Efforts to accelerate change in the agricultural sector without disrupting production have run into stiff resistance from both established and emerging farmers. The Black Economic Empowerment in Agriculture (AgriBEE) charter published by the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs in July was not well received by most stakeholders.

Moroka Matutle, office manager for the chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), has conceded he acted without authority in bringing last week’s unsuccessful court bid to stop the Mail & Guardian from hitting the streets. The M&G reported that NCOP chairperson Joyce Kgoali and African National Congress chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe are among 13 MPs who failed to fully disclose their financial interests.

After languishing for several years in the realm of policy, micro-economic reform is front-and-centre in the government’s programme of action. Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin may miss this month’s deadline for announcing the infrastructure investment plans of parastatals, but he and his colleagues in the Cabinet economics cluster are due to make numerous other significant announcements.

If Parliament were a church, Reverend Kenneth Meshoe, the leader of the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), might need time in the confessional.
As the Christian Church has a Bible, so Parliament has a code of conduct, in terms of which MPs are required to declare their business interests every year. Meshoe didn’t do so and admitted as much this week.

Gerhard Wisser, the German-South African who is a key suspect in an international nuclear technology smuggling network, was a supplier to apartheid’s nuclear weapons programme, the Mail & Guardian has been told. Wisser was arrested in Germany on August 25 on charges of ”aiding the attempted development of atomic weapons”, but released on bail.

Indonesian and Australian investigators will on Friday continue sifting through the wreckage caused by a massive bomb which exploded outside the Australian embassy compound in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Wednesday morning, killing at least nine people and injuring 182.