Ferial Haffajee South Africa’s delegation to the annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings in Washington this week jet home on a buoyant note. Certainly they are more buoyant than their East Asian and Latin American counterparts, who return to economies more damaged by the quakes in the world system than South Africa […]
Belinda Beresford South Africa’s Constitution should give employees more protection against curious employers than that enjoyed by workers in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. But the extent of those rights to privacy entrenched in the Constitution have yet to be tested legally. Labour consultant Andrew Levy says employee privacy is […]
Tim Radford Mauritius was the death of more than just the dodo. It may have been home to the world’s only lightweight, racing tortoise – until humans arrived. Jeremy Austin, of the Natural History Museum, told the British Association festival of science in Cardiff recently that the three Mascarene islands of Reunion, Mauritius and Rodrigues, […]
The makers of South Africa’s foreign policy need a long, hard think, suggests William Boot The king of Lesotho is seldom permitted to make public utterances. But sometimes his private observations are passed on by friends and advisers – like what he said when he returned from the recent Southern African Development Community (SADC)summit in […]
HRC David Beresford The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has suffered another body blow with the resignation of Helen Suzman, the fourth commissioner to walk out of the prestigious body headed by the controversial lawyer and theologian, Dr Barney Pityana. Suzman said on Thursday that her resignation would take effect at the end of the year. […]
Ferial Haffajee South Africa’s television war is in full throttle with people in the industry at each other’s throats – and the only victors are likely to be viewers. The quick and dirty war has featured an arsenal of snitching to the authorities, comparative advertising campaigns, staff poaching and a drive to snap up the […]
Michael Metelits The big news this week was the retention of investment grade ratings by Moody’s Investor Services for South Africa’s foreign currency debt and deposits. Moody’s action is a stamp of approval on local macro-economic policy. Their ratings, and those of other international agencies, are the first level of information used by international investors. […]
Robert Kirby: Loose cannon Reading last Monday’s editorial in the Cape Times, I felt a cloak of nostalgia envelop me. At the best of times a second-hand emotion, nostalgia does, however, have its uses. On this occasion it took me all the way back to 1966 and to a brief appointment I had with broadcasting […]
Wonder Hlongwa Residents of the township of Mpuma- langa in KwaZulu-Natal are living in fear of an alleged serial killer who they believe is being protected by the authorities because he is a police informer. Sbusiso ”Sbra” Makhaye (22), who has been implicated in nine murders in the past four years, was mysteriously released from […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, New York | Friday 9.00pm. THE United Nations said on Friday that an ”immediate re-adjustment” of the its observer mission in Angola will start in early December if all hopes for peace have collapsed by then. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the 1,100-strong UN force would pull back to six main regional […]