WEDNESDAY, 8.30AM THE RESERVE Bank told parliament yesterday that the average household debt in South Africa is 67% of disposable income “exceeding the international average of comparable countries by a considerable margin”. The Bank said that the number of home loans grew by 38%, but the level of arrears also grew 24% to R5 billion. […]

FRIDAY, 1.00PM BUS drivers across the country went on strike today, blockading bus depots and leaving thousands of commuters stranded. Some drivers carried out their morning routes, then “downed tools” at mid-morning. The areas most affected are Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. In Port Elizabeth, some 40 buses blockaded the depot, while 150 drivers […]

FRIDAY, 9.30AM: SOUTH African Football Association CE Danny Jordaan insisted on Thursday that players from top Premier Soccer League teams will have to play in the Bafana Bafana side in the match against England at Old Trafford on May 24. Jordaan dismissed the claims of log leaders Manning Rangers and contenders Kaizer Chiefs to keep […]

Marion Edmunds `I WANT my rape courts,” bellowed the exasperated attorney general of the Western Cape, Frank Kahn, down the phone line this week. “We’ve been waiting for four years and nothing has been done.” Earlier this week, Kahn hit out at the Department of Justice in his annual report tabled in Parliament for its […]

Andrew O’Hagan THE DIVING-BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY by Jean- Dominique Bauby (Fourth Estate, R99,95) THERE have always been writers capable of rising to the occasions and complications of their illnesses, and some of them – Katherine Mansfield, Oscar Moore – might be thought to have been at their best when doing so. Not all writers […]

A Queenstown family accuses Clarence Makwetu of using his influence to deprive them of their land. Marion Edmunds reports THE former Pan Africanist Congress president, Clarence Makwetu, used his contacts in the Cabinet to block a land claim from white farmers for a 761ha property which he says is his own. According to Neville Fletcher, […]

FRIDAY, 11.00AM MORE than half the sample in an informal email survey of South African emigrants to the United States said their quality of life and prospects had improved in the US. The survey, using a random sample of subscribers to Juluka, a newsletter for expatriates, found 80% had reported incomes above the median for […]

FRIDAY, 10.00AM: WORLD soccer governing body Fifa turned down the SA Department of Sports’ bid to financially assist Zaire. Zaire requested help from the South African Football Association earlier this week, asking for R1,1-million to help the team finish their World Cup qualification programme. Safa submitted a proposal to Fifa, but were told it would […]

THE response to the publication of Washington Post correspondent Keith Richburg’s book Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa, which provides a dramatic depiction of the suffering and brutality of our continent, has been heated and acrimonious. Though this extract first appeared in the Post two years ago, the fury of the debate has […]

SUTTNER IN SWEDEN RAYMOND SUTTNER, chairman of parliament’s foriegn affairs committee and a vociferious proponent of an “ethical” foreign policy, has been appointed ambassador to Sweden. Sheila Sisulu, director of World Wide Africa Investment Holdings, has been appointed consul general to New York. MEYER MISSES MEETING MEYER-WATCHERS concerned with which way the National Party’s former […]