Faced with imminent closure due to lack of funds, peace workers are rebelling , writes Stefaans Brummer THE national peace structures — which have taken much of the credit for the decrease in violence — are on the verge of disbanding while government dithers on a request for additional funding. Sources say all staff of […]

THE National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) has notified the government it wants to sue for damages suffered in sinister security police operations to defraud it, and possibly other trade unions, of large amounts of money during the apartheid years. Preliminary details of the scam first surfaced during an investigation into the 1991 murder of Janine […]

Stefaans Brummer PETER SCHOEMAN (28) was chatting to a friend in his car near Pretoria’s Burgerspark, frequented by gay men, when he says a police flying squad car pulled up and an officer unleashed a string of obscenities against “you moffies”. Schoeman (not his real name) says this and similar incidents have eroded his respect […]

Teigue Payne reports on the coming to market of dairy company Bonnita DAIRY products company Bonnita, to be listed this month, could have better prospects than its agriculture-related image might suggest. Farming-related companies have poorer ratings than food companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which probably explains why so few are listed. Raw materials make […]

‘I cried because she was there, she suffered and it is something we feel in all of our hearts.’ Mark Gevisser watches white and black children at the Anne Frank exhibition ‘HOW many people lived in this room?” asked a Standard Nine pupil from Sebokeng’s Residentia High School as she entered a reconstruction of Anne […]

Economic analysts have revised down their growth rate figures for this year, finds Simon Segal NOT ONE of nine economic units canvassed this week believes South Africa can reach a three percent rate of growth in gross domestic product, the main measure of national economic activity, this year. The most optimistic are stockbrokers Frankel Pollak […]

‘HOOR HOOR’ — LOUDLY There is a new honesty in the constitution-writing process, reports Chris Louw IT was the World Trade Centre all over again, though not quite. The urbane Cyril Ramaphosa was in the chair, the wiry Mac Maharaj was there, his hand thoughtfully covering his mouth, and so were the boyish Roelf Meyer […]

It was on one of those Jo’burg nights with nothing to do and nowhere to do it that an artist and two filmmakers created Bob’s Bar. ALEX DODD went along to the launch RESIDENTS of Troyeville and beyond now have good reason to sink a few doubles on the rocks and a new spot in […]

NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Linder Auditorium, Johannesburg THE FIRST concert in this year’s Glaxo winter series was rather disappointing, mainly because so much more was expected of the young South African pianist, Daniel-Ben Pienaar. In Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 (“the Emperor”) Pienaar had hardly any idea of the structure of the work, and showed a […]

Paul Stober and Eddie Koch A GOLD mine on the West Rand has contaminated a nearby wetland with radioactive materials, according to a study carried out by mining consultants. “It is a major environmental problem which has to be dealt with,” said Randgold Geology and Exploration head Mark Bristow, who headed the study. The wetland […]