Marianne Merten

A study conducted by the Centre for Social Science Research at the University of Cape Town and the University of Michigan, started tracking about 4 800 youths in 2002 to gauge their opportunities and challenges in democratic South Africa. TheTeacher explores some of the findings of this study.

Three people have been killed and 15 injured in drive-by shootings sparked by conflict over taxi routes to and from a new shopping centre in Cape Town, with the first shots being fired before the mall opened on Human Rights Day. Western Cape public works and transport MEC Mcebisi Skwatsha met representatives from rival associations in a bid to end the violence.

The Western Cape created 194 000 new jobs in the three years before 2003. But the official unemployment rate increased to 26,1%, or by 612 000 people, according to this year’s provincial budget documentation. The rate in 2000 was 22,6%, according to the <i>Provincial Economic Review and Outlook</i>, tabled last Tuesday with the Western Cape budget.

The Western Cape wants to raise R750-million a year through levies on fuel, hotel beds and construction. "They’re not taxes. Each will have to meet national government approval, whether it is inflationary and investor-friendly. We don’t want to create a hostile environment." The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> questioned Premier Ebrahim Rasool on the economic rationale.

"Going once at R27 000, twice at R27 000, gone!" That’s the price paid at auction this week for Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s 2005 Budget speech and neckwear. The speech and the red-and-cream striped tie fetched about half of last year’s price at the traditional African National Congress post-Budget fund-raiser.

The Cape has a reputation for doing things differently and Capitec Bank’s head office, nicknamed "the campus", in Stellenbosch is no exception. There is not a suit or tie in sight. Capitec was formed in 2000 when micro-lending group PSG seized the gap in mass banking. Simplified banking at low cost is the core, as is changing customers’ attitudes.

The Department of Public Works is moving to cancel the 65-year lease of Fernwood, Parliament’s former sports club, which it awarded to a black empowerment consortium for R35-million eight years ago. The 16ha estate, which is part of businessman Tokyo Sexwale’s Mvelaphanda Properties (Mvelaprop) portfolio, remains undeveloped.

The Cape Town council has slashed hundreds of millions of rands from its capital budget — effectively halting scores of its own township-based infrastructure projects — while redirecting about R246-million to the flagship N2 Gateway Project, the government’s pilot initiative to eradicate shacks. About 12 000 families will be relocated as part of the development.

Former Independent Democrats (ID) Western Cape leader Lennit Max, who lost his post at last Saturday’s provincial party congress, on Thursday dropped his legal action to stave off a disciplinary hearing. In a settlement minutes before the Cape High Court hearing was to have started, legal teams agreed to drop the matter.

There are cities in South Africa where the traffic lights work, electricity flows steadily, jobs are created and finances are in order. Business is attracted to them and contributes to tax revenues, which are used to improve delivery and create long-term economic growth. These cities are Durban and Port Elizabeth.

Colonel Peter Mbobo was tried for and found guilty of a strange offence this week: setting aside his regular duties to help provide security backup for President Thabo Mbeki. As a result he was charged with 21 days AWOL, subsistence and travel fraud, backdating an order appointing an acting officer in his stead and a catch-all charge of "prejudicing military discipline" for the time he spent away from his normal duties.

Another legal stand-off between brand parody specialist Laugh It Off and SABMiller has forced the small company to drop a satirical image of Carling Black Label beer to get its calendar and annual on youth culture into stores. Delays caused by the global brewery’s legal moves to halt publication are extracting heavy costs, said Laugh It Off founder Justin Nurse.

Vuyo Maqhina has just been turned down for a micro-loan. He takes home about R240 of his monthly salary after deductions for an earlier loan and a furniture hire-purchase account. "You have too many loans … How are you going to pay us?
" the micro-lender asked him. Maqhina is fairly typical of the 400 people who walk through the doors of the You & Your Money debt advice centre in Cape Town every year.

The British government was looking for South African defence companies to bid for contracts under Britain’s lucrative £9-billion (R108-billion) annual procurement programme, and to seek partnerships with British concerns, the United Kingdom Minister for Defence Procurement, Lord Willy Bach, said last week. "I’m here to … encourage the South African [defence] industry to consider bidding for British defence contracts.

