Barry Streek The government is to lay down minimum wages and working conditions for domestic servants and farm workers by March next year, the Department of Labour said this week. The department’s director of minimum standards, Fatima Bhayat, told the Mail & Guardian it would wrap up its policy on the domestic servant industry by […]

Belinda Beresford It came from the north-east, the killer storm, following the Limpopo River, to deliver its fury on South Africa. An immature tropical cyclone is the way climatologists describe it – the phenomenon behind the deluge of rain which has washed over the subcontinent this week. The storm – which just missed being accorded […]

THE United States said it has reached agreement with the West African nation Burkina Faso on an “open skies” pact that will allow unrestricted air service between the two countries. US Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater said the agreement was initialed in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on Wednesday and marked the first agreement between the United States […]

John Cassy Sex has been overtaken by music as the most popular search request on the Internet. MP3, the technology that allows music to be downloaded direct from the Net, has knocked sex off the number one spot as the word or phrase most commonly entered into search engines. The rankings are from Searchterms.com, which […]

Michael Finch Athletics Just when you thought that Athletics South Africa (ASA) was finally repairing the rift between administrators and athletes, it ruins all the good work. This week many of the country’s top stars had debit orders returned on car and house payments while battling to put food on the table, after ASA failed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Friday 8.45am. AS the country mourns the exit of Bafana Bafana from the African Cup of Nations, Nigeria has revealed that a tactical blunder – and some sharp thinking by the hosts – led to the demise of the South Africans. Bafana were totally outclassed 2-0 in the semi-finals against the […]

champions Bob Woolmer FROM THE PAVILION Australia is the dominant side in world cricket at the moment. South Africa are in transition, England too, while Pakistan and India are full of Eastern promise but short on fulfilling that promise. As soon as there is any bounce in the pitch they are found wanting. The West […]

A murder suspect who threatened to kill the two witnesses to his alleged crime has been freed on bail of R500, and nobody involved in the case can explain why. Heather Hogan reports ‘It must have been a mistake,” shrugged a clerk at Botshabelo Magistrate’s Court, of the alleged murderer’s release on R500 bail. And […]

Barry Streek Non-profit organisations are on the verge of victory in their long-standing battle to gain tax concessions from the government. This follows a draft report by the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on finance which endorsed last year’s Katz commission’s proposals to extend tax incentives to NGOs. The committee’s draft report has rejected attempts by […]

‘I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love” … except on St Valentine’s Day of course. Valentine’s Day has never been especially important in my household but it’s always been a good excuse for my son to gorge himself on chocolate. It will be a washout this year as well since […]