FRIDAY, 11.00AM: A DRAFT affirmative action Bill requiring every business to have an affirmative action policy will be published for comment before year’s end, Labour Minister Tito Mboweni told the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday. The Bill will follow the Malaysain affirmative action model rather than the American one, in that it […]

Sechaba ka’Nkosi With less than two weeks to go before the annual meeting of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), there is growing uncertainty within its membership about its future and the influence the federation still has in South African politics. In the rapidly changing political and economic climate, it is being reduced […]

Madeleine Wackernagel Oxfam, the British-based charity, is calling on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reconsider their debt-rescheduling plan for Mozambique. A decision on the extent of the relief to be offered to one of the world’s poorest countries will be made on Tuesday. Much has been made of the great economic […]

FRIDAY, 5.00PM: IMPROVED performance and a revised government rescue package have ensured that the ERPM gold mine will be saved from closure for the time being. Outgoing chairman Lionel Hewitt said on Thursday the mine’s new management had manged to bring the mines operations close to break-even in the past few months since it recorded […]

Cape Town’s olympic bid captured the spirit of the city but not the continent, writes Ferial Haffajee It was almost as if the the spin-doctors and mega-marketeers responsible for selling Cape Town’s Olympic bid took a late swig of Energade to boost a flagging campaign. Or it may have been the countdown to decision day […]

Durban’s Bat Centre was created for the cultural community. Today, two years later, it is under fire from that community. Suzy Bell reports It’s that garish building by the sea, splashed with crude but colourful murals that attracts Durban’s eclectic bohemians – white girls in punjabis, rastas stoned on more than the pungent scent of […]

Lack of stock controls in hospitals is costing the state millions, writes Aspasia Karras A state-employed pharmacist in KwaZulu- Natal was almost killed last month by an armed gunman, in an attack that has been linked to the measures instituted by the provincial health department to curb the theft of pharmaceuticals from government stocks. As […]

Cape Town’s privileged position as the home of Parliament is slipping away, writes Marion Edmunds Management consultants KPMG have dashed Cape Town’s chances of keeping Parliament with a finding that the cost of moving the country’s administration to Cape Town would be a staggering R23,5-billion. The African National Congress’s pro-Gauteng lobby will use this figure […]

Ed Vulliamy Stamp collecting has never been as sizzling a preoccupation as it is now, since drummer and Massachusetts stamp gallery owner Don Palazzo had the idea of raising revenue in Third World countries by issuing entertaining postage paraphernalia. The hobby has suddenly exploded along with the fear of the eruption of the volcano in […]