The mining debate has raised its ugly head again, writes Nicky Barker It was described as “the conservation fight of the century”. The battle to save Lake St Lucia, a unique wetland system on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast, began in 1989. That is when Richard’s Bay Minerals applied for mining rights inside the Greater St […]

Termination of pregnancy, or abortion, is available on request from most clinics. But many of them can’t cope with the numbers. Lizeka Mda spent a day at the Soweto clinic It is not quite 8am but the clinic is buzzing. Women have been streaming in from the moment the gates opened at 7.30am. Many walk […]

revenge Barney Spender Rugby On a little side-street in downtown Biarritz there is a poorly-lit bar called Le Frre Jacques. Not an original name for a bar, but chosen perhaps because Jacques is also the name of the self-styled patron, a silver-haired, pot-bellied figure who shuffles around smiling, shaking hands with the customers, his friends, […]

South Africa White South Africans may complain about the crime rate and the economy, but for African-Americans working here, this is a land of opportunity, writes Emeka Nwandiko `This is our last chance,” declares African-American James Prevost in his office in Sandton City. In a muffled southern drawl he intones: “If we don’t get our […]

Mungo Soggot The Minister of Minerals and Energy, Penuell Maduna, has ordered a full investigation into the award of a R3- million state oil job to Liberia’s former finance minister, Emanuel Shaw II. Maduna – who also sought advice from Shaw last year – is understood to have been startled when he learnt of the […]

Maria McCloy Cond Nast debuts in South Africa next year with the lifestyle magazine House and Garden. It joins a hedgerow of similar lifestyle magazines on the local market, including Republican Press’s Garden and Home and Food and Home; Associated Magazines’s House and Leisure, Habitat and Times Media Limited’s Elle Decoration, which will be on […]

index Madeleine Wackernagel Taking Stock Barely an eyebrow was raised as the rand tumbled to new lows against sterling this week. Higher interest rates in Britain are to blame, they say, so the blip is a temporary one. I don’t think so. With the United States also considering higher interest rates in response to inflationary […]

FRIDAY, 1.30PM: The tax blitz by the South African Revenue Services last month revealed 26% of the businesses they visited were not registered to pay tax. The blitz, carried out on Tax Awareness day last month, targeted 42 114 businesses countrywide. Northern Province and Mpumalanga were found to be the worst offenders, with 53% of […]