The government is checking up on public servants with a series of "mystery customer" visits to test service delivery. Joining the queues at government departments will be members of the Public Service Commission, while unannounced visits by ministers will test services as they happen — without a prior alert to frontline staff to be on their best behaviour.

South Africa’s tourism industry has come a long way since braaivleis, rugby and sunny skies — it is a sophisticated machine contributing to a growing slice of the gross domestic product. But the sector has an underbelly: with few exceptions, pay is poor and empowerment a bit of a foreign concept. Spier wine estate is one of the exceptions.

Local politics could shift fundamentally during the upcoming 15-day municipal defection window — and parties are not letting the opportunity to attract a few more councillors slip past. In the week before the floor-crossing period started, the Independent Democrats (ID), for example, has e-mailed or sent SMS messages to about 3 000 of the approximately 9 000 councillors countrywide.

Five MPs from three political parties erred on the side of caution and declared travel paid by Parliament, according to the 2004 Register of Members’ Interests. Such official trips are not required to be disclosed. Among the gifts and benefits over R350 logged in the register are discounts on cars, a R20 000 interest-free loan, gifts of cellphones, some sheep and cows, and scented bath salts and soaps.

Some MPs are having sleepless nights waiting to discover whether they are included on a list from which they would definitely want to be omitted. A list of parliamentarians implicated in the R13-million "Travelgate" travel voucher scam is expected to be placed before Parliament by the Scorpion investigators next week.

What’s in a label? For the workers at Lebanon Fruit Farm Trust, an equity empowerment fruit and wine project in the Western Cape’s Elgin Valley, it means education, roads and street lights. Empowerment in the wine industry has been a mixed bouquet, showing the benefits of broad-based deals and the sour grapes of elite enrichment.

With a gas heater to ward off the winter chill, a group of grandmothers knits and sews in a room plastered with old newspapers. Around the corner in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha, more grandmothers squeeze into a tiny lounge to do patchwork.
They are part of Grandmothers against Poverty and Aids (Gapa), a support- and income-generating self-help group based in the poverty-stricken township.

Deputy President Jacob Zuma chaired the meeting of the African National Congress committee that selected the organisation’s representatives to the parliamentary body that is dealing with the public protector’s findings on the National Prosecuting Authority.

It was unacceptable that a rape survivor’s chance of getting justice depended on whether there was a specialised court near her home. Fatima Chohan-Kota, chairperson of the parliamentary justice committee, made the point during last week’s Departmentof Justice budget briefing to the committee. At the briefing it emerged that the Sexual Offences Courts had a 68% conviction rate compared with 42% in ordinary courts.

It took minutes to demote Lieutenant Commander Winston Kolonzi before he was told to salute and quick-march out of the court martial at the Cape Town Castle. The charge: he had been absent without leave (Awol) for a day. But the <i>M&G</i> has found that retribution for offences in the army is seen as unequal.

South Africa’s failure to reintegrate former soldiers into civilian life is evident in the fate of the 78 South Africans arrested for allegedly plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea. Most of them were members of the apartheid defence force’s 32 and 101 Battalions, while a few were Recces and Koevoet members. New research highlights the desperate plight of former Apla and MK guerrillas.

The Democratic Alliance’s performance in the 2004 election was only "a qualified success", with the support it received — particularly from black voters — falling short of expectations, says DA political strategist and MP Ryan Coetzee.The official opposition is counting on the new blood on its benches to increase its support base.

"Visit my mum" is written in big, blue writing against Saturday’s 5pm slot in the diary of Patricia de Lille, leader of the Independent Democrats (ID). From a base of zero during the last election, she returned last week as the head of a team of eight, plus support staff. We follow a week in the life of Patricia de Lille, who is still adjusting to her role as the leader of a fully-fledged party.

The Western Cape Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) wants the new provincial government to dispatch director general Gilbert Lawrence, widely regarded as heading an unremittingly untransformed, white-dominated administration.