Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana’s department has stepped in to resolve a fallout between a major labour union and one of the government’s skills development agencies. This intervention comes hot on the heels of a decision by the Food and Allied Workers Union to withdraw some members from the board of Setasa, the sector education and training authority for secondary agriculture.

Last year 39% of black South Africans believed they were the victims of land injustices in the past. A year later this figure has risen to 55%. A rapid rise in perceived land grievances is one of the startling findings in the first set of results from a national opinion poll conducted by Markinor for the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation in May this year.

Car-wash businesses are the latest product of that grey area known as the second economy, which gave the world street hawkers, spaza shops, shebeens and the ubiquitous public-phone business. Car-wash initiatives can be set up with little capital and operate on a shoestring budget. So, when John Pele found himself unemployed and in need of money for higher education, he opened a car-wash business.

Spring has sprung, bringing with it a burst of energy in the cultural sector. Johannesburg celebrates the seasonal change with a series of jazz concerts. Last weekend was the sell-out Joy of Jazz in Newtown. On Sunday it is the turn of the northern suburbs and the mother of all jazz concerts — Zoo Lake’s Jazz on the Lake.

An interdict to prevent the Mail & Guardian from publishing was dismissed with costs in the High Court at 3am on Friday morning, after the attempt to gag the newspaper was launched at midnight by lawyers acting for the National Council of Provinces and its chairperson, Joyce Kgoali.

A number of senior MPs, including Joyce Kgoali, chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), and African National Congress chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe, have business interests they have not declared to Parliament, as required by law. In some instances, the companies in question are doing business with the government or are planning to do so.