Davina Cohen Giant monitors and telephones marked the dawning of a new era of techno-music last weekend. It didn’t happen by way of an onslaught of entrepreneurial ravers of the popular dance scene, but through a fusion of communications technology and live performance. An array of British and South African sponsors combined forces to present […]

Thebe Mabanga Another week of living in hope and eternal optimism has gone by for South Africa. Without fail, our Olympians have raised our hopes only to bring them crashing down. When the games end on Sunday, not only might we have failed to reach our Atlanta medal tally of five medals, we will also […]

Pule waga Mabe The vice-chancellor of the University of the North, former Truth and Reconciliation Commission commissioner Biki Minyuku, has filed a review application in the Pretoria High Court against his suspension. Minyuku was suspended last December without knowing the charges against him, or a disciplinary hearing. Minyuku’s attorney, Solly Manamela, says the university disregarded […]

Gavin Evans The task of increasing a country’s medal quotient starts at the top. International precedent suggests you can even pull it off without a thriving grassroots base or deep tradition of participation. Take Britain, for example. Four years ago in Atlanta it experienced a disaster of similar proportions to South Africa’s Sydney effort. But […]

Grant Shimmin olympics The season of clutching at straws is almost over and my number in the press medal pool looks unlikely to come up. I went for 10 gongs, including two golds (Penny Heyns and Llewellyn Herbert), so my chances are somewhere between slim and non-existent. That said, with just the last weekend of […]

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 […]