South Africa needs interest rates of 12% or lower if the country is to avoid an economic slump, argues David Gleason Why hasn’t the Reserve Bank dropped interest rates faster and to a greater extent than its miserable efforts so far? And why, during the period in which the rand has enjoyed an entirely unjustified […]

Fiona Macleod Riccardo Ghiazza, the animal dealer at the centre of the furore about the export of 30 baby elephants from the Tuli bushlands, sold two African elephants to pop idol Michael Jackson in 1993. Jackson is listed by the United States Fisheries and Wildlife as one of the American clients who have bought more […]

Sergeant at the bar Now that the dust is beginning to settle on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), probably because critics have begun to read the actual text of the report, it has become clear that the work of the TRC holds much of consequence for the future of our society. To take but […]

David Shapshak The first time I heard daiko (Japanese drums) was at a performance by a group of Kobe elementary school children performing their school’s songs. It sounded like a full-blown adult symphony, not a bunch of 12-year-olds taking turns at the drums because there weren’t enough to go around. Such is the power of […]

As the next election draws closer, and in preparation for the resignation of The Great Mandela, it is stimulating to watch Thabo Mbeki as he patiently welds and rivets himself into position. Renaissance and other long-term projects, like getting shot of Professor Sibusiso Bengu, aside, Mbeki is showing great imaginative tenacity in virtually every field […]

Andrew Worsdale : Movies of the week `Tis the season for film festivals, and the latest celluloid treat is the Japanese Film Festival. This year’s festival is a tribute to auteur Akira Kurosawa, with five of his films included in the line-up. There are also many contemporary films on show, including the enchanting Village of […]

Mercedes Sayagues `I sing the body electric,” wrote Walt Whitman. I am reminded of this line as I watch the bulging biceps, palpitating pecs and throbbing quads of Vaughan Carl, Mr Zimbabwe Bodybuilder 1998. Harare’s 700-seat Seven Arts theatre is half-full for the finals of Mr and Ms Zimbabwe Bodybuilder. Mr Zimbabwe 1996 is the […]

MUNGO SOGGOT, Johannesburg | Friday 3.30pm. A CONSORTIUM headed up by head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s reparations committee Hlengiwe Mkhize is tipped to win a major government diamond valuation contract. The Diamond Board has yet to announce the winner, but rival bidders, who have expressed misgivings about the tender process, claim Mkhize’s consortium […]

Ann Eveleth : In the Act Civilian victims of the latest series of conflicts afflicting Southern Africa will welcome the news that South Africa’s first- ever Refugees Bill is rapidly traversing the corridors of power. More than three decades after anti-colonial and civil wars first engulfed the region – creating large numbers of refugees – […]

friend Mungo Soggot Hlengiwe Mkhize, the truth commissioner tipped to win a major government diamond contract, this week likened her prospective job of assessing the value of rough diamonds to that of compensating torture victims. Mkhize chairs the local arm of a consortium masterminded by a Belgian diamond broker which is the favourite in the […]