DEMOCRATIC Party Gauteng leader Peter Leon told the Gauteng legislature on Thursday that he has information that a gambling operator paid R1-million to a Gauteng MEC to secure a casino license. Leon refused repeated requests to name the MEC. Leon subsequently came under fire from leader of the house Firoz Cachalia, who charged that Leon […]

A series of confidential Foreign Office telegrams just released by the British Public Record Office sheds dramatic new light on the political storm that blew up in 1967 over England’s proposed touring party to South Africa. Alan Travis reports It was an urgent secret telegram from the Foreign Office in London to the British ambassador […]

Securitisation should give the banking industry a kick in the pants and investors a new toy, writes Donna Block Looking for a new home loan? Okay, “round up the usual suspects”. Only a month ago most consumers looking for a home loan would have taken a similar tact. The major banks all have comparable rates, […]

Matthew Krouse Down the tube You’ve probably caught the new SABC2 commercial – but if you haven’t, try not to mistake it for a Sun International campaign. It’s not about any reality in particular, rather it’s a pretty tidbit about four different types of over- dressed Africans, representing the four elements. After short, but dramatic […]

Angola Howard Barrell South Africa has launched a diplomatic offensive to spur the United Nations and big powers into decisive action to halt Angola’s accelerating slide into all-out civil war. In Parliament this week, President Nelson Mandela called for a new international approach to bring peace to the Angola. At the same time, South African […]

Friday night: Michelle Constant Some people do a day at the races, others a night at the opera, mine was an evening at the boxing. Past Hammanskraal, down the freeway, the evening heat lifting off the tired tarmac and the Carousel lights twinkling. Maybe it’s the heat, the almost- desert light at sunset, but it […]

There’s a school of thought that argues that the provinces should have limited taxation powers, writes Charlene Smith Amid reports of budgetary chaos at provincial level, the Financial and Fiscal Commission is increasing pressure on the government to allow the provinces limited taxation powers. The commission, which advises the minister of finance on provincial budgetary […]

THE DAVID GLEASON COLUMN When is a loan a gift? Does it matter? Well, yes it does, especially when commerce and banks are involved. And I suspect the story I am about to relate may come to feature prominently as the evidence unravels before a special tribunal over the course of the year. Once upon […]

At the scene of their initial showing on the exhibition Smokkel, on the fringe of the second Johannesburg Biennale in 1997, Lisa Brice’s ogling beanbags sat, slouched and a little ridiculous, passively watching the slowly changing facial progressions of a forensic identikit computer programme on the television screen before them. Brice described the piece, entitled […]

Amanda Fitschen The recent announcement by KwaZulu-Natal’s MEC for Finance Peter Miller that his province had managed to turn its financial situation around to register a surplus for the current financial year, compared to a deficit for the previous year, must have startled even the least cynical individual. Some may even have asked why all […]