Steven Ntuli Labour Minister Tito Mboweni is struggling to find workers for his department. The problem, he says, is that he pays too little. The former trade union leader made this candid admission at an impromptu speech at Rhodes University this week. ”I am struggling to get black workers to work at the department because […]

The lives of people in KwaZulu/Natal have been shaped for more than five years by the politics of the graveyard. When some political leaders want their way, it has become habitual for them to use violence and threaten more of it. It is no exaggeration to say the constitution of the country’s problem province is […]

In his May Day message, Cosatu general secretary Sam Shilowa outlined the trade union movement’s concerns over the new Labour Relations Bill. This is an edited version of his speech. The often-stated objective of the (new Labour Relations) legislation (LRA) is to give workers rights, minimise conflict on the shop floor and provide for the […]

THE Restitution of Land Rights Act passed through parliament in November last year. It allows for the creation of a Land Claims Court and a five-member commission to hear claims by groups who suffered at the hands of apartheid forced removals. The commission, which has already been appointed, has regional offices in each of the […]

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser=20 GAUTENG audiences were presented with two of the=20 centrepieces of the classical religious repertoire=20 recently. Unfortunately, neither performance was an=20 unqualified success.=20 The Standard Bank Arena was packed with an audience=20 eager to hear Yehudi Menuhin conduct Handel’s Messiah.=20 He brought with him the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and=20 three soloists. They […]

Bruce Cohen=20 A bitter battle for the knock ‘n drop newspaper market=20 in Gauteng between the Argus Company and Caxtons has=20 ended — and just begun.=20 The Appeal Court this week upheld an appeal by Caxtons- CTP against an 18-month-old Supreme Court judgment which=20 allowed Argus to publish freesheets in competition with=20 Caxtons, which was […]

Ann Eveleth The Inkatha Freedom Party’s 30-day deadline for international mediational on constitutional issues runs out next week and so far the party sees no progress on the issue. Unless some agreement is reached by Wednesday, party leaders say they will be forced to walk out of the Constitutional Assembly. IFP constitutional affairs spokesman Sipho […]

The Markets=20 Jacques Magliolo=20 Stockbrokers are slow to accept change and nothing=20 upsets them more than when their old boys’ club is=20 interfered with. =20 Now, only seven months after being forced to allow=20 institutions to become corporate members of the=20 exchange, the realisation that they have no choice and=20 no way out is finally […]

BALLET: Stanley Peskin=20 IT has not been established whether Emma Livry’s costume=20 caught fire while dancing the title role of Taglioni’s=20 Papillon (1860) or during a rehearsal of Auber’s opera=20 La Muette de Portici, in which the role of the dumb girl=20 was traditionally played by a ballerina. =20 Whichever account of her death is […]

Eddie Koch A COMMISSION set up this week to probe Thor Chemicals’ importation of toxic waste to South Africa may be presented with evidence of links between employees of the British multinational and a covert weapons The Environmental Justice Network Forum (EJNF), a coalition of environmental groups, this week said it feared the commission would […]