YOUR comment on PWV Minister for Safety and Security Jessie Duarte’s opening remarks at the gay and lesbian film festival (July 1 to 7) set me thinking. If “cruising” is to be written into our constitution as an unalienable right, may I suggest that we adapt the constitution of the United States thus: “… life, […]
Cathrin Hennicke and Claus St,cker WESTERN Transvaal tobacco farmer Daan van der Merwe doesn’t smile much. The yellow, sweetish-smelling leaves on which his livelihood depends are shrivelled, with brown, decaying edges _ the effect of the drought which has gripped the region for the past two years. This year, the tobacco industry will pay him […]
Moveable Feast Guy Willoughby SITUATED as the hadedah flies between the chaste Presidensie and the showy American Embassy in Pretoria, the Gerard Moerdyk restaurant is a favourite meeting-place for governmental and diplomatic movers and shakers. Since its opening two years ago, the GM has hosted all manner of mandarins and diplomatic bigwigs; once a favourite […]
Feisty feminist film-maker Barbara Hammer introduced Fabius Burger to new ways of seeing ONE heard that director Barbara Hammer, here for the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, is “very feisty” _ read “intimidating”. In Vampires and Violets: Lesbians in the Cinema, Andrea Weiss describes Hammer’s work as “transgressive” and Hammer as a “cultural feminist” who […]
Sibusiso Nxumalo When a small group of Zaireans marched through central Johannesburg this week _ protesting against the pending visit of their country’s leader, President Mobutu Sese Seko _ they showed they had adopted not just South Africa as a refuge but also its culture of protest. Shouts of “amandla ngawethu” from the Zaireans greeted […]
Fanie de Villiers speaks his mind on the choice of ball on the cricket tour of England _ and the UK press CRICKET: Luke Alfred IT’s a wet Monday morning in Southampton and Fanie de Villiers and I are sitting face to face in the back of the Proteas’ tour bus, sipping orange juice from […]
Dance theatre is a popular innovator amid the anguish and protest that dominate the festival, writes Mark Gevisser THE photograph shows a man and a woman jiving in a shebeen; mugging, minstrel-like, at the camera. It could be a publicity pic from any one of a number of productions at Grahamstown this year _ Barney […]
Jacques Magliolo INSTITUTIONAL portfolio managers across South Africa are unprepared, confused and in for a rude awakening if they do not change their portfolios to reflect rapidly changing political and market trends. Says one head of research: “I’m concerned that many portfolio managers do not realise that this is a new game, with new and […]
FROM this distant democracy, I, South African by birth, acclaim the exhilarating events that have regenerated South Africa and electrified the world. I recall with enormous sadness those who fell, or were thrown, from the windows of Marshall Square and elsewhere, down staircases and on to concrete floors, in stultification of their brave bids to […]
Gilts & greed: A Boere mafia accused and dealer denials of insider trickery Jaques Magliolo Stockbroker James is a broken man. His hands shake, he chain smokes and his memory falters repeatedly. There is no doubt that he is also scared and financially bankrupt. He is now, indeed, a far cry from the stockbroker I […]
IN his review of the production, Digby Ricci claims that Godspell sins against good taste (June 10 to 16). Recently I had the enormous pleasure of going to see the production. Godspell is an example of dramatic art in one of its truest forms. By making creative use of their bodies, the actors need to […]
There is no sign that Derek Keys was anything but genuine in his reasons for resigning. Chris Louw, Anton Harber and Jacques Magliolo report CABINET sources confirm that Finance Minister Derek Keys’ sudden resignation is genuinely for “personal reasons”. Keys had won the respect of the most left-wing of his cabinet critics and there was […]
A trigger-happy ANC guard with a record of ill-discipline started the Shell House shooting in March, reports Paul Stober THE Shell House shooting _ in which 11 Inkatha Freedom Party supporters died _ was the result of a panic by ANC guards who had been warned by state security officials to expect an attack on […]
We have been requested to flag the headlines of stories so those of you who read the paper in a word processor can do some basic formatting. From this week all headlines are preceded with the @ character. You can thus run a macro that will pick out the headlines. Also, from next week I […]
TENNIS: Paul Martin LAST Sunday, exactly 38 years after the Wimbledon Centre Court had first acclaimed the 21-year-old Golden Boy as their champion, the great Lew Hoad suffered a heart attack in Spain. He died hours later. In that year, 1956, he had so nearly clinched the Grand Slam _ wins successively at the Australian, […]
Providing phones for new schools will be a high priority for Telkom. In line with the RDP, the aim is to provide phones to all existing schools within two years, says Telkom managing director Danie du Toit. Telkom will install phones in 16 000 schools and 1 500 clinics in the next five years. Schools […]
