About 60-million youths worldwide are struggling to find employment Glenda Daniels Youth unemployment has soared to more than 50% in South Africa and is expected to rise to between 60% and 70% in the next few years. It is one of the biggest social crises the country has faced. To address it the government, business […]
Jubie Matlou Adifficult choice confronts the South African Revenue Service (Sars) regarding the taxation of intangible digital goods purchased over the Internet. This includes digital messages, software, multimedia files and film and audio recordings. A tax void exists for both local and international transactions of such goods. Electronic commerce business transactions operating in cyberspace create […]
Andy Capostagno rugby It may be too soon to start talking of another golden era in Natal and Springbok rugby, but when New Zealanders start to complain of illegal tactics you know that something radical is happening. New Zealanders like to praise South African teams for trying hard and losing. It is not in their […]
Barry Streek Crossfire The silence in political circles ranging from the ever-critical Democratic Alliance to the African National Congress, the government, the South African Communist Party and the apparently land-conscious Pan Africanist Congress about the legalistic judgement in the Land Claims Court rejecting the claim of the Richtersveld people to their land is revealing. It […]
With annual wage talks deadlocked, workers are steadily losing faith and confidence in local government, reports Glenda Daniels Poised on the brink of a massive strike, municipal workers are expressing bitter disillusionment with the African National Congress, saying they have been betrayed. Representatives of more than 200?000 members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union […]
The government has won its fight with pharmaceutical companies over parallel importation and other methods to reduce drug costs Belinda Beresford At the 13th hour the pharmaceutical industry backed down. The law it fought for three years to prevent being enacted will go ahead, unchanged. And the ramifications go far beyond South Africa’s borders. By […]
Greg Mills Second look Former United States president Bill Clinton has said: “The worst sin America ever committed about Africa was the sin of neglect and ignorance.” Under his presidency Africa’s profile rose in the US. Clinton made the first proper visit by a US president to Africa in 1998, and followed this up with […]
Thebe Mabanga The process of trying to analyse the cause of the Ellis Park disaster and avert a possible future occurrence got under way this week with the release of the terms of reference of the commission of inquiry into the disaster. The commission’s chair, Gauteng Judge President Bernard Ngoepe, expressed appreciation for the eagerness […]
Mboniso Sigonyela Metro Cash & Carry’s newly appointed investor relations director, George Cocolas, has his work cut out as the market softens its stance on the share. This follows a deal that will almost double the group’s revenue from its Australian operations. Things have not gone well for the group recently. The share went on […]
Justin Arenstein The Dolphin Group has closed its South African head office and is fighting to save two of its local flagship hotels after mismanagement plunged the leisure group into financial crisis. Dolphin officials confirmed that the Dubai-based corporation retrenched its head office staff in January after failing to pay rent at its plush Sandton […]
David Le Page One of South Africa’s most prominent financial services companies stands accused of exposing policyholders’ funds to excessive risk. Senior figures in the financial services industry this week took the rare step of raising serious questions on the record about Fedsure’s handling of their smoothed bonus Guaranteed Fund. Such funds are designed to […]
Console Tleane a Second Look The recent furore surrounding Max du Preez’s comments on radio about President Thabo Mbeki’s alleged infidelities, and later carried by a daily newspaper, begs a relook at the role of the press in South Africa. Such a retrospection becomes even more critical following a call by the Western Cape African […]
John Young South Africa’s cricketers had two reasons to celebrate last Tuesday. The series was in the bag and the Caribbean Sea had finally produced waves big enough for body surfing. All of Antigua’s 365 beaches are picture-perfect, even those with silly names like Jolly Beach, venue of the celebratory night swim. Tourists don’t go […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo cycling The Vodacom Ride for Victory cycling competition will showcase some of the top cyclists in the country. The May 6 cycling challenge is a 115km route through the picturesque Suikerbosrand nature reserve. The morning race will be for the top cyclists, followed by amateur cyclists and enthusiasts. The professional cyclists will gain […]
Unions at Vista University have formally declared a dispute with the institution over its planned retrenchment of 20% of its staff David Macfarlane In a bizarre move, Vista University is planning to shed 365 of its staff at the same time as the government proceeds with plans to dismantle the institution. Even more bizarrely, there […]
Is Lennox Lewis too decent to be a world boxing champion? Gavin Evans When Lennox Lewis chose South Africa as the venue for his next defence of his world heavyweight title, he met with concerted opposition from within his own camp. HBO, the American cable television network which puts up most of the money, objected […]
