This was not the week to be jobless, poor and a sinner. In the moral schema that underlay Minister of Fiance Trevor Manuel’s budget, little charity was on offer for this category among us. It was those of us in work who got the tax breaks, the rich can afford to pay cunning accountants to […]

A system of mutual aid supports the Congolese community in South Africa Evariste Katanga It’s the first day of January; the transition to a new millennium has taken just one second. The joy that erupts all around the world is the same joy experienced at the Hillbrow night club Chez Ntemba. The majority of its […]

Barry Streek The country’s poor have been the main beneficiaries of the government’s social spending, which has between 1993 and 1997 increased by an estimated 34%. This was revealed by Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel in this week’s budget speech in Parliament, where he emphasised this “significant shift in social spending from the more affluent […]

For the third year in a row, Trevor Manuel has produced a largely acclaimed budget. What does it mean for individual South Africans? Belinda Beresford The big news of the budget was the restructuring of personal income taxes, and the consequent slashed tax bill for most taxpayers. More measures to encourage savings might have been […]

Greek South African comedian Irene Stephanou reminisces about growing up in a caf Usually, having a caf on the corner meant having a relationship with the family on the corner. Well, that’s what it felt like. Every day, including Sunday, every night, there you were behind the counter. Saturday afternoons were my worst – hot […]

Marianne Merten The New National Party aborted its disciplinary action against its outspoken senior Western Cape member Peter Marais this week after his legal team indicated it would cross-examine the party’s national and Western Cape leaders at the hearing. Marais was axed as Western Cape welfare and poverty relief MEC on Valentine’s Day, apparently for […]

Donna Block SHAREWORLD I remember my first year at University and my first class, Finance 101. The professor, a wizened old curmudgeon, told us that if we learned nothing else in his class, rule one about finance was that the stock market was a crap-shoot. “You place your bets and you take your chances.” He […]

Belinda Beresford The introduction of a new form of tax is always a worrying prospect – the thought of paying more money to the revenue service is not appealing. And the introduction of capital gains tax (CGT) is no exception. The government introduced the tax to close a tax loophole – people have been converting […]

Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION It is distressing to observe how effectively the SABC corrupts language. Reputable broadcasting of the bad old days – certainly by radio stations – not only fulfilled its myriad other functions but was presumed to be an example of the correct use of language. The BBC was the most obvious model, or […]

Jungle and drum’n’bass fans in South Africa are getting ready to party with one of the most revered DJs on the planet Greg Bowes He’s been called ”jungle’s greatest populist and its most underrrated practitioner” by the United Kingdom’s esteemed ”serious” music magazine The Wire, while his remixes for acts as diverse as rappers the […]