Farouk Chothia CRAFT vendors who display their wares on Durban’s Golden Mile, the sangomas who scatter dead pigeons on the city’s bustling pavements, the dress-sellers who shout their prices on street corners — these women are all members of one of the country’s newest unions, the Self-Employed Women’s Union (Sewu). Muti-seller Zodwa Khumalo is Sewu’s […]
Business is trying to subvert union power by making unions shareholders and offering workers ‘no-strike’ bonuses, writes Jacques Magliolo The bargaining power of unions is under threat. Recent trends in the market show that management is refusing to compromise during wage demands, but is, at the same time, introducing bonuses for those who do not […]
Evidence of a bombs-for-oil trade between Pretoria and Iraq in the 1980s is being used to try to force Armscor out of the international arms market. Paul Stober and Eddie Koch report AN American court has accused a former Barlow Rand company of illegally supplying Iraq with bomb technology in exchange for thousands of tons […]
The effects of political change have not yet filtered through to the exchange rate, writes Simon Segal DESPITE its recent recovery, the persistent erosion of the value of the rand is a worrying testimonial to the new government. After all, many predicted, once South Africa’s first non-racial election was over the pressure on our currency […]
Jacques Magliolo THE National Union of Mineworkers has appealed to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to halt the planned takeover of Randgold, saying it should first consider “certain ethical questions”. The WM&G is in possession of a letter sent to the JSE’s Ethics Committee by NUM general secretary Kgalema Motlanthe, in which he says: “We would […]
The Development Bank has come up with an innovative plan for land reform, reports Teigue Payne AN INNOVATIVE way of addressing South Africa’s imbalance in ownership of farming land and assets, or at least blurring the “black” or “white” labels on farm land ownership — shareholdings for farmworkers — has received an enthusiastic response among […]
Weekly Mail Reporters THE PWV government yesterday disclosed sensational details of an alleged plot by drug lords to kill PWV premier Tokyo Sexwale. PWV government spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said he could “confirm the existence of a conspiracy to murder the premier” by a sinister group in the drug world. The reason the group wanted Sexwale […]
Jacques Magliolo Listen closely to rumour mongers at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and you will hear joyous cries of “The multi-nationals are coming back.” If statistics provided by the Washington-based Investor Responsibility Research Centre are anything to go by, foreign investment is definitely bound for our shores. Distributed in South Africa by McGregors, the research […]
The Cape’s jackass penguin rescue operation didn’t always run as smoothly as the public may believe, reports Fiona Macleod ‘CRUDE is rude, dude” proclaims the T-shirt worn by an American volunteer washing oil-ravaged jackass penguins at the rescue centre run by the South African National Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) in Cape […]
The Nationalists called them ‘surplus people’, the government of national unity calls them ‘squatters’. Whatever term you use, they’re as ‘superfluous’ as they ever were, writes Cosmas Desmond IT was just like old times: people — angry, frustrated, powerless and, of course, black people — squatting in the dust waiting for the powers that be […]