Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Forget about Ernie Els, Simon Hobday and the rugby Springboks. South Africa’s real international superstar is a man who is never happier than when looking at old bones. Wits University’s Professor Philip V Tobias has confirmed his ranking in international circles by being elected, unanimously, president of the International Association of Human Biologists. Previous presidents […]

Louise Flanagan THE controversial Steyn report on Military Intelligence’s Directorate of Covert Collection has finally landed on President Nelson Mandela’s desk. The report is the result of an inquiry by General Pierre Steyn, now retired from the military, carried out after the November 1992 Goldstone Commission raid on DCC headquarters. After the raid, MI members […]

Weekly Mail Reporter MARKETS which reeled on Wednesday in reaction to Derek Keys’ resignation recovered slightly as the news was digested. The finrand recovered from a day’s low of R4,97 to the dollar to close at R4,8400, compared to the previous day’s close of R4,9250. The commercial rand on Wednesday slipped to as low as […]

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 […]

The present public holidays system is messy and discriminatory. Ravi Naidoo discusses workable options A HASTY look at the calendar could suggest that South Africa was miraculously transformed into a workers’ paradise during the past months. Public holidays, it seems, were being handed out liberally. All the more surprising, therefore, that the new government chose […]

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 […]

Farouk Chothia `WATCH out! My hit squads will come and get you!” an affable Harry Gwala joked with an aide this week. The Natal Midlands firebrand was unconcerned about his six-month suspension by the South African Communist Party but his manner belied the maelstrom in SACP and ANC ranks following allegations that he was running […]

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 […]

Native tongue Bafana Khumalo THERE is another Dorkay House launch on the cards. This place has to hold the record for the highest number of attempts at resurrection and the highest number of failures at it. This is the place where the best black creative talent was nurtured and sometimes came to fruition. Sometimes, like […]

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 […]

Vuyo Mvoko HOISTING _ the ostensibly mundane business of transporting mineworkers to the surface in cages _ is a growing flashpoint in South Africa’s mining industry. At least four major strikes this year are linked to conflicts arising from hoisting practices. The most recent, by white miners, erupted two weeks ago at Goldfields’ Kloof mine […]

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 […]

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? […]

Vuyo Mvoko THE Azanian People’s Organisation faces sharp internal conflict with the imminent return from exile of its sister organisation, the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania. A well-placed source has revealed that fears of a leadership wrangle “similar to that of the United Democratic Front after the return of the ANC” are mounting. The BCMA’s […]

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 […]

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 […]

You know how irritating it is when you’re trying to explain something complicated and your victim’s attention … hey! I’m talking to you! … begins straying. Well, there’s bad news. According to a study published in Nature, the International Weekly Journal of Science, attention span is even more fragile than previously thought. John Duncan and […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

IN the matter of prisons and prisoners, a sense of paralysis appears to have gripped the newcomers to government. All sorts of people were released as “political prisoners” while common law prisoners are given six month sentence reductions. We cannot accept this hypocrisy and injustice. The public, the prisoners and their families are tiring of […]

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, […]

The multiple award-winning <em>Weekly Mail </em> Television team returns to TV1 screens.

Election manifesto: Some fine ideas — and some fine rhetoric.

Nelson Mandela’s security has been upgraded with the inclusion of an armour-plated Mercedes Benz in the ANC’s fleet.

Real life snipptes from the small-town press.

Nelson Mandela is expected to call for an end to sanctions when he addressed the UN general assembly later today.