Madeleine Wackernagel The world’s central banks hold 28 years’ worth of gold supply, and signs are they are not going to step out of the market in a hurry. First Australia, then Russia and the Swiss, and now the Germans have sold down their reserves in the past few months. Other European central banks could […]

Ferial Haffajee At least eight women will have been raped by the time you read to the end of this page. Three years into the new democracy and a woman is still raped every 36 seconds in South Africa, perhaps even more frequently if the growing numbers of reported rapes indicate an increase in the […]

With the launch of a guild for South African animators, Tube’s cutesies on TV and Disney’s Hercules opening next week, we take a look at the world of animation Andrew Worsdale The South African Guild of Animators was officially launched a fortnight ago at this year’s Film and TV Market in Cape Town. Chairman Ron […]

Madeleine Roux : Moveable feast It’s hard to make a really bad potato salad. The two most likely ways are to undercook the potatoes and add salad cream and raw onion rings. Alas, this awful concoction is a regular at otherwise delightful school bazaars and old-fashioned braais on the platteland. Most potato salads are sublime. […]

The word scandal is so easily bandied about these days that it has lost some of its meaning. Perhaps, when contemplating the activities of Don Mkhwanazi, head of the Central Energy Fund, it is worth reminding ourselves of the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of the word: something which occasions “general feeling of outrage and indignation”. […]

Police and women in Alexandra are working together to combat rape in the township, writes Lizeka Mda Put yourself in Josina Matangala’s shoes and you’ll want to scream. One Saturday night two months ago, a man she had seen around Alexandra township burst into her shack where she was sleeping with her two- year-old daughter […]

THURSDAY, 5.30PM: THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange today made up Wednesday’s losses, with the all share index rising 31 points to 6423, the industrial index climbing 35 points to 7950 and the financial index 90 points stronger at 9917. The all gold index shed 6 points to 785. The all gold index shed 6 points to […]

Angella Johnson It was a sunny spring day in September when Andr Swart and his wife Lenie drove through the manicured grounds of their sprawling commercial farm. They had been to church, a high point of the weekly social calendar for their tight-knit Afrikaner farming community. As their car pulled into the garage four men […]

FRIDAY, 8.50AM: The morale in the South African rugby camp is very high following the availablity of flanker Johan Erasmus for the second and final Test against France on Saturday. Erasmus, who suffered spasms on Wednesday, did not practise with the squad for the second successive day on Thursday. “He was excused from practice today, […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi Fears are mounting that a network of senior police officers in the KwaZulu-Natal’s Midlands wants to sabotage the trial of alleged warlord Sifiso Nkabinde as they could also face charges if implicated when the trial begins in February next year. The network is suspected to be involved in killings, intimidation of witnesses and […]