Peter Dickson The Eastern Cape legislature’s minority of women members have established the first women’s caucus in a provincial legislature, in a determined bid to tackle gender imbalances and influence government policy over the next five years. Eastern Cape legislature deputy speaker and former welfare MEC Mandisa Marasha commented on the new body that comprises […]

Barry Streek The number of regular farm workers in South Africa decreased by 2% a year over the past five financial years, but the number of seasonal workers increased slightly, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza has disclosed. She warned that there are difficulties in obtaining reliable statistics on farms, including commercial farms. […]

Stephen Bierley Tennis In a few days men’s professional tennis will officially and triumphantly announce, in an attempt to enter the next millennium with something approaching a bang, that it has re-invented itself. Its top nine tournaments will be re- branded as a cohesive unit and its end-of- season tournament re-titled, while the ranking system […]

A new villain, spectacular chases, suave as ever and heavily armed with double entendres – Bond is back, says Philip French Pierce Brosnan, the screen’s fifth 007, makes his third appearance as the playboy hero of the Western world in The World Is Not Enough. He was two years old when James Bond sprang from […]

CD of the week The Artist’s name was Prince, and he was funky. And then, due to a combination of legal problems and indiscriminate releases, he wasn’t. Since his dispute with former label WEA over the rights to album masters, his funkiness diminished even as his output increased. A new LP seemed to appear every […]

Howard Barrell and Barry Streek The decision by top government leaders at an all-day meeting in Pretoria on November 29 to accelerate privatisation of state- owned enterprises is of great political and economic importance, according to officials who were present. The meeting represented a commitment by the government to economic restructuring – whatever the potential […]

Lisa Buckingham and Dan Atkinson in London There were red faces all round at accountancy firm KPMG this week after a report was published disclosing that fewer than one in five takeovers produces any value for shareholders. The consultancy firm was playing down suggestions it had tried to pull the report at the last minute […]

Occasionally you happen upon a gem of television that makes all the other dross so much more insignificant. Such was the case in a half-hour documentary on e.tv last week, called JG Strijdom is Very, Very Dead: a faultlessly ironic examination of life around the gargantuan bronze head of “The Lion of the North”, which […]

Donna Block SHARE WORLD Media shares have been one of the most volatile sectors of financial markets, as multimedia corporations fought to gain and retain market share. Last week three major news organisations -NBC, The Washington Post and Newsweek – announced they would be forming a “content-sharing” partnership. What is different about this media partnership […]

M&G reporter Women and children are being touted as the latest beneficiaries of the ethical investing market with the launch this week of African Harvest’s Women’s Initiative Fund (WIF). Sixty percent of the 5% upfront fees paid by investors and 30% of the annual 1,5% management fee will be distributed to community organisations. In addition, […]