The South African petroleum industry was thrown into confusion in March 1997 when Minister of Minerals and Energy Penuell Maduna threatened to “re-regulate the entire industry”. He accused multinationals operating in South Africa of maintaining a stranglehold on the domestic industry without contributing to black empowerment or the economy as a whole. Recently, black empowerment […]
A letter from Don Mkhwanazi cites Thabo Mbeki as the “top command” of his black-empowerment bank, reports Mungo Soggot The offices of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and businessman Don Mkhwanazi this week sought to dispel suggestions that Mbeki was closely involved with the Malaysian-backed bank Mkhwanazi chairs. Senior staffers at the bank, including its former […]
Wonder Hlongwa The widows of two prominent African National Congress leaders in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands are seeking legal advice to sue Inkatha Freedom Party members implicated in their husbands’ murders. They say they are not satisfied with the quality of the evidence submitted to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee. Thobekile Maphumulo and Sbongile […]
Everything on Wall Street is excessive: buildings, bonuses – and sexual harassment of female clerical staff by male brokers. But women are striking back. Joanna Coles reports from New York Wall Street is a place of excess: the seven- figure salaries, the soaring, self-reflecting buildings of chrome and glass, the bonuses bigger than the national […]
Swapna Prabhakaran If tigers could speak, they’d sound just like Tim Modise and Ofeibea Quist-Arcton. Their laidback voices resonate around the studio in a half-purr, half-growl hinting at claws and teeth, and the very sharp intelligence of jungle cats. Modise – an old familiar on SAfm – has teamed up with the BBC’s Quist-Arcton to […]
Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg It seems to me there are two particularly compelling reasons to stage a tribute to Gibson Kente in 1998. In the first place, it’s about bloody time. We need, for the record, to preserve a body of work such as Kente’s in case we forget. Secondly, it’s a rare […]
Emeka Nwandiko As South African companies struggle to fill high-flying posts they are increasingly relying on executive recruitment agencies – better known as headhunters – to fill the gap. Crime is the reason most often given for the outflow of mainly white senior executives from South Africa since 1994. The Central Statistical Service notes that […]
Krisjan Lemmer There has been much excitement in the Groot Marico – protests in the back room of the Dorsbult Bar, resolutions calling the volk to arms, death threats etc etc – over reported plans to remove Paul Kruger’s name from South Africa’s biggest game park. In the end calmer heads prevailed and the burghers […]
Tangeni Amupadhi Like President Nelson Mandela, Gaaitsiwe “Conka” Rakuba is a veteran prisoner who celebrated 27 Christmases behind bars. But he was jailed for different reasons. Rakuba (42) is a career prisoner: he first went to jail in 1970 and since then hadn’t spent more than three months “outside”, until his release last year. This […]
Once a vibrant part of the Soweto arts scene, the Funda Centre has had to adapt. Swapna Prabhakaran finds out how It is a sad fact that Soweto’s Funda Centre is better known internationally than it is in Johannesburg. The once-famous centre for literacy and the arts has transformed in the Nineties to become a […]