Lesley Cowling A plan for Russia to train South Africans as astronauts – announced 14 months ago amid much fanfare – has run into financial difficulties, with both countries reluctant to foot the bill. On a visit to South Africa at the end of 1995, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets told Deputy President […]

The South African cricket authorities are to be congratulated for their achievements with regard both to the victories of Hansie Cronje’s men against India in the present series and the development of the game as a truly national sport. But if our cricketers are showing the way where both sporting prowess and racial integration are […]

Gustav Thiel The avalanche of sightseers and tourists wanting to visit Robben Island could result in permanent damage to the marine environment on the island. This warning comes from the island’s temporary administrator, Professor Andre Odendaal, and the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront’s harbour master Bill Shewell. Odendaal said he was working on a tight schedule […]

Tim Radford Genetics researchers have confirmed something which has been Holy Writ in Israel for 3 300 years. They have examined the Y chromosomes of Jewish priests and found they are, indeed, different from the rest of the Jewish people. According to Jewish tradition, priests – as distinct from rabbis –are descended from Aaron, brother […]

DROR EYAL saw in the new year at the annual Oppikoppi music festival THE South African music explosion is a bit like God. Journalists resurrect it yearly, Barney Simon preaches it daily, but mankind never gets to see it. The Oppikoppi Moerit Boetie festival, which is held near Sun City, is set to change that. […]

the poor Ros Coward in London Madagascar, former colony and popular tourist destination, is close to an epidemic of the Black Death – 187 cases have been diagnosed in one city, after the collapse of organised rubbish collection was followed by a plague of rats. In the 1960s, Madagascar was a confident country with a […]

Benoni boy Philip Holiday has hit boxing’s big time with his recent win over Ivan Robinson BOXING: Gavin Evans Quiet Benoni boy Philip Holiday has suddenly emerged as one of the heavy hitters – financially speaking – among the lightweights of world boxing. He raised the stakes in his division with his emphatic points win […]

Despite the gold price hitting a three-year low, Anglogold chair Bobby Godsell tells Max Gebhardt that he is upbeat about the mining industry At a time when negative sentiment is ruling the market, there is a strange, yet welcome sense of optimism at Anglo American’s gold and uranium division in its Main Street headquarters in […]

The Eastern Cape may have a lot of natural riches, but maladministration makes it a holiday in hell, writes Aspasia Karras The minutes of a staff meeting at the Dwesa nature reserve provide ample proof of the extent of the Eastern Cape’s shambolic state. The final meeting of 1996, which began at 8.30 on a […]

Justin Arenstein The Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) has signed an agreement with a foreign conglomerate that contractually obliges it to support the full listing of the commercial rights to some of South Africa’s prime environmental assets on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). Assets include the second-biggest canyon in the world, Blyde River Canyon, South Africa’s […]