Karen Harverson The Department of Public Works will set aside an as yet unspecified percentage of contracts for small black emerging businesses. This is part of an initiative by the Public Works and the Department of Finance to reform procurement policies to give small businesses access to the public sector market. A meeting will be […]

Karen Harverson George Sombonos — owner of the R100-million Chicken Licken, the third biggest fast food chain in South Africa — is unperturbed and mildly surprised by the uproar caused by the successful outcome of his court case against US hamburger chain McDonald’s. He admits to feeling “very relieved” at the verdict delivered last week […]

Gaye Davis DEPUTY President FW de Klerk chaired a routine meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security and Intelligence “as usual” on Thursday as both African National Congress and National Party government sources said ANC attacks on him were simply “electioneering” and discounted any threat to the Government of National Unity. An unfounded rumour that […]

Janet Wilhelm Appearance: Historically disadvantaged patriarch with a penchant for dark designer suits and flash cars. Must be difficult to belong to a disadvantaged group? Not if you had the job of bantustan (sorry, homeland, sorry, independent state) leader. As Bophuthatswana president he consoled himself with lavish government spending — and evidence to the Skweyiya […]

The draft of the Bill of Rights is a victory for South Africa’s poor, writes Gaye Davis THE first complete draft of a new Bill of Rights, laid before a Constitutional Assembly committee this week, represents a major victory – not for any one party, but for the country’s poor and powerless. The draft includes […]

Theatre: David Le Page A NAKED queen scrabbles in the dirt of a filthy dungeon, fighting off rats with a crucifix and babbling her way almost deliriously through the Lord’s Prayer. This is the opening of French Gray (at the Market in Johannesburg), a story not only of Marie Antoinette’s last hours, but of her […]

South Africa’s craft industry could be a gold mine, but its potential remains untapped, reports HAZEL FRIEDMAN IN a recently released document dealing with the future of the arts in South Africa, Dr Ben Ngubane, Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, paid tribute to the positive contribution made by the crafts industry to the […]

To trace the course of the Olifants River is to trace a history of appalling environmental degradation, writes Eddie Koch Look at a map of South Africa and you will see sprinkled over it names that reveal how rivers were once venerated by the early inhabitants, black and white, of this country. Amanzimtoti, the Sweetness […]

Just outside Johannesburg last weekend, a group of South Africans met with a group of Cubans. It was a non-governmental meeting — civil society, not happy to leave matters to governments, working out the potential for cooperation between the two countries. It was also a rare meeting of international solidarity where South Africans were not […]