Marianne Merten

"I’m a farmer. I’ll be able to put food on the table," says New National Party Free State leader Inus Aucamp, who lost his job in the provincial legislature after the election. The NNP was wiped off the national political landscape, except in the Western Cape (where it received 10,8% of the vote) and Northern Cape (7,52%). Its national support slumped to 1,65%.

Cleaners, gardeners and catering staff at the University of Cape Town (UCT) receive as little as R7 an hour — and now the students are demanding a better deal for them. Catering, cleaning and maintenance were controversially outsourced in 1999, in a process that saw more than 200 workers retrenched.

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>"The Western Cape Provincial government tabled its 2004 budget this week anticipating that the African National Congress-New National Party cooperative governance pact will continue after the April elections. The R18,3-billion budget focuses on redressing social inequality and human resource, skills and infrastructure development.

Last August when President Thabo Mbeki visited what his imbizo programme called a "land reform project" in Ceres, he was perhaps unaware of the Deo Volenti farm’s looming ruin and tattered relations between farm workers, shareholders and the trust’s chairperson. But without enough seed, equipment or support,
a land reform dream in the Ceres Valley has become a nightmare.

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Intelligence operatives are keeping their eyes and ears on the ground to collect information about how South Africans feel about the upcoming elections. And the verdict is a good one. "There’s no reason to fear there’s any threat to destabilise the elections," Minister of Intelligence Lindiwe Sisulu announced on Thursday.

Local government must implement new financial reporting measures from July. These include submitting quarterly reports to the National Treasury and posting them on their council websites, to better track revenue and spending. Municipalities spend too much on salaries and not enough on services.

Mrs Akinyi’s husband died of Aids in 1990. She believes her husband infected her with HIV — he had a history of extra-marital affairs. When he died, her in-laws denied her of her property inheritance: in her words, "Immediately after the burial I was chased away from home with my children."

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon is expected to use his prerogative to ensure that MP Raenette Taljaard, the party’s voice on the arms deal, as well as other key party representatives left in the cold during the list process, returns to Parliament.
It is also likely Leon will intervene to increase the number of black DA candidates for public office.

A year after President Thabo Mbeki announced the creation of a new "public service echelon of multi-skilled community development workers" to act as the government’s direct link to communities, training of the first intake of 180 started this week.

Despite last-minute amendments to the Communal Land Rights Bill, the legislation still discriminates against rural women, say land and women’ rights activists. Single women are particularly prejudiced by the Bill, whose latest incarnation was adopted by Parliament’s agriculture and land affairs committee last week.

The Democratic Alliance has promised to prove wrong critics who say it is a "white party" by ensuring its 2004 election candidates are selected on basis of their representativeness of South African society, as well as on merit.

It was about 8pm on a Wednesday when "Julian from RCS Foschini Retail Group" called me at home to tell me about a "special offer". And here I thought only my five nearest and dearest had my unlisted home number — aside from Telkom, which installed it. But "Julian", a young chipper-sounding guy, said he had obtained my details from Foschini’s RCS financing division.

South Africa lags behind other developing countries in entrepreneurial activity because too few young men believe they have the necessary skills to set up business, says the South African report in the 2003 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

The Western Cape Growth and Development Summit has agreed on ambitious targets, including the creation of 120 000 jobs by 2008, attracting investment of R5-billion by 2006 and increased levels of infrastructure investment and public works programmes.

<b>Finalist</b> – Corporations Absa Saldanha Mussel Farming Project
There may not be mussels on the dinner table at Elizabeth January’s home, but the sea’s muscle nevertheless put food on the table. She is one of the 18 shareholders in the Saldanha Mussel Growers’ Company.

The declarations of financial interests and benefits by Northern Cape minister for transport, roads and public works, John Block, made under the Executive Members Ethics Act, form part of investigations into his alleged corruption. Such use of declarations has emerged in the wake of last week’s Idasa report on government ethics.

Western Cape Premier and NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk remains unconcerned about calls for his resignation by the DA, which has asked the Scorpions to probe his role in the Count Agusta bribery saga. Marianne Merten spoke to Marthinus van Schalkwyk about scandal, the ANC, the future of the NNP and those posters.

Business Cape will apply the lessons learned in dealing with the job crisis in the local clothing and textile sector to next month’s Western Cape Growth and Development Summit.

Adding to accolades awarded to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>, environmental writer Fiona Macleod was a finalist and received a merit award in the 15th South African Breweries Environmental Journalists of the Year Awards this week.

The African National Congress’s head office put the brakes on the candidate selection process in its provinces after it emerged that its procedures for drawing up the lists were being flouted by its branches. ANC provincial officials this week said that some branches had submitted candidate lists without actually having met.

Khoi and San chiefs will remain outside the traditional leaders and governance framework legislation as they continue to pursue self-determination and recognition of their status as South Africa’s original indigenous inhabitants. The Khoi-San are seeking First Nation Status.

Hitting the road with Dad is the only way 14-year-old Albertina Bloem gets to see her ANC MP father during the school holidays. "It’s irritating," she admits with a giggle, but her father, Dennis Bloem, has promised she will be in time for her appointment at the hair salon. Then it’s back to dealing with abuses of Free State farm workers.

Ten homes. Five days. Scores of Habitat for Humanity volunteers last week swapped work and home responsibilities for shovels, hammers and cement at Masipumelele informal settlement. By last Tuesday, when the volunteers moved in, only the foundations had been laid. By Saturday afternoon a whole house will stand there.

The African National Congress will use its majority in Parliament to ensure that the only South Africans overseas who can vote in next year’s general election are government officials and their families. The organisation is insisting that priority should be given to ensuring that South Africans living in the country get to vote.

A judicial commission of inquiry will investigate allegations that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid-era spy, the Cabinet announced on Thursday.

IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has warned that South Africa is "an embryonic one-party state" and unless voters in 2004 are given an alternative there will be further consolidation of ANC central-government power. The parties appear to be heading towards a formal cooperation pact ahead of the 2004 poll.

The exclusion of South Africans abroad, other than those on government business, from voting in next year’s election is headed for the courts unless Parliament’s home affairs committee amends the controversial proposal.

Parliament has adopted new liquor legislation under which companies must include plans in their registration for combating alcohol abuse and which outlaws the dop system — the part-payment of wages in alcohol.