Economists are concerned that declining technology stocks will lead slowing economies into recession Donna Block in New York After 10 years of a bull market – which some thought would never quit – the bears have finally busted out and are mauling Wall Street. The question is: will the New Economy’s technology boom, which drove […]

South African banking groups are using the Internet to put a new spin on loyalty schemes and encourage online shopping David Le Page Banks want more business. Internet vendors want more business. Both want fewer hassles with online credit card transactions. These are the three major imperatives behind eBucks and bluebean.com, the new Internet initiatives […]

Andy Capostagno golf If the fourth edition of the President’s Cup follows anything like the pattern of the last one, held in Australia in 1998, by the time you read this the international team captained by South Africa’s Ernie Els should already have wrapped it up. For it was in Melbourne two years ago that […]

Booker Prize finalist Margaret Atwood can enter the mind of a murderer or a child bully with ease. She can convey human suffering like no one else. Her image is austere, yet her presence warm. Katharine Viner disentangles the woman from the writer Margaret Atwood would like to clear a few things up from the […]

Godfrey Mutisya Crossfire The United States of Africa is becoming a buzzword across the continent in a manner reminiscent of classical pan-Africanism. A significant number of academics, politicians, journalists and political activists seem convinced that the current political and economic conflicts, poverty and endemic crisis of democracy and governance are evidence that the post- colonial […]

Universal Men, the celebrated debut Juluka album, was released 21 years ago. Richard Pithouse reports on an album that, despite being largely ignored at the time of its release, launched an inspirational career In the mid Seventies Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu started playing together as a duo under the name of Johnny and Sipho. […]

Timothy Trengove-Jones crossfire In the rather tautologous words of the famous song, the times they are a-changing. It was reported last weekend that President Thabo Mbeki has told the African National Congress’s national executive committee that he is to withdrawEfrom public debate over the science of HIV/Aids. His contributions, he repeated, have “caused confusion”. In […]

Barry Streek The Independent newspaper group’s editors won a significant victory over the company’s management this week when executives abandoned their hardline stance that they have the right to publish free advertisements without the editors’ approval. The group’s management conceded in a statement, issued by its chief executive officer, Ivan Fallon, and its chief operating […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi A group of former Afri- can National Congress-linked self-defence unit members and residents displaced by political violence in Thokoza on the East Rand in the early 1990s have formed a civic movement to oppose the ANC in the forthcoming local government elections. The new party, the Displacees Ratepayers’ Association (DRA), was formed two […]

process Gregory Mthembu-Salter The surprise summit in Maputo on October 16 of all the heads of state whose countries are at war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, barring Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, marked the start of South Africa’s best opportunity yet to end the two-year conflict. Presidential advisers hope a positive outcome will […]