Banks blame small volumes and fraud for rising charges – and expect customers to grin and bear the costs David Le Page The apparent neglect of the cheque management system by South African banks is a major reason why consumers pay higher and higher bank charges at a time when automation is reducing costs in […]

Ebrahim Harvey Left field President Thabo Mbeki is finding it difficult to manage the crisis in relations between his African National Congress-led government and its alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). Forced to strike a balancing act between the two, Mbeki has to draw on all his resources to try and […]

David Le Page It’s a bit like having a Nu-Metro in your lap, without people kicking your seat or having to breathe under-airconditioned air. The Panasonic DVD-LV75 was the world’s first portable DVD until a couple of months ago – other manufacturers have now started to follow suit. DVD, for the uninitiated, stands for Digital […]

Brenda Atkinson review OFTHEWEEK Since coming back to Johannesburg in 1996 after an absence of more than 20 years, Rodney Place’s work has been characterised by lacerating irony, his perspective that of the city’s prodigal son, returned from his adventures only to find that he can’t get to the fatted calf for the security gates […]

David Le Page AFRICAN FRONTIERS To slow the melting of the polar ice-caps, build some ceilings in Soweto. This is one of the implications of a study on environmentally friendly low-cost housing recently commissioned by the national Department of Housing. But it’s not the most important – making home environments more comfortable is a far […]

David Macfarlane ‘This is a signal South African universities could have done without right now,” says a shocked senior academic in response to Tuesday’s unexpected announcement that University of the Witwatersrand vice-chancellor Professor Colin Bundy will leave the university less than halfway through his seven-year contract. Bundy leaves not only Wits but the country as […]

The idea that software could ever be sophisticated enough to identify pornographic images is sheer fantasy, writes Avedon Carol Moralists and Net-nanny software hucksters have put a lot of effort into convincing the public that our kids are unsafe on the Internet and that we need to put strict controls on what people can see. […]

Deon Potgieter boxing Mpush Makambi is in danger of being stripped of his International Boxing Organisation (IBO) middleweight world title. Makambi, who was to have made the fourth defence of his title this weekend in Holland against Raymonn Joval, pulled out of the bout this week. “Mpush wasn’t happy with the purse on offer and […]

Greg Bowes CD OFTHEWEEK With their Nu Breed offshoot, the Global Underground camp add to their already substantial line in DJ mixes (from the likes of Paul Oakenfold and Sasha) a platform for less established but equally thrilling deckhands. Danny Howells, who’s here with Renaissance over the weekend (playing at Nexus in Johannesburg and at […]

experiments Fiona Macleod South Africa is earmarked for experiments on animals that have already seen thousands of them dying agonising deaths. The experiments involve pumping human genes into days-old piglets and then transplanting their hearts into baboons and monkeys. Top-secret documents by scientists researching the process, called xenotransplantation, show that thousands of animals have died […]