Staff Reporter
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/ 2 July 1999

Cancelling the recession

Tony Twine Data published by Statistics South Africa (SSA), which effectively wrote the economic recession we thought we were living through out of the history books, appears to have been accepted by analysts, while astounding the man in the street. Is it simply smoke and mirrors, or something more sinister along revisionist lines? The definition […]

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/ 2 July 1999

Bidding on the virtual market of time

Young Internet companies have found a niche conducting online auctions in ”virtual minute markets”. Karlin Lillington reports With names like Band-X, Min-X and InterXion, the array of young Internet companies looking for business in Dublin last month sounded like they might be selling online sex, or perhaps downloadable music. But the truth is much odder. […]

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/ 2 July 1999

Calm Waters

Shaun de Waal Live-action movie of the week In the Seventies John Waters made himself the Tsar of Trash with movies such as Mondo Trasho, Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos, in which laughably outrageous characters did risibly odd and sometimes disgusting things. Waters created an inverted aesthetic in which kitsch triumphs and bad taste is […]

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/ 2 July 1999

It’s the end of the world … on Sunday

John Matshikiza explains why the Japanese are heading for the hills Thank goodness we South Africans only believe in crime and witchcraft. While older countries have been going mad over the coming of the new millennium for several years, we have hardly even started bothering. Local councils around the country have already surrendered to the […]

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/ 2 July 1999

Look after the low-end jobs

A structural shift has occurred in the productive base of the South African economy over the past 25 years. The share of agriculture in the gross domestic product (GDP) fell by about 4% since 1970, while mining’s contribution declined by 3%. The decline of these two primary sectors, though, has been matched by a significant […]

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/ 2 July 1999

The ugly truth behind SA crime

Schoolkids have a tendency to turn the magazine section of the CNA store in Melville into a library. The other day two black boys of about eight were sprawled on the floor in front of the magazine shelf. Next to them was a stack of different gun magazines from South Africa, the United States and […]

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/ 2 July 1999

What makes boys rape like this?

Marianne Merten looks at the many reasons why males turn to a life of rape and murder The gang rape and murder of Valencia Farmer (14) shocked many ordinary South Africans. But within days there were whispers in her community that she had been in a shebeen before she was attacked – tantamount to saying […]