Enriched uranium once intended for South Africa’s nuclear weapons is now helping medical science, writes Lesley Cowling THE Atomic Energy Corporation (AEC) is using enriched uranium to fuel a research reactor that now produces medical isotopes for international export and local use. But the uranium was enriched in a process designed by AEC scientists in […]

The Bushmen of 31 Battalion fought on the losing side and now they are paying the ultimate price, writes Adam Alexander IN the Karoo desert, the sun is setting over an army camp unlike any other in the world. This is the time when the sea of mudbrown tents called Schmidtsdrif springs to life. The […]

Madeleine Wackernagel HOW to keep spending under control without dramatically raising taxes? Trevor Manuel seems to have managed to walk the Budget tightrope with relative ease, although next year’s revisions may tell a different story. Expenditure in the 1997/98 Budget increases by 6,1% over last year’s revised spending total to R186 747-billion, while revenue is […]

Rebels are advancing on Zaire’s third- largest city but sceptics in the West are resisting France’s calls for an intervention force, writes Chris McGreal FRANCE is pursuing a lonely campaign to revive plans for an international force in Zaire to halt the rebel advance and prevent what it says is a genocide in the making. […]

collection Manuel has tinkered with income tax, but we’ll have to wait for the Katz Commission report for a more holistic approach, reports Madeleine Wackernagel ONE of these days, South Africans may enjoy a more equitable income tax system – but not yet. In its pre-Budget presentation, the South African Chamber of Business estimated that […]

Stuart Hess THE Gauteng health department could save R1-billion if it accepts cost-cutting proposals made by health workers’ unions, including centralising services, eliminating private nursing in public hospitals, and scrapping private security, the unions said this week. The figure is almost double the R550- million the Gauteng health department said it could save when it […]

South African artists continue to exist in a cultural vacuum that gives too little recognition too late, writes Hazel Friedman THERE is an ancient Greek proverb that says the soul of a nation will be judged by the way it treats its artists. If this is so, then South Africa has much to answer for. […]

Ann Eveleth THE creation this week of black-owned Khulani Springbok Patrols consummates a long-standing relationship between the Inkatha Freedom Party and a 35-year-old family security business. Security industry sources said this week the sale by the Bartmann family of a R50- million interest in Springbok Patrols to IFP-aligned Khulani Holdings – and the appointment of […]

Mungo Soggot THE foreign merchant banks handed the contract to help sell a R6-billion chunk of Telkom have secured government agreement that their fees, to be paid by the taxpayer, remain under wraps. The Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Ministry this week refused to disclose how much money was paid to SBC Warburg, which was employed […]

Jim Day THE knife in his hand was a good 15cm long. But he was pleasant when he said, “I don’t want to hurt you. Just give me your money.” His buddies surrounded me, four or five of them, pulled me back and to the ground and started grabbing at my pockets. They didn’t beat […]