Gabriel Seeber SOUTH African history has for decades been viewed through a peephole, the only visible aspect being the Great Trek. The history workshop and cultural day at Wits University next weekend will open the door on South African history, and present its working face in a feast of popular culture. With the theme Democracy: […]
Eleven different warnings have been listed in the Government Gazette. They are: Danger: Smoking can kill you Danger: Smoking causes cancer Danger: Smoking causes heart diseases Smoking damages your lungs Pregnant? Breast-feeding? Smoking can harm your baby Stop smoking to stay fit and healthy Save money: Stop smoking Warning: Don’t smoke near children Tobacco is […]
Should people be allowed to die if they have been declared brain-dead? Sean Badal looks at the some of the issues behind living wills REMEMBER Nancy Cruzan, voted one of the “25 Most Intriguing People of 1990”? An American woman who was irreversibly brain-damaged in a car accident, she survived eight years in a coma […]
Stephen Laufer SOUTH Africa took another large step towards becoming the armourer of the Persian Gulf this week when Denel announced a $120-million artillery sale to Oman. The contract is for the G-6 artillery system with ammunition and training for Omani crews, and is the first since the lifting of the UN embargo on arms […]
Ray Nxumalo AN INSCRIPTION on one of the faded shipping containers standing on Kliptown’s historic Freedom Charter Square _ where the Freedom Charter was adopted in 1955 _ declares war on hunger, poverty, disease and ignorance. The war has taken a small step towards being won … thanks to an initiative by the National Consumer […]
A putsch by charismatic Christians has led to bitter conflict in the African Christian Democratic Party, reports Stefaans Brummer A STRUGGLE for the soul of the African Christian Democratic Party culminated this week in two founder members breaking ranks and threats of further defections. The party did surprisingly well in the April election, returning two […]
THOKOZA Self Defence Units (SDUs) have launched a project to bring education, counselling services and recreation to the war-ravaged lives of youths in the area. They recently set up the Thokoza Youth Development Council and aim to make the organisation open to all youths once it gets off the ground. The council’s goal is to […]
Bafana Khumalo IT used to be that the only black people who sang choral music were those who considered themselves close to the ideal preached by their missionary saviours, the midwives of this genre of music: that is, “civilised” _ read “Westernised”. Archival photographs show these newly saved souls, mostly school teachers, dressed in tightly […]
GOLF: Jon Swift THE British Open has always been a leveller in the hard world of professional golf. And at Turnberry’s Ailsa Course _ without question the most spectacular of the Open venues _ all bets are off. The mystique of the links reclaimed from an wartime airfield by the redoubtable Mackenzie Ross, is such […]
BALLET: Stanley Peskin IN several ballet and film versions, the story of Spartacus and the slave rebellion has been mythologised, canonised, museumised, reorganised and overworked. This dehydrating process is equally apparent in Youri Vamos’ Spartacus (1989), presented by the Basler Ballet at the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg. The ballet shows the intersecting destinies of the […]
DEREK KEYS’ untimely departure from the finance ministry is unfortunate. But poor handling made it more of a disaster than it should have been. Therein lies an important lesson for government advisers. Journalists dealing with the new government have discovered that official spokesman often do not know what is going on in their departments and […]
Chris Louw THE ANC and the National Party showed this week they were prepared to make up the rules of a government of national unity as they go along. First, legislation was bulldozed through parliament before being referred back to the relevant standing committee. Then it was decided to amend the constitution to allow for […]
A bright future is predicted for All Black wing Jonah Lomu _ and the South Africans will have a tough time stopping him RUGBY: Barney Spender `THEY’VE picked who? Joe. Joe who? Nolomu? Never heard of him. What? Oh, sorry, Joan. (Cough, splutter) Joan? Joan Olomu? You mean the All Blacks have picked a female […]
Court documents have for the first time put a figure on Armscor’s illicit deals with Saddam Hussein _ an amount valued at more than 18 times this year’s total official arms exports. Stephen Laufer reports DETAILS of South Africa’s illicit arms dealings with Saddam Hussein are emerging for the first time in a Pretoria court […]
Guy Willoughby joined a motley crowd of punters to watch the Durban July _ in a Pretoria bar-cum-tote IT’S Durban July day, folks, and I’m down at the Assembly Hotel in Sunnyside _ Mecca of Pretoria’s blue-collar punters. Look, it’s the biggest event in the local racing calender, and I couldn’t get to Durban, okay? […]
Thokoza was in flames again this week and most reports blamed `disloyal’ self-defence units which had turned against the ANC. Philippa Garson returns with a very different version of events EVERY night as Thokoza SDU members patrol the cold winter streets, they are reminded that _ despite a change of government _ not much has […]