Bronwen Jones scours the Patent Journal for the latest weird and wonderful inventions THINK of inventions and up flash images of the first steam train, the first telephone, the hovercraft, Post-it pads, Sony’s Walkman — items little or large which have changed our lives. South Africans can take pride because there are great inventors and […]

Rupert Murdoch could become a partner in the SABC’s satellite venture in a deal involving the rights to southern hemisphere rugby. Niel Bierbaum reports THE SABC could be considering media mogul Rupert Murdoch as an international partner for its satellite venture. Such a deal could see the SABC exchanging an ownership share for exclusive rights […]

A new type of fraud has hit South Africa’s streets and is on the rise, reports Karen Harverson AUTOMATIC teller machine (ATM) crime in South Africa appears to be the worst in the world and it’s on the increase. Assistant general manager Stuart Grobler of the Council of Southern African Banks (Cosab) says thieves are […]

Discriminatory restaurateurs and club owners will have to watch out for the new Bill of Rights, argues Dennis Davis EQUALITY is a fundamental principle of the interim Constitution and is likely to retain this status in the final Constitution. In similiar fashion to the present Constitution, the draft for the final Constitution provides that, when […]

MALU VAN LEEUWEN visited Cape Town’s custom=20 motorcycle show _ and found that the `easy rider’=20 of the Sixties is the big spender of the Nineties BIKES new and old _ some of which hadn’t seen the=20 light of day in decades _ were wheeled out, dusted=20 down and lovingly shined up for Cape Town’s […]

Data mining can unleash a gold mine of information=20 from one’s own databases. Leon Perlman reports Unbeknown to many corporates, they’re sitting on a=20 gold mine. Buried deep inside their databases are=20 vast repositories of data patterns that could=20 unlock acres of productivity and millions of rands=20 in revenue. The key to this info labyrinth […]

Reg Rumney First National BANK (FNB) announced bottom-line=20 earnings up almost 23 percent this week at R920- million for the year to end-September. The bank saw strong growth in advances and in non- interest revenues. Those advances were driven=20 mainly by consumer demand. Margins were squeezed, as interest expenditure rose=20 40 percent while interest income […]

The McDonald’s trademark battle flares up as local=20 MacDonald’s opens. Karen Harverson reports Pipping United States McDonald’s at the post _ the=20 South African version, MacDonald’s, opened its=20 doors in central Johannesburg this week, just 24=20 hours before the grand launch of its American rival=20 in Randburg. The store, situated on the corner of Commissioner=20 […]

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser IN his long overdue debut season with the National=20 Symphony Orchestra Gerard Korsten has shown that=20 there is more than a grain of truth in the=20 assertion that there are no bad orchestras, only=20 bad conductors. Faltering and often awkward as a=20 result of its encounters with a seemingly endless=20 string […]

THEATRE: David Le Page DESCEND to the very lowest level of society, and=20 you are in the perfect position to thrust hard into=20 the softest part of its bloated, pallid underbelly.=20 If you are a playwright named Itumeleng Wa- Lehulere, you will not content yourself with a=20 single thrust of the weapon of words; you’ll […]