Stefaans Brmmer A late-night visit by Mpumalanga Premier Matthews Phosa has failed, for now, to steer Swaziland’s young monarch towards democracy, but diplomats believe the steady application of `friendly’ pressure from, among others, President Nelson Mandela, will bear fruit. South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Department remained adamant this week it would not `interfere’ in Swaziland’s domestic […]

Gaye Davis and Rehana Rossouw THE policeman at the centre of the row over allegations that the National Intelligence Agency was spying on top policemen will not be undergoing a lie-detector test, police said this week. Crime Investigation Service spokesman, senior superintendent Faizel Kader, said superintendent H Moodley had volunteered for a polygraph test, but […]

Lynda Loxton The Katz Commission was slated last week for not going far enough in recommending a special tax dispensation for employee share ownership programmes (ESOPs). Msele Corporate and Merchant Bank joint managing director Litha Nyhonyha told the parliamentary joint standing committee on finance that the commission had missed a unique opportunity to promote ESOPs, […]

This week Africa’s largest banker, Absa, decided to reassure its perplexed staff about the `Bob Aldworth’ affair.

Louis Farrakhan visited South Africa to spread his message of segregation, to search for a homeland for the United States’ convicts and to try and borrow a bit of Nelson Mandela’s aura. One could not help but notice that he connected best in radio talk-back shows with South Africa’s far-rightwing ethnic separatists. It is coincidental […]

THEATRE: Hazel Friedman Those who are unacquainted with Greek tragedy may yet be vaguely familiar with the myth of Medea — the woman who murdered her sons when her husband dumped her to become king. But even audiences who were struck by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1970 film version — with its bizarre exploration of Freudian […]

South African import duties are preventing the sounds of music from reaching the man in the street, reports Jacquie Golding-Duffy The South African company which manufactures wind-up radios has appealed to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki to lift crippling import costs which have scuppered local sales. Cape Town-based BayGen Power Manufacturing, which launched the radio last […]

Sam Shilowa, Cosatu secretary general, in The Mark Gevisser ONE of Sam Shilowa’s previous employers tells the story of meeting him across a picket line and being so impressed by his performance in negotiations that he suggested he be groomed for management. Sorry, said Shilowa’s immediate boss: nice enough chap but he really doesn’t have […]

Karen Harverson The development of a positive enterprise culture is not solely the responsibility of the government but also of the private sector. South African Breweries (SAB) recently hosted a prize-giving function for the winners of its Kick-Start programme, a joint initiative set up in May last year between SAB and youth business organisations. The […]

Pro-democracy strikes brought Swaziland to a standstill. But the grip of the monarchy is a strong one to break, reports Stefaans Brmmer `PATIENCE pays’, the inscription on the back of the bus admonished would-be overtakers as it rambled over Swaziland’s hills. The legend might as well be a national motto: it would explain why Swaziland […]