A COMMERCIAL Bank of Malawi official has said that local and international investors are taking a “wait and see” approach to the June 15 elections. Fred Kanjo, the bank’s head of economic research, sayd investors have adopted a more cautious stance before making any firm investment decisions. Malawi has experienced a growth rate of about […]

Neil Manthorp in Amsterdam In time South Africa’s cricketers may reflect on the decision taken three weeks ago not to read any newspapers in England as one of the better ones during the World Cup campaign. Despite performances so compelling that not even English journalists could be disparaging, their coverage remains steadfastly tinged. The prevalent […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni An attempt to broker peace between two notorious Western Cape gangs by taking them to the mountains was sabotaged a week before it could start. The National Peace Accord Trust had arranged to take the rival gangster groups on a “transformation trail” in the Drakensberg in KwaZulu-Natal last week. The aim […]

Doris Lessing joined the communist party in Rhodesia, left two children to go to England, and then explored mysticism. Emma Brockes finds the iconoclastic author has a talent to explore, move on and surprise It was in a caf in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, that Doris Lessing received her first, rather clumsily delivered death threat. This […]

Stephen Gray FRAGILE HERITAGE: A ROCK ART FIELD GUIDE by David Lewis-Williams and Geoffrey Blundell (Witwatersrand University Press) The surface of the rock shelter overlooking the offices of this newspaper is blank these days; the bright gallery of San paintings that celebrated how the country had been for millennia has dimmed and eroded off. On […]

Andrew Worsdale Movie of the week I remember taking my first cap of LSD (it was only a quarter) in 1982 when I saw Steven Lisberger’s Tron, which had Jeff Bridges as a computer programmer caught up in a game. The drugs and, for that time, dazzling special effects seemed to cancel everything out. I […]

Phillip vanNiekerk >From the Editor’s Desk Back in 1987 I helped a friend who was standing for the Labour Party in the northern England seat of Grimsby in the election of that year. The constituency organiser was a man whose day job was a garbage collector for the council and he had a grimy set […]

Donna Block Share World They say variety is the spice of life. So if you’re looking to spice up your investment portfolio, warrants could be just the ticket. Warrants are a right to buy or sell a specific asset at a specific price for a designated period of time. They make it possible for investors […]

Cameron Duodu Letter from the North The furore in South Africa over the right of the editor of the Financial Mail, Peter Bruce, to determine what political party the paper should support in the forthcoming election will amaze readers from the north. You see, we are not at all used to freedom of the press. […]

Loose cannon Robert Kirby With apologies to Christopher Logue I shall vote for the ANC because Felicia Mabuza-Suttle says it will improve my image. I shall vote for the ANC because 65 murders a day isn’t nearly enough. I shall vote for the ANC because the ANC loyally supports Allen Boesak in his many Christian […]