Staff Reporter
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/ 1 May 1998

While the cat’s away, others play

Andy Capostagno : Cricket First of all, the apologies. Last week I suggested that the national selectors were myopic baboons who could not differentiate a class off-spinner from a kicked in car door. I also managed to retire Brian McMillan somewhat prematurely. My only excuse is that newspaper deadlines coincide with important announcements about as […]

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/ 1 May 1998

Running from rags to riches

Duncan Mackay When Josiah Thugwane lined up on Blackheath last Sunday for the London Marathon, he did so free from the worry that dogged his every footstep through the streets of Britain’s capital 12 months ago. Then the Olympic champion was racked with concern about the safety of his family in South Africa, fearing that […]

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/ 1 May 1998

Sahara tribe first to reach for the stars

Tim Radford Stone Age people built the first astronomical observatory centuries before anyone had thought they did. Scientists working in the Sahara have identified a series of megaliths that predate Stonehenge in Britain and other sites by more than 1 000 years. Around 6 500 years ago, an unknown people living in Nabta, southern Egypt, […]

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/ 1 May 1998

‘Cancer pill’ on the way

Tim Radford Scientists who identified a single gene that protects against cancerous chemicals said this week a cancer-prevention pill could be undergoing trials within a decade. The Scottish team’s research found that a single gene may determine whether a smoker develops lung cancer. In an experiment with mice, scientists demonstrated that the gene provides a […]

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/ 1 May 1998

True-life confusions

Shopping and Fucking is one of the most controversial scripts to be staged in South Africa. Charl Blignaut sits in on a rehearsal The moment I walk in I can feel the energy in the rehearsal room change, becoming slightly flustered. Five faces turn and look up at me from the floor where they are […]

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/ 1 May 1998

Nkabinde acquitted

THURSDAY, 1.00PM: FORMER African National Congress midleads leader Sifiso Nkabinde was acquitted on 16 charges of murder and two of incitement to murder in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday. Even before his acquittal, rumours that he might be released — supported by comments from the judge on Wednesday condemning the police’s investigation — had […]

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/ 1 May 1998

Leopards taunted with burning cigarettes

A South African cvompany has been implicated in illegal leopard trade, write John Grobler and Fiona Macleod Delegates from an international conservation agency meeting in Namibia for the past two weeks were shocked when, walking out of a popular bar in Windhoek last Thursday (April 23), they encountered a group of drunken men taunting three […]

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/ 1 May 1998

Long-distance earning

Duncan Mackay : London Marathon When Dick Beardsley came over from the United States in 1981 to run in the first London Marathon, he received R125E000. This year R1,25-million was set aside to be divided between two runners, the respective Olympic and world champions, for appearing in the race last Sunday, with Josiah Thugwane of […]

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/ 1 May 1998

Rebuilding what apartheid destroyed

Ferial Haffajee South Africa’s trade mission to Angola jetted into Luanda this week with a mandate to fix what apartheid strong-arm tactics destroyed. Pundits say it will cost Southern Africa more than R50-billion to rebuild the rail and road links the previous government helped to destroy. This week President Nelson Mandela and his trade gurus […]

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/ 1 May 1998

Look after yourself, the banks won’t

Shop around for the best credit card deal available, writes Charlene Smith Despite the entry of more than 70 foreign banks into the local market, the South African commercial banking sector, protected by a R1-million limit on deposits to locally based foreign banks by individuals, is plodding along in its same uncompetitive way – unless […]