Jacques Magliolo looks at the profile of a typical insider trader Meet Henry — well educated, well dressed and well-off. A highly respected member of the stockbroking fraternity and a well- known socialite, he knows everyone who is anyone. Henry drives an imported sports car, lives in a mansion in an exclusive Johannesburg suburb — […]
David Pallister SOUTH AFRICA is negotiating with Britain to limit any embarrassment about the disclosure of illegal defence equipment sales to the former apartheid government, according to the planning director of Armscor, the country’s weapons procurement agency. Dr Andre Buys’ revelation was made at a conference for British defence contractors and Whitehall officials at King’s […]
It might not be quite the mink ‘n manure set but show-jumper Enos Mafokate is teaching Soweto’s children how to ride, writes Sibusiso Nxumalo SHOW-JUMPER Enos Mafo-kate dreams of the day Soweto has its own riding centre where he and the township’s aspiring riders can practice a sport that has hitherto been the exclusive preserve […]
The SABC proposal to downgrade Afrikaans is unlikely to fly, reports Drew Forrest ENGLISH language chauvinists beware — if the number of English-speakers in South Africa is the yardstick, it is the language of Shakespeare, not Hendrik Verwoerd, that should be downgraded in our public life. Official figures indicate that only eight percent of South […]
Combining movement with mime, music, narrative and design, the First Physical Theatre Company is forging a new theatrical language that decribes the complexities of interaction. Alex Dodd reports A YOUNG boy sits on top of a huge metal cage washing his hands in milk. Below, muzzled dancers compound his haunting ritual with their reeling and […]
Farouk Chothia THE University of Durban-Westville awarded degrees to 16 students at a graduation ceremony earlier this year — despite the fact that the students had not completed their courses. In a statement distributed on the campus last week, deputy vice-chancellor Professor John Butler-Adam said initial investigations had found that 11 students had been awarded […]
Justin Pearce “BUST of Hendrik Verwoerd. Price neg.” The advertisement in the classified section of a Cape Town newspaper was followed by a Bellville phone number. Who, in these days of post-electoral ubuntu, would be dealing in icons of a type which have been banished even from parliament? The Afrikaans-speaking woman who answered the phone […]
The SABC’s floundering attempts to transform itself from a propaganda machine to a public broadcaster reflects the problems facing parastatals and the civil service, writes Mark Gevisser ‘WE are accountable to you and you alone.” With these stirring sentiments, CCV concluded its public statement to the people of South Africa, issued on Sunday over the […]
GOOD sense has won out at CCV: we’ll be able to watch The Line in its entirety this weekend, despite Inkatha objections. But the battle over this mini-series — coupled with the furore over the status of Afrikaans on television — raises troubling questions for the SABC. How does South Africa’s public broadcaster balance the […]
TELEVISION Sophie Perryer WHEN the makers of The Line chose a title for their series, they must have suspected someone would accuse them of having crossed it. After all, when politics is involved you can’t please everyone. But while The Line’s sympathies are unmistakably with the ANC, the people the series is going to please […]
A blue train is slowly chugging around South Africa but Phelophepa is no ordinary train, reports Mapula Sibanda. It brings primary health-care to thousands of rural people AFTER the spectacles were placed on her face, the old woman blinked, then beamed with joy. Earlier she could not even see the letters on the board used […]
THE Judicial Services Commission is slowly dragging our stuffy Bench into the modern era, announcing that public hearings will be held to assess nominees for some of the positions on the new Constitutional Court. This is a significant step towards breaking down the antediluvian notion that judges are somehow above public scrutiny, criticism and accountability […]
Philippa Garson THE plight of prisoners with HIV will be brought to the fore when an application is lodged by the Aids Law Project on their behalf. The application, to be heard in the Rand Supreme Court soon, will attempt to prevent these prisoners from being abused and stripped of their rights. It will also […]
GOLF: Jon Swift THERE is something very refreshing in this harsh and materialistic world about the way Ernie Els approaches the business of professional golf. Evidences of this is his wavering about taking up the 10-year exemption his historic win in the US Open earned him earlier this year. In this apparent indecision, Els has […]
Mac Maharaj has released secret NIS files to challenge those destroying information. But the files are surprisingly inaccurate, reports Anton Harber TRANSPORT Minister Mac Maharaj has released three volumes of stolen National Intelligence secret files as a challenge to those who, he says, are destroying security information to hinder the work of the Truth Commission. […]
RUGBY: Jon Swift WITH the emphasis so firmly on the trials and tribulations of the South African team in New Zealand, there is cause for a pause and a thought on the future of the Lion Cup which reaches semi-final stage this weekend. The national side will continue to play tests both home and away […]
