Marion Edmunds Parliament aims to close early this year, on September 23, to free up parliamentarians for constituency work and electioneering, in anticipation of next year’s election which may be held as late as July 1999. This early deadline puts extraordinary pressure on the year’s legislative programme — and exposes South Africans to a lengthy […]

Charlene Smith Part of the unemployment problem is matching an employer’s needs with workers’ skills. With this in mind, the Department of Labour has embarked on a strategy — as part of a R200-million European Union loan for skills development — to create job banks. Director General Sipho Pityana says employers will be able to […]

Wally Mbhele and Wonder Hlongwa The Truth and Reconciliation Commission may subpoena Inkatha Freedom Party leader Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi to cross-examine him on the IFP’s links with the apartheid government. Officials of the commission confirmed that Buthelezi would be questioned on the basis of the “Walter Felgate archives” — documents handed by his former confidant […]

Ferial Haffajee Gender commissioner and renowned Muslim cleric Faried Esack has been given state protection after a series of death threats from the supporters of the renegade community station Radio Islam. Members of VIP protection services provide 24-hour security to the man who serves as acting head of the Commission for Gender Equality. “I have […]

The arts and culture constituency is soon to engage with a new umbrella body whose aim is to promote the resourcing of the arts and to ask hard questions of government now that democratic policies have been implemented. Arts and culture consultant Mike van Graan is spearheading the establishment of the body known as the […]

South Africa has suffered a number of government scandals since liberation: Sarafina II,the Mpumalanga housing scam, Baleka Kgositsile’s driving licence, the Central Energy Fund (CEF) and Emanuel Shaw II … Few of them, however, point to failure of government in quite as stark a fashion as the scandal we break in this edition of the […]

Ann Eveleth Suspended Transnet executive director Joe Ndhlela’s fate will be decided next Tuesday after an internal probe found he committed several acts of misconduct and impropriety. The transport parastatal’s board of directors is due to meet on Tuesday to consider disciplinary action against Ndhlela after an internal disciplinary inquiry found he committed an act […]

Andy Duffy Colin Stanfield is expected to return to his Cape Flats roots this weekend to meet the mother of a 22-year-old who died on his doorstep. Stanfield has done well from his time leading the powerful gang cartel, The Firm. The alleged drug baron lives in a plush house in Baltinore Road, one of […]

David Shapshak joins the Mail & Guardian as technology editor, overseeing the new Frontiers section, which will cover cutting-edge developments in information technology, the Internet, science and technology. He was seduced from a news reporting position at the South African Press Association. Belinda Beresford (above left) joins us as Smartmoney editor, after a baptism of […]

Madeleine Roux: Moveable feast James Bond may be as as old as bri-nylon, but he is still the stuff of fantasy. So say the latest press releases about this old chauv and his three squeezes, who are appearing in yet another Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies. Suspecting an end to our long suspension of disbelief […]