Western Cape Local Government MEC Peter Marais, whose boundary demarcation plan was rejected in court this week, is at the centre of a new election controversy, reports Rehana A NEW local government row is looming in the Western Cape over Local Government MEC Peter Marais’ refusal to prepare new legislation for rural local elections or […]

Marion Edmunds FREE State Premier Patrick Lekota is concerned that the African National Congress-aligned Congress of Traditional Leaders (Contralesa) is spreading its tentacles into the Free State. He has raised the matter with Eastern Cape Premier Raymond Mhlaba. Lekota’s concern adds to growing anxiety among ANC leaders about the role of traditional leaders in the […]

Lynda Loxton SOME analysts were somewhat sceptical this week about the much-publicised decision by the Rupert family empire to merge their tobacco interests in Rembrandt Group Limited (Remgro) and Swiss-based Richemont Securities AG. The merger will create a new, unlisted global tobacco giant, to be known as R&R Tobacco Holdings, which will incorporate Remgro’s tobacco […]

Will religious and traditional law take precedence over equality in the new Constitution? Etienne Mureinik looks at The Gender Question IS the Constitution good for women? Both the interim Constitution and the final one now being written are constitutions to undo apartheid and its legacy. The ideal of equality is therefore a central constitutional value, […]

A proposed waterfront development in Durban’s run-down Point is being plagued by controversy, report Ann Eveleth and David THREE of the world’s most colourful businessmen — Australian media mogul Kerry Packer, legendary British gambler John Aspinall, and Anglo-French “Marmite king” Jimmy “Goldenballs” Goldsmith — have been caught up in a furious investment squabble over Durban’s […]

RARELY in South African public life can a document have been produced which is as politically explosive as the 64-page indictment (including addenda) presented last Friday in the Magnus Malan case. What makes it paradoxical is that there are, as of yet, no political repercussions. The explanation, of course, is that it is an indictment […]

Klaus von Lieres, ex-Wits attorney general and now KwaMakhutha trial defence counsel, in THE MARK GEVISSER PROFILE OI’M glad,” said one particularly laconic senior counsel after the opening of the Trial of the Generals in Durban last week, “to see that Klaus is feeling a little better.” The comment was a reference to the fact […]

Shakespeare meets Frank N Furter in Fred Abrahamse’s sci-fi musical at the Baxter. MARC DEVENISH reports RETURN to the Forbidden Planet, the intergalactic funfair that has bounced on to the Baxter Theatre stage in Cape Town, has been performed in 16 countries, from London’s West End to Norway, Alaska and Australia. It has even been […]