We cannot afford to react to the market clamour by lifting exchange controls too quickly, writes Madeleine Wackernagel WITH the recent strengthening of the rand, the issue of lifting exchange controls is once again on the table. Every time the market rumours gain volume, the Reserve Bank rapidly quashes them; this time was no different. […]

James Rupert in Abidjan LIBERIANS who have fought a civil war for seven years hurried last week to hand over guns and bullets to a peacekeeping force before a deadline for warring factions to disarm. The last-minute rush raised some hopes – the most substantial in years – that a peace plan is making real […]

The ‘spy’ alleged to have known about Chris Hani’s assassination spoke to the M&G this week, reports Stefaans Brmmer MOHAMMED AMIN LAHER, whom the Mail & Guardian identified as the mystery “double agent” who had advance knowledge of Chris Hani’s assassination, this week claimed the death plot had been “a conspiracy on both sides of […]

Cutting wages is not an effective means to increasing employment, write Eddie Webster and Ian Macun CONTRARY to conventional wisdom the South African labour market is reasonably flexible. This is the conclusion reached by the South African Labour Flexibility Survey, conducted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Sociology of Work Unit of Wits […]

Gwen Ansell EVEN now, at 40, Andy Sheppard looks like the art student he never became. = His hair is spiky, his eyes focused on some distant, as-yet-unpainted, landsca= pe. What changed his 16-year-old life was the recordings of John Coltrane. Sud= den ly, he found his music – jazz – and his instrument, the […]

Glynis O’Hara INYOUREAR EVER sensitive to trends, especially constitutional ones, a few days of hor= izo ntality were spent listening to SAfm (104 to 107 FM), employing verticality= on ly under duress. And one was faced with some serious questions. Such as: Does Vuyo Mbuli really, really like the music he plays? Where did = […]

Mungo Soggot THE Central Energy Fund (CEF), which holds the state’s fuel assets, has quietl y limped into the new South Africa with the appointment of a new, far more rep resentative board. The new players on a board that until recently was synonymous with the CEF’s s anctions-busting past, include what chairman Roy Pithey […]

Alan Finlay WITS: A UNIVERSITY IN THE APARTHEID ERA by Mervyn Shear (Wits University, R69) INhis history of the University of the Witwatersrand -Wits – from 1919 to t= he=20 1990s, Mervyn Shear tries to uphold the idea of a place of learning that is= ab le to negotiate an even-handed response to a torn […]

For South African fans enjoying a feast of cricket, the arrival of the Aust= ral ians is the cherry on top CRICKET:Jon Swift IT hardly seems credible that, in the midst of what seems a plethora of cri= cke t, we have yet more coming our way – the Australians open their account wit= h […]