Mail & Guardian reporter Last week’s soccer tragedy highlights the need for a closer inspection of rules and terms governing the broadcasting of matches still shrouded in secrecy on the nation’s airwaves. The televising of soccer matches in South Africa is an incestuous circle whose power relations are determined by the highest bidder. At the […]
THE JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) followed international bourses higher across the board on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve surprised global markets with a 50-basis-point interest rate cut. Information technology counters led the upsurge, adding more than 7.4% at the opening, as London-listed South African networking services firm Dimension Data leaped R2.90, or […]
GRIFFIN SHEA, Harare | Thursday ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe vowed on Wednesday to continue his controversial land reform scheme, and told former colonial master Britain to stop meddling in the nation’s affairs, in a speech marking Zimbabwe’s 21st anniversary. “We cannot be seen, as Zimbabwean sons of the soil, to be begging a former colonial […]
THE Crisis Committee set up after 43 soccer fans were killed in a stampede at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park last week has paid more than R500_000 to families of victims. The South African Football Association (Safa) and Premier Soccer League, who established the interim body, said in a joint statement late on Wednesday night that a […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Bujumbura | Thursday JUNIOR officers who occupied the state radio station in Burundi and claimed to have overthrown the government surrendered on Thursday, the defence minister announced. A statement from Defence Minister Cyrile Ndayirkiye was read on state radio on Thursday morning and regular programming resumed, indicating that the soldiers who took over […]
A 52-year-old man was granted R5_000 bail by the Port Nolloth Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday after allegedly being caught speeding at nearly 240km/h on the N7 highway in the Northern Cape over the weekend. The case against Lucas David Hipondoka was postponed to May 15, the Northern Cape department of transport, roads and public works […]
DE Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer, and luxury group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) said on Thursday that the European Commission (EC) has opened a Phase II investigation into their proposal, originally announced on Jan. 16, 2001, to establish an independently managed company to retail diamond jewellery under the De Beers name, the […]
THE State’s case against former anti-apartheid cleric Allan Boesak, involving possession and use of a cellphone in prison may be in jeopardy after the gangster who allegedly gave him the phone was shot dead. Police believe the murder was gang-related. Donovan Isaacs was released on parole from Malmesbury prison in February. He was serving time […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, United Nations | Thursday DESPITE UN sanctions, Angola’s UNITA rebels still smuggled at least $100m worth of diamonds out of the country last year – and will likely do so again this year, a UN report says. In an attempt to force UNITA to end the 25-year civil war in Angola, the Security […]
JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Thursday TRIBALISM, class privilege and xenophobia are the new face of racism in South Africa, delegates to Mpumalanga’s first summit on racial discrimination heard on Wednesday. Ehlanzeni district municipality mayor Jeri Ngomane warned that ethnic power groups in the country, including former Apartheid Bantustan leaders, were using tribalism to preserve their […]
THE Security Council issued a mild rebuke Tuesday to rebels who prevented UN peacekeepers from landing in the DRC, and said diplomacy should resolve the problem. The peacekeepers, a contingent of about 120 Moroccan soldiers, were still in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, but a UN officer there said he expected them to […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Thursday A LARGE contingent of police accompanied by the Scorpions investigation unit raided five illegal gambling establishments in Vryheid, Pietermaritzburg and Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday. Police representative Captain Vishnu Naidoo said about 250 one-arm bandits were confiscated and eight managers, owners and staff members were arrested. Naidoo said investigations and […]
ONE person died and a dozen others were rescued when a mosque collapsed on Wednesday in a slum in Lagos, but scores of other worshippers were believed to still be under the rubble, a rescue official said. One dead body was pulled from the debris, and another person rescued was seriously injured, the leader of […]
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki will make a landmark visit to Lesotho on Thursday – and pay a fine of one cow – as the tiny enclave in southeastern South Africa heads towards parliamentary elections. The cow will go to King Letsie III as a fine for missing his wedding in 1999, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. […]
A MAN in Kano, northern Nigeria has killed his lover for infecting him with the HI virus and after she confessed she had slept with 95 men, witnesses said on Tuesday. They said the man, a tailor, stabbed his lover with a pair of scissors after inviting her to his shop in the city at […]
A US federal judge in Indianapolis, Indiana, plans to decide on Friday whether to allow a live webcast of the execution of condemned Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Judge John Tinder’s decision will be posted on the court’s website court officials said on Wednesday. McVeigh, 32, is scheduled to die by lethal injection May 16 […]