in this room?” asked a Standard Nine pupil from Sebokeng’s Residentia High School as she entered a reconstruction of Anne […]
Paul Stober and Eddie Koch A GOLD mine on the West Rand has contaminated a nearby wetland with radioactive materials, according to a study carried out by mining consultants. “It is a major environmental problem which has to be dealt with,” said Randgold Geology and Exploration head Mark Bristow, who headed the study. The wetland […]
GREEDY, PAYDIRT, GOLDEN BALLS MONEY is probably the most powerful word in American movies and it’s the theme of three films now on circuit. In the amusing domestic comedy Greedy, Daniel (Michael J Fox) and assorted relatives badger rich old Uncle Joe (Kirk Douglas) for money — they think he’s about to die. The funny, […]
Economic analysts have revised down their growth rate figures for this year, finds Simon Segal NOT ONE of nine economic units canvassed this week believes South Africa can reach a three percent rate of growth in gross domestic product, the main measure of national economic activity, this year. The most optimistic are stockbrokers Frankel Pollak […]
Rob Greig talks to Computicket founder Percy Tucker about the special business he started PERCY Tucker, MD and founder of Computicket, retired this week at 65 amid plaudits from the leisure industry and show business. He was uniquely able to justify the ways of Mammon to the Muses and vice versa: in this lay much […]
With the gold price at current lows, the age-old debate on whether to hold or trade gold shares is resurfacing. Although the trend internationally is for portfolio managers to trade all securities, in South Africa “investors tend to invest in gold shares instead of selling them like any other commodity,” says a gold analyst. “Gold […]
‘HOOR HOOR’ — LOUDLY There is a new honesty in the constitution-writing process, reports Chris Louw IT was the World Trade Centre all over again, though not quite. The urbane Cyril Ramaphosa was in the chair, the wiry Mac Maharaj was there, his hand thoughtfully covering his mouth, and so were the boyish Roelf Meyer […]
Gwen Ansell takes a look at the high notes and uncertainties of this year’s Guinness Johannesburg Jazz Festival THE homecoming of two eminent South African jazz performers is the highlight of this year’s Guinness Johannesburg Jazz Festival, running from September 30 to October 1 at the Market Theatre Precinct. Pianist/saxophonist/composer Bheki Mseleku returns after close […]
Anton Harber talks to Minister without Portfolio Jay Naidoo JAY NAIDOO is the official national kibbitzer. In Yiddish, a kibbitzer is the person who looks over your shoulder when you are playing cards and gives you unwanted advice. Naidoo’s job, as minister without portfolio, is to look over the shoulders of every other minister and […]
It was on one of those Jo’burg nights with nothing to do and nowhere to do it that an artist and two filmmakers created Bob’s Bar. ALEX DODD went along to the launch RESIDENTS of Troyeville and beyond now have good reason to sink a few doubles on the rocks and a new spot in […]
Andrew Trench LATIN is creeping into the East Cape legislature, and if you’re a politician that could mean being called “calamari” or a “baboon”. It all started with NP MP Billy Nel. Rising to speak in a debate on the fishing industry, he referred to his NP colleague Sakkie Louw as a “Loligo Vulgaris Politicus” […]
Overseas investment may not all be good. Many local businesses are ripe for picking by corporate raiders, reports Jacques Magliolo The Proposed takeover of Randgold by Fraser Alexander and consortium is “significant as a precursor to other hostile takeovers”, say corporate financiers, who add that the takeover threatens to destroy complacent lifestyles of directors and […]
FINE ART: Ivor Powell THERE has been a lot of hype, a lot of confusion and even more outrage generated by the three-venue exhibition (it happens simultaneously at the Everard Read Contemporary Gallery, the Market Galleries and the Institute of Contemporary Art) by Johannesburg avant gardists Joachim Schonfeldt and Kendell Geers. At least where it […]
Critical Consumer Pat Sidley WHEN an upmarket Johan-nesburg supermarket pulled all the chickens from its shelves it sparked a salmonella scare in the city. An investigation into the matter revealed that Woolworths’ fridges were empty because various diseases had affected the fowls and the supermarket was waiting until the chickens reached a larger size before […]
A Durban business project has aligned the ANC and Inkatha against the ANC’s traditional allies — union and civic organisations, writes Farouk Chothia THE ANC has found itself on the side of the Inkatha Freedom Party with its traditional allies ranged against it over its support for Durban City Council’s ostentatious building projects worth hundreds […]
NATIONAL Party members who continue to question the worth of a Truth Commission should spend some time with Anne Frank. Or, more precisely, with the troops of high school pupils passing through the “Anne Frank in the World” and “Apartheid and Resistance” exhibitions at Johannesburg’s new MuseumAfrica. A white girl says: “We need to learn […]
The disappearance of the seven single is more than a disappointment for music fans, writes Fred de Vries. Bands find it more difficult to make it and the taste of listeners is growing increasingly conservative DOES anyone still remember the good old single? That seven-inch slab of vinyl, preferably packed in an arty picture sleeve? […]
GOLF: Jon Swift IF YOU are prepared to turn a blind eye to a private jet, a multi-million dollar bank account and the type of celebrity status which precludes a visit to the local steakhouse, not much has changed about Nick Price. The amiable Zimbabwean’s stunning wire-to-wire victory in the US PGA at Southern Hills […]
DREAMTIME, LINK, SCRAMBLE, ODDBALL VARIATIONS FOUR women choreographers have contributed ballets to the second season of Pact Dance Company this year, but only Elisa Monte’s Dreamtime foregrounds a woman as her subject matter. Candice Johnstone’s Link is loosely anthropological, and Mandy Rabin’s Scramble and Susan Abrahams’ Oddball Variations not only have titles of similar bent […]
Chris Louw PROFESSOR Peter Vale, director of the Centre for Southern African Studies at the University of the Western Cape, has applied to become director general of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The post — presently occupied by Rusty Evans — was advertised recently. Vale, who was directly involved in drafting ANC foreign policy before […]
NATIVE TONGUE Bafana Khumalo BROTHERS and sisters of all hues, religious beliefs, sexual proclivity and shape of nose, don’t go to America. The Americans don’t want you. This discovery I made recently at the American consulate in Johannesburg while trying to go about the business of getting a visa to visit the land of the […]
The family of a murdered woman has accused the Witwatersrand attorney-general of delaying the prosecution of the alleged killer, a man suspected of being involved in a trade union scam, reports Stefaans Brummer A FORMER security police captain allegedly at the centre of a “dirty tricks” operation against a trade union, and who is a […]
Allan Donald, South Africa’s most potent weapon to clinch the test series against England, opens up with a bout of self-criticism CRICKET: Paul Martin IN his appearance, delivery and demeanour Allan Donald is closer to the smoothness and sophistication of Jeff Thompson rather than to the anger and aggression of Dennis Lillee. Yet South Africa’s […]
Chris Louw and Gaye Davis MINISTER without Portfolio Jay Naidoo will address non- governmental organisations in Johannesburg today to discuss their role in the government’s reconstruction and development programme. The two-day conference, to be attended by more than 200 NGOs and representatives of civics, unions, youth and women’s organisations from across the country, comes amid […]
Lesley Cowling JUDGE John Didcott may still sit on the Constitutional Court despite being passed over by President Nelson Mandela last week. Mandela will have to choose another six judges from a list of 10 compiled by the Judicial Services Commission — and the commission is almost certain to include Didcott. The JSC called for […]