Charlene Smith Part of the unemployment problem is matching an employer’s needs with workers’ skills. With this in mind, the Department of Labour has embarked on a strategy — as part of a R200-million European Union loan for skills development — to create job banks. Director General Sipho Pityana says employers will be able to […]

Neil Manthorp : Cricket South Africa’s domination of the World Series one-day competition in Australia has been almost embarrassing. Actually, it has been extremely embarrassing to Australia who have changed their squad and tried to adapt to the modern trends of instant cricket after half a decade of laurel- resting; they are still being stuffed. […]

Ann Eveleth Suspended Transnet executive director Joe Ndhlela’s fate will be decided next Tuesday after an internal probe found he committed several acts of misconduct and impropriety. The transport parastatal’s board of directors is due to meet on Tuesday to consider disciplinary action against Ndhlela after an internal disciplinary inquiry found he committed an act […]

Wally Mbhele and Wonder Hlongwa The Truth and Reconciliation Commission may subpoena Inkatha Freedom Party leader Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi to cross-examine him on the IFP’s links with the apartheid government. Officials of the commission confirmed that Buthelezi would be questioned on the basis of the “Walter Felgate archives” — documents handed by his former confidant […]

Gwen Ansell At last, an overseas impresario is taking an interest in South African music. Euro Stages Peter Ultee who has also promoted opera, and folkloric shows from West Africa departed on Sunday with the 40-strong Sikulu Theatre Group and their production The Journey for a commercial tour that so far includes theatre bookings in […]

South Africa has suffered a number of government scandals since liberation: Sarafina II,the Mpumalanga housing scam, Baleka Kgositsile’s driving licence, the Central Energy Fund (CEF) and Emanuel Shaw II … Few of them, however, point to failure of government in quite as stark a fashion as the scandal we break in this edition of the […]

Wonder Hlongwa and Ann Eveleth The role of police in the brutal Shobashobane massacre will come under the microscope for the first time next week amid fears that senior police management will try to shift the blame to a single station commander. Eighteen Inkatha Freedom Party supporters were convicted early last year for shooting and […]

Andrew Muchineripi : Soccer Developments during the opening days of the new year suggest that South Africa could soon have the best administered and worst attended national championship on the continent. Let us begin with the good news that the sponsors of the Castle Premiership have increased the prize money this season to R3,5-million, give […]

David Beresford : A Second Look Life tends to be made up of a series of images, snapshots from the past. One particularly powerful image from my past is of cricket. It was the early 1970s and I was living in Richmond, near the park. I had shaken the dust of South Africa off my […]

Marion Edmunds Parliament aims to close early this year, on September 23, to free up parliamentarians for constituency work and electioneering, in anticipation of next year’s election which may be held as late as July 1999. This early deadline puts extraordinary pressure on the year’s legislative programme — and exposes South Africans to a lengthy […]