Subcontracting in the gold-mining industry is eroding working conditions and miners’ safety, writes Barry Streek A new study has found that South African gold mines are increasingly relying on subcontracted labour, estimated to make up more than 10%of the labour force, which has rolled back union power and worker rights. Very little is known about […]
Andrew McUtchen Music Two years ago, the Mail & Guardian reported on the disturbing prevalence of violence at kwaito gigs, from performers as much as the audience. Last week, at the One City, Many Condoms Aids awareness concert at Cape Town’s Langa stadium, a threat to personal liberty of an entirely different kind awaited this […]
Scotch Tagwireyi The Directorate of Serious Economic Offences has decided to prosecute its own cases as directors of public prosecutions have failed to bring many of their investigations to court, some of them dating back to 1993. Jan Swanepoel, director of investigations at the Directorate of Serious Economic Offences, says he believes the delay is […]
David Gough in Kenya It was a hot summer’s day, and Joseph Ekuwam and two friends from his village were herding cattle in the arid plains of northern Kenya when they came across a shiny object half-buried in the ground. What they thought to be a harmless piece of metal turned out to be a […]
Barry Streek In a bold move towards transparency in the contentious area of arms sales, the government has published details of South Africa’s sale of arms to 83 countries over the past three years on a website. Although it does not disclose details of what weapons were sold, it give details of four categories. Category […]
Bernard Schlink’s novel The Reader (Phoenix) has gained the most critics’ votes in Exclusive Books’s annual “Boeke Prize” promotion. In second and third place respectively are Pamela Jooste’s Dance With a Poor Man’s Daughter (Black Swan) and White Oleander by Janet Fitch (Virago), separated by only one vote.
The Ministry of Public Enterprises has given Nabera, the company which runs ailing state diamond company Alexkor, a deadline to fulfil its contractual obligations. Donna Block and Mungo Soggot report The Minister of Public Enterprises, Jeff Radebe, moved swiftly this week to extricate himself from the controversy surrounding a consortium chaired by his wife, Bridget, […]
Shaun de Waal Movies of the week The pairing of compellingly contrasting characters has surely been a staple of film narrative since film narrative began. Obviously, the development of a (heterosexual) romantic relationship is one of cinema’s favourite plots, the ultimate form of bonding across the gender line; the buddy movie does the same for […]
plant Peter Dickson With the prospect of a nuclear “demonstration plant” in their coastal backyard, so coveted by itinerant surfers, the good citizens of Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp, St Francis Bay, Oyster Bay and Cape St Francis decided it was time for a showdown. And Eskom switched off. The power parastatal, to the whoops of delight […]
Suren Pillay A Second Look On my way to work, I passed a billboard stuck on to a light pole advertising the One City, Many Cultures festival. Which “culture”, I wondered, of these “many cultures” would I be a part of in the making of this “one city”? If you were to look at my […]