Re-skilling and counselling are the new norms for retrenchments, writes Charlene Smith More and more people are facing retrenchment as companies have to let go of the old to make way for the new – take the large corporation that recently retrenched 80 top managers to make way for affirmative action appointees. Restructuring – and […]

Andy Capostagno : Cricket It must be something in the genes. National team selectors of any sporting code from any country are usually men (or women) of experience and intelligence with an understanding of the pressures and complexities of their particular game, individuals who talk genuine horse sense on the golf course or in the […]

The finale of the private TV channel bid was nail-biting and the fall-out spiteful, writes Ferial Haffajee Around the world, races for private television licences are known as beauty competitions. While the finalists in the contest for South Africa’s prized new private television licence didn’t parade in swim-suits and the judges didn’t make flimsy jokes, […]

Andy Duffy A teacher at a state school in the Northern Province has shot himself, apparently because he was caught netting four salaries a month for one job. The Gazankulu teacher was trapped when he tried to collect the pay cheques during a sting operation the province set up last month to expose “ghost workers” […]

Tangeni Amupadhi Members of a vigilante group in Alexandra township have vowed to continue fighting crime despite the killing of two of their members by alleged criminals in one year. Petrus Mathibela (30) was shot dead on Sunday when he and 100 other Comrades – the name the vigilante group uses – tried to raid […]

Charlene Smith South Africa has one of the fastest growing franchise markets in the world and with retrenchments on the increase, interest in the sector is growing. Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said franchising had proved to be successful in 65 industries in 100 countries around the world and would continue to […]

The editor, Phillip van Niekerk, replies to claims against Mail & Guardian reporter Lizeka Mda: Lizeka Mda’s article was merely pointing to a pattern of perception about the leadership style of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. In politics – despite what Ronald Suresh Roberts says – perception is everything and even hallucinations, if they are genuinely […]

David Shapshak The South African Rugby Football Union (Sarfu) can retain the Springbok emblem, but it will have little significance if the National Sports Council revokes Sarfu’s national representation, says council president Mluleki George. “They can use it if they want, but not on behalf of South Africa. It can only be a national emblem […]

Paul van Woudenberg : Mountain biking Dutch-born athlete Bas de Bever has claimed his greatest downhill mountain biking victory in Stellenbosch, the serene town Afrikaners see as their cultural home. This time last year, he hurtled down the vineyard-clad slopes of Botmaskop, about a kilometre east of Die Moederkerk in the centre of town, to […]

Johnny Masilela Now that the censorship restrictions of the old order are no more, are South African writers tackling political issues with vigour? No. As they emerge from the influence of the so-called language boards, which directly or otherwise restricted South African writing in the African languages, our new writing is not necessarily about politics. […]