David Beresford Another Country This space has had to be used again this week to accommodate the heated debate over the merits, or otherwise of Another Country, the column that usually fills it. Regretfully, after receiving a letter from David Beresford’s representatives, we are compelled to regard the subject as having now been fully ventilated […]
This time we ask this question in the knowledge that it is on the lips of many South Africans, many of them dedicated members of the ANC, SACP and the trade unions … Whether in his dealings with the Aids crisis surely the greatest threat ever to the country his timidity over Zimbabwe, or his […]
Barry Streek Many prominent Cape Town companies still own dismal hostels in the city’s townships and are hindering the redevelopment plans of the city council. Thousands of people are cramped into the decrepit and unhygienic buildings described as “appalling” by a development organisation helping to upgrade them. In the apartheid era the government actively encouraged […]
Alex Sudheim Bat Hall, Bat Centre, Durban harbour. St Raphael’s Special School, a primary school for the physically disabled, presents nine stage performances of the smash hit musical Sarafina! The public is invited to attend the openingnight performance at 8pm on Friday May 4, whereafter dedicated schools’ performances will take place from May 7 to […]
Directors face the ultimate challenge as corporate raider Active Value moves in for the kill Alec Hogg Shareholders of Primedia are being asked to vote on five key proposals at a special general meeting called for early May. This is the climax to a year-long war of attrition and could result in wholesale changes of […]
Yvette Gresl On June 16 1976 groups of Soweto schoolchildren took to the streets to protest against Bantu education and Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. Police, sent to the township to suppress the uprising, opened fire. The shooting of protestor Hector Petersen was poignantly captured in one of South Africa’s most publicised press photographs, […]
Marianne Merten In December 1986 Benjamin Olifant was on his way to visit his mother when Klerksdorp police arrested him for “causing unrest”. He was shot dead in a police cell. Elsie Olifant received interim reparations of R2000. More than 30 months after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) recommended various forms of reparations for […]
Michelle Matthews Baxter Theatre Centre. From Wednesday May 2, see Evita Bezuidenhout’s new show, Symbols of Sex and Stage, in which she takes on unsafe sex and careless politics. Book at Computicket (www.computicket.com). Cape Comedy Collective. These laughmongers have added a new gig to their circuit. On Mondays three comedians will perform at 1st Base […]
These vehicles are not more than four years old, but some have rusted so badly that the doors have fallen off Paul Kirk Hundreds of armoured vehicles bought from a major British arms supplier are being scrapped by the South African Police Service. The vehicles, called Scouts, are being taken out of service as they […]
After the drama of the Test series, the Proteas go on a whistle-stop one-day tour of the islands Peter Robinson With the highbrow stuff out of the way now, South Africa and the West Indies go downmarket for the next two-and-a-half weeks in a seven-match one-day international series that starts in Jamaica on Saturday before […]
Alec Hogg Boardroom talk AME is set for better days. The JSE-listed penny stock owns 15% of the new undisputed World Heavyweight Boxing Champion and the right to promote his first title defence. A $250 000 punt on American heavyweight boxer Hasim Rahman turned to gold early on Sunday for African Media Entertainment (AME). In […]
Delegates rejected the idea of a Khoisan people at a conference in Windhoek John Grobler San teachers and linguists from Namibia, Botswana and South Africa have agreed to produce a standard orthography for their language groups. At a meeting in Windhoek last week they devised a plan for the new system that will divide San […]
Cyril A Hromnk Crossfire Commenting on the closure of the Kung (Bushman) diorama in the South African Museum (“Unmaking the San”, April 6 to 12), Pippa Skotnes writes: “The challenge is not to get rid of the diorama, but to alter it … to find ways to displace and replace the stereotype it perpetuates.” She […]
Highlights from the Department of Finance briefing presented to Cabinet ministers in August 1999: l “The South African government is fully exposed to the depreciation of the rand against foreign currencies, which account for about 75% of the total purchase amount. There is no effective means of hedging the currency risk inherent in the procurements.” […]
John Stremlau a second look Twenty years after the first nuclear explosion Albert Einstein issued his famous lament about politics falling behind physics. “The unleashed power of the atom,” he warned, “has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophes.” Africa’s contributions to the nuclear age were poignant but […]
Bruce Whitfield looks at some of the first quarter’s biggest disappointments The first quarter of this year saw a range of financial, industrial and technology shares take a pounding on the JSE Securities Exchange. There was not a single resources stock among the bottom feeders this time. The worst-performing share in the first quarter was […]
