Ben Laurance When Chris Patten was running Hong Kong, he was fond of dropping a smug little statistic into any conversation about the Hong Kong and Chinese economies. The colony, with six million people squeezed into a sweaty little corner of Asia, was about to achieve one-fifth of the economic output of its enormous neighbour […]

Neil Manthorp : Cricket South Africa’s domination of the World Series one-day competition in Australia has been almost embarrassing. Actually, it has been extremely embarrassing to Australia who have changed their squad and tried to adapt to the modern trends of instant cricket after half a decade of laurel- resting; they are still being stuffed. […]

the struggle Denis Herbstein Attempts to render the lives of solicitors more exciting than they actually are should be viewed with scepticism. But for Martin Bayer, who has died of a heart attack at the age of 66, the term “supporter of revolutionaries” would not be out of place. One of the few people who […]

Threats from Afrikaner cultural organisations almost put an end to a controversial art exhibition. Charl Blignaut reports A proposed Pretoria art exhibition has sparked a battle that reads like a chapter from an account of a modern-day Boer War. The future of a controversial exhibition by Johannesburg-based artist Kendell Geers is hanging in the balance […]

Craig Bishop `My neighbours still believe in it, but the politicians are destroying the spirit of ubuntu.” Arthritic and near-destitute, Sindiswa Frans does not think she will vote African National Congress next year. Many of the estimated 635 000 pensioners in the province who have not received their pension cheques for December and January may […]

attacks Marion Edmunds Western Cape police have put rural landowners in the Boland on a security alert for fear of attacks on farms by the Pan Africanist Congress’s disbanded armed wing, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla). Police have been visiting owners of farms and smallholdings, warning them of the possibility of attack, encouraging extra […]

FRIDAY, 6.00PM: THE bullion price on Friday rose to above $290 an ounce as United States hedge funds covered themselves ahead of a US long weekend, which pushed the Johannesburg Stock Exchange gold index up 7%, carrying with it the rand and the JSE’s all share index. At day’s end the financial index had risen […]

Adam Haupt spoke to musician and world traveller DLow about his new album and his boempies hairstyle Many people in Portlands, Mitchells Plain, know the R&B singer DLow (Deen Louw) as the organiser of the Rhyme Unit Feed the Needy feeding scheme, which serves many people in the area. However, his two identities are not […]

Marion Edmunds Parliament aims to close early this year, on September 23, to free up parliamentarians for constituency work and electioneering, in anticipation of next year’s election which may be held as late as July 1999. This early deadline puts extraordinary pressure on the year’s legislative programme — and exposes South Africans to a lengthy […]

Charlene Smith Part of the unemployment problem is matching an employer’s needs with workers’ skills. With this in mind, the Department of Labour has embarked on a strategy — as part of a R200-million European Union loan for skills development — to create job banks. Director General Sipho Pityana says employers will be able to […]