THURSDAY, 9.00PM: THE National Assembly has approved the controversial employment Bill after almost a year of controversy, by 228 votes to 78. Inkatha and the Pan Africanist Congress joined the ANC in supporting the bill, opposed by the other parties. Cosatu has raised objections that its 49 proposed amendments to the bill, agreed to with […]

Rowley Leigh : Moveable feast Although I first ate and enjoyed polenta at a dinner party many years ago, I never got around to cooking it myself until the current vogue first started in the early Nineties. But the stuff I came up with in the kitchen was hardly the stuff of dreams, and came […]

Egyptian director Youssef Chahine recently won nine out of the 14 categories in the M- Net All-Africa Film Awards with his film Destiny. He spoke to Janet Smith A journalist could gush like a desert oil well after meeting Egyptian film director Youssef Chahine. He’s charming enough to persuade a glass of wine to replace […]

FRIDAY, 4:30PM: THREE Pretoria prostitutes charged with running a brothel have called on the Pretoria High Court to refer their case to the Constitutional Court because they argue that the Sexual Offences Act discriminates against women. Their call comes in a week when the Gauteng provincial executive has given its support to legalising prostitution, sparking […]

hoping for peace Angella Johnson Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was about to step into the shower before setting off to the mosque for his morning prayers, when he switched on the special radio he always carried to monitor military activities and heard that a group of soldiers had taken control of Sierra Leone; he was […]

FRIDAY, 8.45AM: SPRINGBOK selectors have named the squad to play in the game against the French Barbarians in Biarritz on Tuesday. Coach Nick Mallett selected Western Province star Percy Montgomery to play at fullback — his natural position. “Until last year Percy played virtually all of his rugby at fullback. He has been moved around […]

The local branch of a church probed for fraud was behind a bid for Capital Radio, writes Suzy Bell Quima Investments last week failed to win its licence bid for Capital Radio because it neglected to reveal vital information to the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), including details of a controversial backer. The consortium was slapped […]

The South African navy is underequipped, unappreciated and underfinanced writes Donald G McNeil Until a year ago, the strike craft SAS Joe Masego was called the Kobie Coetsee. Coetsee, the former minister of defence, is still alive but the South Africa that named ships after apartheid-era leaders is not. Joe Masego, a corporal in a […]

Wally Mbhele President Nelson Mandela travels to Mpumalanga this weekend and is expected to douse the blazing row sparked by his reported insistence that provincial Premier Mathews Phosa step down from the African National Congress race for deputy presidency to make way for KwaZulu-Natal leader Jacob Zuma. And as a compromise, Phosa is expected to […]