Karlin Lillington If you have a task to do, find someone to share the work and you get the job done in half the time. That’s the idea behind Distributed.net, a group that co- ordinates spare computer processor power from across the Internet to solve huge mathematical tasks which otherwise would take days, weeks, and […]

Patrick Smith Former South African president FW de Klerk presided over a Cabinet meeting in March 1993 that gave Cape businessman Vito Palazzolo a residence permit, although at the time he was the subject of an Italian extradition warrant. The respected magazine Africa Confidential will report this week that in September 1993, De Klerk’s government […]

FERIAL HAFFAJEE TAKING STOCK Lazarus Madiseng proffered the fruit of democracy. A prickly pear, it is sweet and juicy. The assignment: to find out about the life of ordinary South Africans since 1994, when change came to this land. They don’t come a lot more ordinary than Madiseng – a kindly grandfather who after a […]

the wings John Matshikiza, son of the composer of the music for the original King Kong, Todd Matshikiza, believes that 40 years on the time might be right for the show to find its feet once again and stand tall in the musical hall of fame King Kong, the mother of all South African musicals, […]

THE Pretoria Regional Court refused bail to Schalk Willem Krugel (34) on Friday. Krugel is charged with three counts of conspiracy to murder and two of theft of cash. The case is related to the disappearance in 1996 of Stephanus Pelser (35) and Andrew Sweetnam (31) as well as Namibian lawyer Jan Gysbert Malan (39). […]

Y2K is getting steadily closer. Donna Block investigated how it may affect your money Three-hundred-and-thirty days and counting. The millennium bug is upon us and no doubt you’ve heard the horror stories that could begin at the stroke of midnight on December 31 1999. Unable to cope with the year 2000, computer programs go crazy […]

A PAIR of Siamese twins who were separated at the abdomen last month have died, a doctor at Pretoria’s Ga-Rankuwa Hospital said on Thursday. The first twin died on Monday and her sister died on Thursday from a blood and bone infection related to prolonged intravenous feeding, paediatric surgery head Lesek Marciz said. The little […]

Review of the week:Sue Williamson Fifteen years ago, travelling through Zambia, I studied the historical photographs on display in the town museum of Livingstone. Black bearers carried pith-helmeted white women in hammocks slung on long poles. Men with guns posed next to kills, a large bevy of black support staff lined up in the background. […]

President Nelson Mandela’s former home in Soweto was among 29 edifices declared national monuments on Thursday.

THE Canadian High Commissioner to South Africa, James Bartelman, was beaten and robbed of R1000 at a Sea Point hotel on Friday morning. Police said Bartelman (60) suffered a fracture to his nose after being assaulted with a stun device. The attack ended his plans to attend the opening of Parliament and he is returning […]