bias Ann Eveleth Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Kader Asmal undertook this week to launch an inquiry into allegations that building consortium Group Five refused to consider highly qualified candidates for senior posts because they were black or female. Executive recruitment firm Dick Muller CC blew the whistle on the construction, engineering and works […]

Wonder Hlongwa The investigative task unit head, Bushy Engelbrecht, this week applied to have part of Sifiso Nkabinde’s trial held in camera. Engelbrecht said six witnesses fear that if their identities become known in the course of testifying against Nkabinde in an open court, their lives will be in danger. The former African National Congress […]

Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon Question 3: a) What event was this British woman talking about in 1997 when she said: “A kind of floral fascism was at work … in a country ruled by grief police?” b) Around the same time a BBC camera chose to zoom in on a greeting card reading “God created […]

Battle lines are drawn over the Employment Equity Bill, write Marion Edmunds and Mungo Soggot All sides of the political spectrum dug in this week for what threatens to be the biggest parliamentary battle between now and the next elections: the government’s drive to take on white economic privilege. The Employment Equity Bill, due to […]

Mercedes Sayagues Swaziland’s claims on land south of Maputo bolstered supporters of Mozambique’s decision last year to reintroduce compulsory military service. Mozambique, one of the world’s five poorest countries, will recruit 6 000 young men and women every year to strengthen its army. The military service Bill was pushed through Parliament by the ruling party […]

Playwright Paul Slabolepszy has had 22 plays staged in almost as many years. So why, asks Charl Blignaut, does he have to impersonate Naas Botha at rugby matches to pay the bills? ‘All I actually want to do is stay home at the computer and write,” says Paul Slabolepszy once we have settled in as […]

FRIDAY, 12.00NOON: SOUTH Africa’s Wayne Ferreira continued his revival at the Dubai Open on Thursday with a tense and hard-fought second-round victory over powerful New Zealander Brett Steven. World No 50 Steven got the match off to a cracking start, conceding only three points on serve and breaking Ferreira twice in the first set. But […]

Government’s hands-off approach has ensured an economic success story, writes Tim Trulock For 27 years, the former president of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, nationalised not only the large flagship companies, but also many small, nickel-and-dime operations. The government became the major shareholder in Zambia and then proceeded to run it into the ground, destroying not only […]

Dr Nina Simone is not a woman to mess with. Her first love was classical piano, but she was forced into jazz and soul. Forty years on, her music is as potent a political weapon as ever. Michael Bracewell spoke to the diva Back in 1987, when the regenerated town centres of boom-economy Britain could […]