ANC trade expert Rob Davies sees the EU moving away from aid and trade packages towards reciprocal deals with African-Caribbean-Pacific countries. Lynda Loxton reports Developing countries are becoming increasingly concerned about an apparent bid by the European Union to link negotiations on a free trade agreement with South Africa to the future of the Lome […]

Justin Pearce Right-wing hunger striker Willem Ratte ended his hunger strike on Thursday, being granted R1 000 bail pending a supreme court appeal against his five-year sentence. Earlier Ratte had said he was opposed to bail since he rejected the judicial system that sentenced him, but would abide by the decision of “the volk”. His […]

A new reef may alter the economics of platinum mining in South Africa, reports Bronwen Jones FOUR Chinese geochemists, visiting their South African partners in a platinum exploration joint venture, have found evidence of a significant new platinum reef close to the surface. In an exclusive interview, project manager Yao Wensheng said: “The co-operation between […]

South Africa’s top linguists are to wrestle with the practicalities of 11 official languages at a conference in Midrand this weekend. Marion Edmunds reports FORMER Robben Islander Dr Neville Alexander has to unravel one of the tightest knots tied by the politicians of the post-apartheid order. At a crucial conference on Saturday, Alexander and the […]

Appropriation or plagiarism? What’s the difference? HAZEL FRIEDMAN grapples with a debate raging in South Africa’s conceptual art circles ESAU did it to Jacob, Brahms might have done it to Beethoven and Shakespeare has been accused of doing it to his assistant. History is filled with the famous, talented and treacherous who have indulged in, […]

`Terror’ Lekota’s position as premier of the Free State lies in the hands of an ANC delegation which will decide whether he has overstepped the power of his position, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy The knives are out for Free State premier Patrick “Terror” Lekota, even as a delegation appointed by President Nelson Mandela prepares to defuse […]

Alex Brummer in London The proposed alliance between British Airways and American Airlines, the two dominant carriers on the North Atlantic route, is becoming one of the most scrutinised deals ever hammered out. The British Government’s Office of Fair Trading considers it a merger in all but name. By putting marketing, code sharing, frequent flyer […]

Stefaans BrUmmer TRANSVAAL Attorney General Jan D’Oliveira will go ahead with plans to charge some of the 22 policemen who approached the Truth and Reconciliation Commission this week, saying their offer to co- operate with the truth body may “well be” an attempt to pre-empt prosecution. D’Oliveira confirmed there was a “significant overlap” between the […]

Madeleine Wackernagel Official unemployment may not be as drastic as previously thought, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) report released last week, but levels of inequality are still abnormally high. And while there has been some progress on redistribution between the races, intra-racial inequality is growing. “The gap between the haves and the have-nots […]

The Wall may have fallen, but Germany has yet to resolve its post-war economic problems. David Gow reports from Bonn The German social market economy, engine of the country’s post-war renaissance, may have run out of steam well before the fall of the Wall, but the political battle to preserve its soul is only now […]