Mamelodi Sundowns may have cruised to the Castle Premiership title this season, but they were taught a footballing lesson by Egyptian side Al-Ahly in the CAF Champions League recently. That should have provided a wake-up call to South Africans who believe that the Castle Premiership sets the benchmark in terms of African league competition.
The South African Revenue Service is hoping that by reducing a normal salaried taxpayer’s tax return from 10 pages to two, more people will submit returns and less will require a tax consultant. However, as one tax consultant puts it, "a simpler tax return form does not simplify tax".
It was perhaps the second glass of wine that did it. That, or the dessert of millefeuille aux poires. Or it could have been the blanquette, the bourguignon, or whatever Le Firmament in the Rue 4 Septembre in Paris’s second arrondissement was offering as the day’s special.
“There is no secret to being a good waiter. Like any job — whether you’re working at the till in Checkers or in the post office — you need manners,” retired waiter Eddie Naicker tells Niren Tolsi.
ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma’s security personnel were forced to take additional precautionary measures last year after rumours originated that he would be poisoned, the Mail & Guardian has learnt. It is unclear from where the rumours emanated, but the M&G understands that Zuma’s aides were tipped off by sources within the National Intelligence Agency.
If Judge Joop Labuschagne rules this month that South Africa’s so-called “nuclear bazaar” trial should be held in secret, he will be making history. Even the trial of one of the kingpins in the nuclear bazaar case, German engineer Gotthard Lerch, was open to the public and press in the south-west German town of Mannheim.
Imran Ismail is the invisible man. Now believed to be in his early 40s, he started his working life in an unprepossessing way when his uncle secured him a job at a friend’s Fordsburg business, Roshnee Enterprises, now one of the country’s biggest importers of fireworks.
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Presidential hopeful and African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma has erected a security wall around himself, saying he fears he could be assassinated ahead of the ANC conference in December. However well grounded, the cloak and dagger claims highlight the growing climate of fear and distrust that has infected South Africa’s political scene.
The Scorpions are closing in on Jackie Selebi. Indications are that the elite unit’s investigation of the police National Commissioner, first highlighted by the Mail & Guardian a year ago, is coming to a head. Well-placed sources say they have received indications that charges may be levelled against Selebi soon.
A Zimbabwean magistrate’s court ruled this week that suspected mercenary Simon Mann, who is serving a four-year jail term for purchasing arms without a valid certificate, can be extradited to Equatorial Guinea to face trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the government there.