Over a cup of tea Stephen Gray looks back at the highlights of this year’s Cedarberg Festival They came from five towns. They came from the mission station in the mountains. They came in 4x4s packed with labourers. They came in decorated donkey-carts to the Cedarberg Festival in the Western Cape’s Clanwilliam. Say the name […]

Nawaal Deane An elite group of black medical professionals stands to gain from the Road Accident Fund’s aggressive new positive discrimination policy. A list dispatched from the fund to some law firms lists black professionals who are to be contracted as part of the fund’s new policy, which has been in place since April. The […]

Bryan Rostron If it’s true that the current election in the United Kingdom is all about style over substance (that is, spin), I should immediately declare an interest (two, actually). For several years I was a colleague of Labour’s powerful prime ministerial spin doctor, Alastair Campbell; then, during a right-wing coup at the mass-circulation Daily […]

Bruce Whitfield Absa’s main focus in the year ahead is to lower its costs and become a more efficiently run business. It has a cost to income ratio of 63%, substantially higher than its retail banking competitors, and CEO Nallie Bosman admits it is “totally unacceptable”. It’s appointed a task team, headed by a former […]

Many of the residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement do not have a regular source of income, writes Vongani Fungene The 2 000-strong Joe Slovo informal settlement sticks out like a sore thumb, nestled adjascent to modest suburbs such as Westdene, Crosby and Westbury. Smoke billows from the more than 1000 tin shacks, catching […]

But unions say training given to teachers on the new curriculum has been pathetic David Macfarlane The massive and controver-sial process of designing an entire new curriculum for South Africa’s state schools is set to take a major step forward as the streamlining of Curriculum 2005 nears completion. But those upon whom the success of […]

Thebe Mabanga The annual North West Cultural Calabash has taken a huge leap towards establishing itself as one of the most important cultural events when the 2001 edition was launched with a new format last Friday. “The [Calabash] is fast becoming one of the premier arts and culture festivals in South Africa,” said Mandlemkosi Mayisela, […]

Nawaal Deane and Mungo Soggot The state’s Road Accident Fund has placed a general bar on white professionals both legal and medical specialists handling its cases. The fund, which deals with lawsuits stemming from car accidents on behalf of the state, has instructed law firms acting on its behalf that they too should avoid using […]

Shaun de Waal CD OFTHEWEEK Irish rockers The Hothouse Flowers have a history stretching back to the late Eighties, so a Best of album (London/Gallo) is not likely to be understocked. And the format works particularly well for them, with one surging, impassioned song following another in a continuous wave of top-notch rockin’ soul. Their […]

It was a tumultuous end to a mad, bad season for Bolton’s Scotland captain Ian Whittell He is 35, six months past a footballer’s pensionable age. Yet while most of his peers were dusting down the policies, sizing up a place either behind or at the bar or wearing a groove in the TV analysts’ […]