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/ 5 July 1996

Trans Hex sets sights on quality gems

The West Coast diamond group is following De Beers’ lead in targeting higher-priced stones, writes Lynda Loxton West Coast diamond companies have had mixed fortunes in recent years, not least because of the dumping of low-quality diamonds on the world market by Russia. The agreement reached by De Beers’ Central Selling Organisation (CSO) and Russia […]

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/ 5 July 1996

Copper scam reveals more villains

Patrick Donovan in London The mysterious Yasuo Hamanaka, the disgraced chief copper dealer at Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, has found himself cast in the sinister role of “Mr Big” in what appears to have been a worldwide attempt to rig the global commodities markets. For more than 10 years, he has apparently carried out more than […]

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/ 5 July 1996

Why are the elephants attacking people?

Eddie Koch The young bull elephant that charged a group of tourists in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve last week and killed the professional hunter who went to shoot it the next day are the latest victims of a new set of economic and political problems troubling the managers of South Africa’s burgeoning game reserve industry. […]

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/ 5 July 1996

South Africa faces justice crisis

Dullah Omar has admitted the justice system is in crisis, but he’s also upbeat about resolving the problems, report Gaye Davis, Justin Pearce and Mungo Soggott A crisis of confidence has hit the South African justice system with threats of unprecedented strike action in the prosecution service, glaring inconsistencies in sentencing and bail and major […]

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/ 5 July 1996

Kagiso bids for the big league

Kagiso Trust Investments is graduating from little to super league in the media industry. Jacquie Golding-Duffy looks at its future media interests Kagiso Trust Investments (KTI) has come out of the closet, admitting it is involved in talks with major Afrikaans press group Perskor — owner of the most notorious of the apartheid-era newspapers, The […]

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/ 5 July 1996

Castle of crossed destinies

Thirteen artists engage with the magical spaces of Cape Town’s Castle in an exhibition exploring the need to remember. NEVILLE DUBOW reports IN the latter part of 1989, some months before FW de Klerk made his end-of-era speech in Parliament, a pivotal event occurred in the streets of Cape Town. The government gave permission for […]

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/ 28 June 1996

Missionaries of Sound

MINISTRY of Sound opened the doors of its London nightclub in 1991, at the height of the rave explosion. Granted the UK’s first 24-hour music and dance licence, it has developed into a multi- faceted, award-winning centre for dance and club culture, spreading its name through pioneering projects and aggressive — sometimes terrorist- style — […]

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/ 28 June 1996

The storm that never arrived

Ann Eveleth KwaZulu-Natal’s local government polls were probably the most peaceful political event the historically stormy province has ever seen. Here and there a dark cloud hovered over the province’s 3,5-million voters as political opponents waged a final stand to protect — or extend — their turf, and in some cases angry voters’ tempers burst […]

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/ 28 June 1996

Is SA just the EU’s `guinea pig’?

ANC trade expert Rob Davies sees the EU moving away from aid and trade packages towards reciprocal deals with African-Caribbean-Pacific countries. Lynda Loxton reports Developing countries are becoming increasingly concerned about an apparent bid by the European Union to link negotiations on a free trade agreement with South Africa to the future of the Lome […]