Chiara Carter A by-election in Lotus River on the Cape Flats this week showed the New National Party still has clout with coloured voters. Although the Democratic Party has begun making inroads in heartlands of working-class coloured voters, it stands little chance of supplanting the NNP overnight. NNP candidate Nur-ud-din Bell won the ward with […]

Securitisation should give the banking industry a kick in the pants and investors a new toy, writes Donna Block Looking for a new home loan? Okay, “round up the usual suspects”. Only a month ago most consumers looking for a home loan would have taken a similar tact. The major banks all have comparable rates, […]

THE Angolan army claimed on Friday to have recaptured the strategically important northern town of Mbanza-Congo from Unita rebels.The city, 500km north of Luanda, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, is among the main points of access to economic targets such as the oil fields of Soyo on the Atlantic coast about […]

Friday night: Michelle Constant Some people do a day at the races, others a night at the opera, mine was an evening at the boxing. Past Hammanskraal, down the freeway, the evening heat lifting off the tired tarmac and the Carousel lights twinkling. Maybe it’s the heat, the almost- desert light at sunset, but it […]

Loose cannon: Robert Kirby I can’t imagine why such a fuss is being made about the appointment of Mr Ramesh Vassen as consul general to India. Anyone with two eyes in his head could see it coming a mile off. The appointment of one’s political buddies into high office has always been within the purview […]

Wonder Hlongwa and Tangeni Amupadhi Nelisiwe Dladla’s eyes are in constant motion, darting from corner to corner as she scans the faces of three strangers in the “the family room” of her house in Entembisweni. Dladla is scared and wary of strangers because her husband and brother-in-law were killed in separate incidents within a day. […]

Committed to changing our perceptions, the Centre for Photography looks set to put South African photographers on the map. Steve Smith reports Being an artist these days is an act of dogged optimism, particularly if you hope to make a living. There is little money available, either for private purchase or from government funding, and […]

ZIMBABWEAN writer Yvonne Vera, author of Under the Tongue, which won the Commonwealth prize in 1997 (Africa Region), has been awarded Sweden’s The Voice of Africa literary award for 1999. Vera (34) will be presented with the award at a function at the Gothenburg Book Fair. 11

LEGISLATION to liberalise Mozambique’s telecommunications sector is nearing completion and will be presented to cabinet and parliament for approval soon, the country’s deputy minister of transport and communications, Antonio Fernandes, said on Thursday. The new law will allow Mozambique’s state telecom company, TDM, to commercialise or partially privatise core services by teaming up with foreign […]