The Democratic Alliance has changed its selection procedures for local government candidates in Cape Town after discrepancies in membership lists were discovered in a number of branches in the city. Branches send delegates to an electoral college in accordance with membership size. But a recent federal audit of the party’s structures found variations paid for by other members to boost numbers.

Teachers spend less than half the working week actually teaching, with administrative tasks taking up more than half their time. And more than three-quarters of teachers say their workload has increased ”a lot” since 2000, with 90% ascribing this increase to the demands of the new curriculum.

More than 20% of South African domestic workers earn less than the government’s stipulated minimum wage, with a fifth of the 1 100 respondents in a survey earning less than R500 a month, a new report reveals. According to Migration and Domestic Workers: Worlds of Work, Health and Mobility in Johannesburg, about 55,7% of respondents earned between R501 and R1 000 a month.

The Cape Town council has started transferring deeds to the first group of 24 land claimants almost two years after they returned to District Six. But the city’s move has come too late for one of the District Six elders who signed the agreement for the return of the land before President Thabo Mbeki at the emotional ”Homecoming” ceremony in November 2000.

This weekend’s final list meeting in Cape Town’s largest township, Khayelitsha, will test provincial African National Congress leaders’ claim that tensions in the party are caused by a ”small number” of disgruntled members who lost out during the nomination process. Khayelitsha has been at the centre of the upheavals.

The future existence of Orania as an Afrikaner volkstaat is being challenged by a land claim. Gazetted in August, the restitution claim on the Northern Cape town has surprised the 600-strong community, which is already embroiled in a battle with the government to win the right to self-determination.