THE National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) has notified the government it wants to sue for damages suffered in sinister security police operations to defraud it, and possibly other trade unions, of large amounts of money during the apartheid years. Preliminary details of the scam first surfaced during an investigation into the 1991 murder of Janine […]
SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL, HIGHWAY 61 Primal Screen Festival, 7Arts, Johannesburg IN a story that sounds apocryphal but isn’t, Sympathy for the Devil director Jean Luc Godard whacked his producer Iain Qaurrier on the nose, on the stage of the National Film Theatre in November 1968 on the occasion of the film’s London Film Festival […]
Moveable Feast Marino Corazza SO what have the ducks and geese been seeing lately? All those crested white creatures, black East India beauties, pintail and teal cuties, orange beaked, web-footed relatives of Donald and Daffy that inhabit Zoo Lake — what do they see from their safe amphibious vantage point? On weekends they see the […]
Stefaans Brummer PETER SCHOEMAN (28) was chatting to a friend in his car near Pretoria’s Burgerspark, frequented by gay men, when he says a police flying squad car pulled up and an officer unleashed a string of obscenities against “you moffies”. Schoeman (not his real name) says this and similar incidents have eroded his respect […]
Mondli waka Makhanya RACIAL tension and frustration at the slow pace of change in the police service led to the revolt by policemen in Cape Town townships. Coloured and African policemen claim they are exposed to great danger by their white superiors through understaffing at their police stations while those in white areas are overstaffed. […]
Darren Gough is an England fast bowler looking for a wicket with every ball CRICKET: David Hopps DARREN GOUGH’s emotive walk out to bat during the Headingley test provoked the most fervent outbreak of Yorkshire pride since Geoffrey Boycott anointed his own flock with his 100th first-class century 17 years ago. In fact, the acclaim […]
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 […]
Chris Louw TENSION is running high at the ANC’s Shell House headquarters as the final date for the organisation’s internal restructuring approaches. Hundreds of ANC employees expecting to lose their jobs are insisting on being re-employed in the civil service. An internal memorandum detailing their fears and frustrations was this week leaked to the Mail […]
AND BLACK LITERATURE Bafana Khumalo IF you thought the deregulated broadcasting dial was going to be inundated with mindless pop and inane talk stations, despair not — help is at hand. Hidden among hopeful commercial broadcasters are prospective radio stations aimed at niche markets. Black-owned Skotaville Publishers is applying to establish a national community radio […]
The effects of political change have not yet filtered through to the exchange rate, writes Simon Segal DESPITE its recent recovery, the persistent erosion of the value of the rand is a worrying testimonial to the new government. After all, many predicted, once South Africa’s first non-racial election was over the pressure on our currency […]
Andrew Trench A TRANSKEI woman, lashed as a child for showing lesbian tendencies, has started Transkei’s first gay rights organisation after years of struggle. But Vera Vimbela said she was having difficulties in getting her organisation, Lesbians and Gays in Transkei (Legit), off the ground. The Umtata-based organisation faced prejudice and “rural thinking” and had […]
Critical Consumer Pat Sidley SOUTH African consumers may soon have the advantage of the United Kingdom’s Consumers’ Association operating here. The CA recently sent representatives to South Africa to have look at the situation and is debating setting up an office here, which would also circulate a publication similar to its respected Which? magazine in […]
Research reveals that gold miners are exposed to dangerous levels of radioactive gases, reports Eddie Koch WORKERS in South Africa’s gold mines now have to deal with a new set of underground demons: radon and her “daughters”. New research shows more than 10 000 miners are exposed to doses of subterranean radioactive gases that exceed […]
Cato Manor squatters face eviction after an IFP minister accused Sanco of orchestrating land grabs. But shack lords may be behind the problem, reports Farouk Chothia THE kwaZulu/Natal Minister of Housing and Local Government, Peter Miller, has accused the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) of “orchestrating” the occupation by squatters of land earmarked for […]
THE transition that propelled Safoora Sadek from activist to a member of the PWV legislature was so quick that she is still getting used to her title of “honourable member”. The former national director of the Human Rights Commission is also battling to come to grips with the culture of politics in the provincial legislature. […]
Peter and Gary Kirsten have already made their mark in the current test series … but they’re amazed they’re even there CRICKET: Paul Martin ON the Knysna lagoon a year-or-so ago, a rubber dinghy floated idly along. “We had a few Castles in the boat, and we didn’t even notice the fishes on the hook,” […]
Paul Stober MINISTER of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi has announced he will set up a special team to investigate allegations of hit-squads in the kwaZulu Police — but one of the first people he will consult is somebody who has himself been accused of involvement: kwaZulu/Natal’s minister of safety and security, Celani Mtetwa. Mtetwa […]
Native tongue Bafana Khumalo STOP the world, I want to get off! There are too many changes! My system can’t cope. The appointment pages of the business sections of newspapers used to be packed with proud, beaming white males whose bosses had just summoned them to their offices and said: “Jack, you’ve paid your dues […]
Gone are the rough, raw emotions. But don’t blame Koos Kombuis; it’s the production that’s the problem, writes Fred de Vries IT’S confession time. I love the music of Koos Kombuis. But his first proper album since 1989s Niemandsland is a bitter disappointment. Or perhaps one should say: it could have been so much better […]
The nine ‘very frustrated’ provincial premiers meet central government ministers today in a fresh bid to sort out their lack of powers. Chris Louw reports ALMOST four months after assuming office, the country’s nine premiers still lack the powers they need to govern their provinces effectively. The nine “very frustrated” leaders will meet Constitutional Development […]
Pact has boycotted the first major initiative by PWV Arts and Culture Minister Peter Skosana to formulate arts funding policy, writes Mark Gevisser ‘IT was a public act of suicide,” said Johannesburg city councillor Cecil Bass of the last-minute decision, by the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal, to boycott a conference on public funding […]
Professor Carel Boshoff wants to turn the north-west Cape into South Africa’s Silicon Valley, reports Jan Taljaard THE FIRST concrete plans for an Afrikaner homeland were laid before the Volkstaat Council this week, And the most novel of these is a proposal from Professor Carel Boshoff and his Afrikaner Freedom Foundation (Avstig) to turn the […]
Despite its expensive, chequered past, the newly opened Museum Africa successfully exposes South African history from a rarely seen angle.
Unless more money is forthcoming from government, the National Peace Secretariat is unlikely to survive, writes Stefaans Brummer THE National Peace Secretariat and its regional and local peace committees, widely credited with dampening political violence countrywide, are fighting for their survival with a budgetary shortfall of at least R35-million. The financial woes of the peace […]