Leadership battles are emerging in the ruling party. Jaspreet Kindra reports Former African National Congress Youth League leader James Nkambule, who is in the witness protection programme, told the Mail & Guardian this week that former Mpumalanga premier Matthews Phosa was aspiring to stand for the position of the party president next year. Nkambule, who […]
Mail & Guardian reporters The Cabinet signed off South Africa’s R50-billion arms deal despite being warned of serious repercussions the buying splurge could have on the country’s economy. In August 1999, the Department of Finance stopped just short of advising the Cabinet not to proceed with the package on the scale proposed because of the […]
Shaun de Waal CD OFTHEWEEK Clint Mansell’s score for the film Requiem for a Dream (Nonesuch) contributed in no small measure to the devastating impact of that nerveshredding tale of addiction. It works very well, even separated from the movie, employing a mode somewhere between Philip Glass and Bernard Hermann, with some very original twists. […]
Thebe Mabanga LIVINGSTONE’S TRIBE: A JOURNEY FROM ZANZIBAR TO THE CAPE by Stephen Taylor (Flamingo) One of the many striking observations that Stephen Taylor makes in this book is about Africabased correspondents for the predominantly Western media. “As a tribe,” he says, “journalists in Africa dwell amidst the sweetest landscapes, live off the finest pasture […]
Melvyn Minnaar Drive over the famously precipitous Swartberg Pass and, instead of carrying on to the beautiful village of Prince Albert, take the R328 north,?back towards Klaarstroom. Old people call this Die Gang (The Passage), a?beautiful, fertile valley along the steep mountains. This is where some of the finest wine grapes may come from in […]
What would the South African tourist industry be selling today if it didn’t have the relics of apartheid to offer? Matthew Krouse Marketing brutality is good for tourism. The revenue a country can take from promoting understanding of its darkest hours can certainly rival what it can cream off its sex industry and its natural […]
Peter van der Merwe John Platter South African Wine Guide 2001 edited by Phillip van Zyl (Andrew McDowall) Wines and Vineyards of South Africa by Wendy Toerien (Struik) The Sunday Telegraph Good Wine Guide 2001 by Robert Joseph (Dorling Kindersley) Wine snobbery is a puzzling phenomenon, to say the least. Let’s face it, few can […]
A 29-year-old woman who allegedly shot her abusive husband, once a member of the SA Defence Force’s notorious Koevoet counter insurgency unit, will have to wait until June to find out whether a Namibian court believes she is guilty of murder, the Namibian Press Agency reported on Tuesday. Estelle Elmare Gray, of Henties Bay, is […]
Matthew Krouse review OFTHEWEEK As a prelude to Sweat on Somerset, upon entering the Barney Simon Theatre in Johannesburg one encounters two makebelieve hookers lounging about in the audience, ready to make small talk with the patrons. This is an obvious effort to authenticate the upfront experience of steamers when they first step into any […]
Andrew Muchineripi soccer If ever there was a tournament that is Bafana Bafana’s bte noire, it is the Confederation of Southern African Football Association (Cosafa) Cup. Not once has our national team reached the final of this tournament, let alone win it and the R500 000 or more that goes to the conquering country. As […]
Tracy McVeigh Body Language It could be something in the cocoa or too much titillation on Coronation Street: Britain’s pensioners are shedding their cardigans and getting down to it. But the men and women who began the sexual revolution as twentysomethings in the late 1950s are not only finding new passion and partners in their […]
Johannesburg architects Jeremy Rose and Phill Mashabane recently won the Robben Island architectural competition Yvette Gresl In postapartheid South Africa Robben Island has taken on a dual significance. It is a contradictory symbol of extreme political subjugation and, in the words of Ahmed Kathrada, the “triumph of the human spirit”. Nelson Mandela, as a symbol […]
Nawaal Deane In a desperate attempt to get rid of the worst outbreak of algae in 20 years, Hartebeespoort Dam residents have come up with an innovative solution: a floating bulldozer. In February a few residents ó tired of the stench and the complaints ó formed the Water Action Group in an attempt to clean […]
Mail & Guardian reporter South Africa’s wine industry has taken another step towards transformation and global competitiveness with the conclusion of a 21month review and the adoption of recommendations ranging from affirmative action and quality?control to logistical support.? This process comes in the wake of longstanding accusations that established growers and exporters’ monopolies are favoured […]
Riaan Wolmarans 206, 206 Louis Botha Avenue, Orange Grove. Special K is on the list for Friday April 27, and 206 is closed on Saturday April 28. Tuesdays:The Garage Zero, Kid Fonque and others play drum’n’bass, hiphop, twostep and deep house. Website: www.206live.co.za. Tel: 728 5333. Amazon, Banbury Cross shopping centre, corner of Hans Strijdom […]
Thuli Nhlapo Angry residents of Msawawa informal settlement near Kya Sands this week expressed their disappointment in the justice system and vowed to take the law into their own hands. This follows a shocking incident two weeks ago where Douglasdale police allegedly set a suspected rapist free, claiming he jumped through a window. “The women […]