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/ 19 October 2001

‘In politics solutions are always possible’

After a week of high tension over the future role of controversial mayor Peter Marais in the Democratic Alliance, matters come to a head at the party’s national management committee meeting on Friday. DA deputy leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk spoke to Marianne Merten Marianne Merten (MM): Is there a war of nerves and words between […]

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/ 19 October 2001

A shopping offer too far for IAAF

ATHLETICS Martin Gillingham Let me tell you a true story. There’s this national leader who approaches the president of a global sports body and pleads him to stage his world championships in his country. “But you haven’t got a stadium big enough,” replies the sports boss. “I know,” says the politician, “but if you give […]

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/ 19 October 2001

Capital gains tax deals a low blow

Mail & Guardian reporter The South African Revenue Service (Sars) set the seemingly arbitrary date of October 1 this year as the date that capital gains tax (CGT) came into effect and the base cost of units is determined. But the date turned out to be anything but arbitrary. As fate would have it, just […]

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/ 19 October 2001

A hedge for international investors

Matthew de Wet The recent attacks in the United States have placed stock markets under significant pressure. This has opened up a number of opportunities for investors and capital is flowing from the equity markets into the perceived safe havens of money market deposits and bonds. The fact is, however, that interest rates in the […]

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/ 19 October 2001

A case for mobilising local resources

a second look Faizal Farouk South African NGOs have reached a critical juncture where it has become important for us to engage in local-resource mobilisation. The struggle for democracy in South Africa bred a range of NGOs within civil society that played a prominent role in shaping our Constitution, which has been heralded as one […]

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/ 19 October 2001

Indigenous knowledge systems can benefit everyone

NO blows BARRED Sipho Seepe Had it not been for adverts in the media, the recent International Conference on Indigenous Know-ledge Systems: African Perspectives hosted by the University of Venda would have gone unnoticed. Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) refer to intricate knowledge systems acquired over generations by communities as they interact with the environment. It […]

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/ 19 October 2001

Don’t do away with Doonesbury

Yet again the management peremptorily issues the edict: “This is the final publication of Doonesbury in the Mail & Guardian.” That’s it, no bargaining, no discussion, no explanation, nada. What is it with you guys? Don’t you know that we liberal leftist leftovers who supported you from when you first put this rag on the […]

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/ 19 October 2001

A singular writer

Born in Trinidad, he had a breakdown at Oxford but went on to build a reputation as a world-class novelist. More recently, his personal life has come under scrutiny, his views have drawn accusations of racism and homophobia, and he has found himself at the centre of a literary feud. Maya Jaggi on an outspoken […]

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/ 19 October 2001

A far pavilion where the Taliban are losing

The Afghanistan squad saw no reason to cancel their Pakistan tour Luke Harding in Peshawar In a scruffy cricket ground in the frontier town of Peshawar, a group of young men with beards are playing cricket. Things are not going well in their homeland: there is drought, famine and American bombardment. On the cricket pitch […]

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/ 19 October 2001

A new world is born

Washington wants to keep its friends, reports Hugo Young, but on its terms I do not think that many of us, even now, completely understand what has happened to the United States. We saw the pictures, we know the numbers, we heard the president’s vows to smoke Osama bin Laden out of his cave, and […]