Madeleine Wackernagel : Taking Stock Looking for a cheery subject to start the new year, I thought of the massive influx of foreigners and all that lovely foreign exchange providing a welcome boost to our beleaguered economy. But events conspired against me. Lurid tales of foreign visitors mindlessly slaughtered around the country will deal a […]
THURSDAY, 12.30PM: WORLDWIDE demand for gold rose 16% last year as falling prices led to a higher demand for gold in jewellery, electronics and coin production. Total demand rose to 4 025 tons from the 1996 figure of 3 477 tons. The rise, however, was offset by record sales of above-ground gold by central banks, […]
Anglo American and its associated companies are facing a $3-billion lawsuit in the United States after allegations that it “interfered” in a tender already awarded to another mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s fabulously rich copper belt. On Wednesday, the Arkansas-based junior mining company America Mineral Fields (AMF) filed the damages suit against […]
“White Witchdoctor” in the hot seat Although his appointment as South Africa’s national soccer team’s full-time coach was greeted with mixed feelings by the football fraternity, Frenchman Philippe Troussier is adamant that he can do a good job. Troussier was appointed last Saturday as the man to succeed Clive Barker and lead Bafana Bafana to […]
Everyone involved in educating this country’s children, from Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu to the most junior teacher, should be forced to sit an exam this week, a test containing a single question: define the word responsibility. If they can define it, they might wantto consider how the word applies tothemselves. For these people together […]
Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer After the carefully selected, diplomatically correct words of Clive Barker, new Bafana Bafana coach Jomo Sono has hit the scene like a bolt of lightning from the blue. Sono resembles those gunslingers we worshipped as children at the bioscope. He walks with the same self-belief and is ready to let rip […]
Marion Edmunds The mystery surrounding Cape Town gardener Bennet Sibaya’s relationship with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission deepened this week, after he denied providing commission investigators with evidence that he was involved in police “dirty tricks” operations. Sibaya has refuted suggestions, made in a Sunday newspaper, that he told the commission he had been a […]
The tussle between the IBA and Voice of Soweto could end in a bruising court battle, write Ferial Haffajee and Maria McCloy The Voice of Soweto radio station will seek an interdict to prevent the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) from hauling it off the air in ten days’ time. “The IBA has given us no […]
Dan Atkinson and Larry Elliott When the Iraqi tanks of Saddam Hussein rumbled into Kuwait in August 1990, economic pundits declared that the oil price could hit $60 a barrel within months. Early this week, a barrel of Brent crude was changing hands at less than $16. It was not only oil that was tipped […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi Newly elected African National Congress secretary general Kgalema Mothlante had a hectic first week at the party’s Shell House headquarters, drafting its anniversary statement and preparing the ground for talks with other political organisations. His orientation included daily two-hour meetings with his predecessor Cheryl Carolus, and a session with his new boss, ANC […]