Reg Rumney reports on a small business initiative that works AN innovative method of distributing products in the townships is paying off for the mini-entrepreneurs it is designed to help. It is the brainchild of Sam Alexander, ex of Liberty Life, who set up the Strive Foundation some years ago to train such entrepreneurs and […]
Pompous officials and dirt in Mike Atherton’s pocket couldn’t ruin South Africa’s triumphant return to Lord’s CRICKET: Luke Alfred ALLEGED ball-tampering by the England captain Mike Atherton late last Saturday afternoon briefly threatened to overshadow South Africa’s first Test match at Lord’s for 29 years. Several other incidents, such as the old South African flag […]
As MPs get ready to reconvene parliament next week, Ian Clayton analyses the tensions in the Government of National Unity THE fragile political unity in the Government of National Unity — with the ANC, the National Party and the Inkatha Freedom Party as unlikely bedfellows — is coming under strain as MPs and party members […]
NATIVE TONGUE Bafana Khumalo I AM walking down the street, hand in hand with my dearly beloved, gingerly stepping over the brownish water from the burst sewerage pipe. The water is coursing down in-between the matchbox houses to rest in little potholes, whereupon it collects into pungent dams in the middle of the street. It’s […]
Deputy Minister Winnie Mandela is again at the centre of a row — this time with her superior, writes Ivor Powell A RIFT is growing between Minister of Arts, Science, Culture and Technology Dr Ben Ngubane and his deputy, Winnie Mandela. Mandela failed to arrive this Tuesday at a Pretoria meeting of a specially appointed […]
Outrageous acts on the field and selection blunders off it have blighted the South African tour of New Zealand RUGBY: Barney Spender IT has hardly been the best of weeks for the South African touring team. In the space of just five days they have lost a test series to the All Blacks, seen a […]
Simon Segal reports on booming fruit export markets SOUTH Africa’s citrus exports are now expected by Outspan, the industry’s international marketing arm, to be a record 34 million 15kg cartons. This should earn R1,4-billion and is three million cartons higher than last season at a value of R1,2-billion, and two million more than the 1992 […]
Privatisation of large parastatals is not yet on the cards, says Public Enterprise Minister Stella Sigcau, but it hasn’t been ruled out. Duma Gqubule spoke to her about this vital issue NOWADAYS, hardly a week passes by without a captain of industry or economist making a statement encouraging the government to start privatising state-owned enterprises […]
White opposition politics has been discredited and the main hope for black opposition, the Pan Africanist Congress, is in tatters. A new black opposition party is needed, argues Vuyo Mvoko OUR battle has not ended with the hoisting of the colourful new flag and the singing of Nkosi Sikelel’i Afrika. And it would be reckless […]
CRITICAL CONSUMER Pat Sidley HOLLAND is a country which is seen, not least by its own residents, as being inhabited by rational people who discuss issues endlessly in forums before making decisions. It is this peculiar aspect of Dutch society which has been targeted by the tobacco industry in its international defence of unprecedented criticism. […]
Justin Pearce LOUIS ARMSTRONG, Talking Heads and the Leningrad Cowboys are among the artists who will appear on independent cinema screens when the Primal Screen Music Film Festival plays in Cape Town and Johannesburg next month. Organised by Cas Rasch of Savage Eye Filmworks, Primal Screen brings together a collection of films and videos from […]
SOCCER: Ray Nxumalo A WHISTLEMAN who has lost the respect of players and officials is not worthy of officiating at a game whose result may endanger lives of spectators, the players themselves and further tarnish the image of a game so bedevilled by scandals. The image of soccer is soiled in the eyes of spectators; […]
If Winnie Mandela had made it to Parys at the weekend, she would have found forgiveness, reports Sibusiso Nxumalo SLAIN child activist Stompie Seipei’s unmarked grave in the Parys township of Tumahole had been specially cleaned for the occasion. A buffet luncheon had been laid on at a local hotel; the community hall was filled […]
South African operatives are allegedly still assisting Unita rebels in Angola, reports Stefaans Brummer CLAIMS are being investigated by policethat renegade Military Intelligence operatives are still supplying Angola’s rebel Unita forces, and waging an undercover campaign against a Pretoria company backing Angolan government forces, . SAPS spokesman Major Burger van Rooyen said this week: “We […]
MOVEABLE FEAST Marino Corazza I WAS not blessed with a sweet tooth. While others drool over birthday cakes, going gaga about upping their sugar levels, I’m thinking about moist biltong, won-ton and oysters. A fat slab of any kind of cake just leaves me cold — even more so when the munchers say: “Oooh, I […]
Peter Hain, one of the leaders of the South African sporting boycott, was at Lord’s to see last week’s historic Test. He spoke to Paul Martin IT WAS a demo’s dream, a moment of final victory. Peter Hain was chatting to Peter Pollock, whom he had kept out of England in 1970 by threats to […]