The imminent threat to the jobs of 5 000 Harmony Gold workers sharpened this week when the company reported a 50% drop in profits in the past three months. South Africa’s third biggest gold producer announced at the beginning of this month that the strong rand may force it to close six marginal shafts. Management and unions are uniting to find ways to secure a future for affected workers.
Mystery surrounds which police officers conducted the interrogations of members of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) last week. Three LPM members claim they were tortured, while the fourth claims that ”plain-clothed policemen” tried to remove her from the police station where they were being held.
Confident that South Africa is now a stable democracy, the African National Congress has appointed the premiers in all nine provinces. While many of the new premiers have been branded unknowns, most have a record in the ranks of the ANC. ANC officials also underline that the new premiers, overall, are relatively young.
![]()
The African National Congress was aiming for three-thirds of the vote and nine out of nine provinces. In the end they had to settle for two-thirds and seven and a half provinces. The ANC has won most of the votes in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal — but not the power to govern.
![]()
Women’s concerns have been drowned out of these elections by their unspecific inclusion under the big-ticket banners of poverty, unemployment, education and HIV/Aids. In general, women’s concerns and gender issues are mentioned in the political party’s election manifestos simply as a part of grander (hackneyed) political equations.
![]()
The ballot papers have been printed and distributed around the country, where they are being kept in warehouses under the watchful eyes of armed security guards. ”By and large we are a little too early with some things,” says Norman du Plessis, the deputy chief electoral officer of the Independent Electoral Commission.
A decision by some of its member organisations to call for a boycott of the national elections has split the Social Movement Indaba — an umbrella of 11 social movements. Social movements are divided on how best to boycott the elections.
The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) has filed its responding affidavit in the legal case that it brought against South Africa’s four major political parties to compel them to disclose their sources of private funding. The affidavits all indicated their refusal to disclose their funders as it would threaten the country’s multiparty democracy.
Serious corporate contraventions have racked the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Seta (Merseta), making it the latest in a long list of sector education and training authorities (Setas) to have been hit by allegations of financial mismanagement.