Robert Kirby: Loose Cannon Gnaw on this dainty bone if you will. “The unfair labour practice provisions and provisions against dismissal for arbitrary reasons and unfair dismissal for incapacity should provide some protection.” Or what about this plum, in reply to the question: What is sexual harassment? “The imposition of unwanted conduct of a sexual […]
Ronald Suresh Roberts THE HOUSE GUN by Nadine Gordimer (David Philip, R99,95) PARADISE by Toni Morrison (Chatto & Windus, R110) ‘Little illegal niggers with guns and no home training need to be in jail,” says a black resident of a blacks-only town, in Toni Morrison’s Paradise. Conversely, in Nadine Gordimer’s The House Gun, young white […]
IN BRIEF LESOTHO PM IN HOSPITAL LESOTHO Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle, 79, was admitted to the Morningside clinic in Johannesburg on Thursday afternoon. The nature of his illness is unknown, but Mokhehle has been ill for some time. Mokhehle declared himself unavailable for Lesotho’s May 23 elections because of ill health and old age. He […]
FRIDAY, 1.00PM HEADLINE share earnings for Liberty Life rose 20% in 1997 to R12,15, helped by a new, internationally standardised accounting system. The dividend rose 33% to 425c, including a 40th birthday 40c share bonus. Earnings attributable to Liberty Life shareholders rose to R1,18-billion, new business rose 32,6% to R3,08-billion, and total assets increased from […]
Marion Edmunds Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s copy of the 1998/1999 budget speech was a prize attraction this week at a lavish banquet for South Africa’s top black businesspeople who gathered to toast Manuel and the country’s foremost black entrepreneur, Cyril Ramaphosa. The document – which included some gentle tax cuts for the richest of […]
WHO ARE . . . JOEL NETSHITENZHE AND YACOOB ABBA OMAR? Ferial Haffajee It’s appropriate that the modest Joel Netshitenzhe is reading Primary Colours. The novel about an obscure southern governor and his election trail to the White House is a testament to spin doctors – the powerful back-room advisers whose job it is to […]
Angella Johnson No road signs mark the way to China Town. Unlike its wealthy neighbours which flaunt thatched-roof mansions to passing motorists, the impoverished township lies concealed behind a curtain of tall leafy trees. Also hidden in this dusty informal settlement – tucked between St Francis Bay and the Cape St Francis resort village in […]
James Ambrose Brown: A SECOND LOOK If you were to tease my memory about the exhibits of the museum in the gardens of the library in Johannesburg, I would have to admit that I remember only two things – one is the reputed chair of Shaka, king of the Zulus; the other is a Zeederberg […]
Belinda Beresford The government is continuing its campaign to ensure that taxes become as unavoidable as death for South Africans with the latest budget, which reduced the overall income tax burden while attacking fringe benefits such as car allowances. The budget saw about R3,7-billion knocked off the income tax burden for South Africans, with the […]
FRIDAY, 11.30AM: FORMER anti-apartheid activist Dean Snyders, who was arrested last week on charges of dealing in uncut diamonds with a value of R1,8-million, has accused his former friend, Northern Cape Premier Manne Dipico, of framing him in a sting operation as a result of a power struggle between senior African National Congress officials in […]