Simon Caulkin in London It was trumpeted as the key to reducing unemployment. Everyone, just everyone, agreed: flexible working was A Good Thing. It was the wonder drug for good management. As with the medical variety, management wonder drugs all too often turn out to have nasty side effects. Indeed, sometimes the complications are worse […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi Gauteng MEC for Safety and Security Jessie Duarte, whose political career hangs in the balance, personally handed an allegedly fraudulent document to the Mail & Guardian last week in an attempt to ward off a series of damaging allegations levelled against her. The commission of inquiry investigating the charges heard this week that […]

Marion Edmunds The Eastern Cape government is allowing the province’s natural assets and tourist attractions to go down the tubes, because of a lack of funds, skills and political will to preserve the environment. Despite official denials of collapse, the picture of conservation in the Eastern Cape – the only province in the country which […]

The Mail & Guardian continued its steady growth with the latest ABC circulation figures showing a 5% year-on-year increase. The paper’s ABC figure from July to December last year was 34 144 copies, compared with 32 510 for the last six months of 1996. The paper experienced its highest sale ever over the Christmas period, […]

Peter Beaumont and Shyam Bhatia Who is . . . Saddam Hussein? Saddam Hussein doesn’t take chances. Two weeks ago when the United States first threatened to rain bombs on Baghdad, he moved the young thugs of the amn al’rais, the presidential security force that always accompanies him, out of their barracks and into quarters […]

Belinda Beresford Too broke to pay full price for that ticket to Cape Town or around the world? Quailing at the thought of standby again? Why not try to catch your flight using a ticket auction on the Internet? Ticket auctions allow you to offer a price for a ticket, usually subject to a minimum […]

Mukoni T Ratshitanga and Wally Mbhele Former Brixton murder and robbery squad head Charlie Landman blew up his official vehicle in 1993 to create the false impression that he was being intimidated, the Pretoria High Court heard this week. But former Civil Co-operation Bureau operative Ferdi Barnard is facing the music alone for the blast, […]

Andy Duffy The Independent Development Trust (IDT) has uncovered an alleged R2-million fraud involving two staffers and an employee of the agency’s auditing firm, Deloitte & Touche. The staffers, who helped administer funds for development projects across the country, allegedly signed cheques for themselves. The Deloitte & Touche official, seconded to the agency as a […]

8The Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE) financial index looks set to defy gravity. Neither currency turmoil in the Far East, fears of overheating American markets, nor fluctuating hopes of an interest rate cut seem to dampen its lively spirit. Dealers say the major problem is that the financial sector is being driven by speculation, hope and […]