Thebe Mabanga Another week of living in hope and eternal optimism has gone by for South Africa. Without fail, our Olympians have raised our hopes only to bring them crashing down. When the games end on Sunday, not only might we have failed to reach our Atlanta medal tally of five medals, we will also […]

David Le Page It’s a bit like having a Nu-Metro in your lap, without people kicking your seat or having to breathe under-airconditioned air. The Panasonic DVD-LV75 was the world’s first portable DVD until a couple of months ago – other manufacturers have now started to follow suit. DVD, for the uninitiated, stands for Digital […]

Greg Bowes CD OFTHEWEEK With their Nu Breed offshoot, the Global Underground camp add to their already substantial line in DJ mixes (from the likes of Paul Oakenfold and Sasha) a platform for less established but equally thrilling deckhands. Danny Howells, who’s here with Renaissance over the weekend (playing at Nexus in Johannesburg and at […]

Braam Kruger’s new book of recipes pays tribute to the exotic communities whose food is sold on the city streets Matthew Krouse Braam Kruger lives in a dream state – in Observatory, Johannesburg. He reminds one of a plaster gnome who dwells under a large mushroom, along with the fairies at the bottom of the […]

Banks blame small volumes and fraud for rising charges – and expect customers to grin and bear the costs David Le Page The apparent neglect of the cheque management system by South African banks is a major reason why consumers pay higher and higher bank charges at a time when automation is reducing costs in […]

fraud A plastics company has approached the Banking Adjudicator over a dispute it has with its bank after the payment of a fraudulent cheque David Le Page A Free State company is battling to recover R116 000 paid out from its account by Standard Bank to First National Bank (FNB), after the latter honoured a […]

David Le Page Besides cheque fraud, the other major reason offered by South African banks for high bank charges is an overly small market, or as they put it, “inadequate volumes to justify the infrastructure involved”. The banking industry explains its quandary as follows. As more banks have appeared in the country, the major retail […]

‘illegal’ Thuli Nhlapo Ignoring the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s (Cosatu) campaign to create and sustain jobs in the textile industry, the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) promotional clothing is imported and believed to have entered the country illegally. Shereno Printers, which won a contract to print 100E000 T-shirts for IEC staffers to wear in […]

In super-heavyweight weightlifting the walls have ears – and torsos and legs Neal Collins There are 10 men lined up on stage in front of me, ready for the men’s super-heavyweight weightlifting. From Russia, Latvia, Armenia, Korea, Ukraine (two), Germany, Poland and even Qatar and Iran. Like massive peas in a prodigious pod, this multinational […]