After decades on the mines, a Mozambican man has been offered R1 777,54 for long service. He is one of thousands left without old-age security, writes Ferial Haffajee FORTY-EIGHT years ago, Andre Muianga joined the throng of Mozambican men leaving their homes in Xai-Xai to work in South Africa’s booming gold mines. On January 20 […]
THE mixture of human excrement and rotting rubbish festering on the banks of the Jukskei River creates a pungent aroma that hovers over the riverside shacks in Alexandra township. When the Jukskei floods, the front line of motley shelters built precariously on the flaky bank is usually washed away. Last year eight people drowned. Margaret […]
FRIDAY, 11.00AM The insider trading task group, chaired by Mervyn King, has recommended plea bargains, civil sanctions for malfactors of three times the amount gained through insider trading and fines of R2-million or 10 years in prison. The report was presented yesterday to the Policy Board for Financial Services and Regulations, appointed by the Finance […]
WEDNESDAY, 8.30AM THE RESERVE Bank told parliament yesterday that the average household debt in South Africa is 67% of disposable income “exceeding the international average of comparable countries by a considerable margin”. The Bank said that the number of home loans grew by 38%, but the level of arrears also grew 24% to R5 billion. […]
Ferial Haffajee VETERAN journalist and SABC board member Allister Sparks is to be hired to revamp the corporation’s television news and current affairs programming. But Sparks is unlikely to be welcomed by journalists brought in to do just that a few years ago. Last week, the current editor-in-chief of the television news division, Joe Thloloe, […]
Charl Blignaut ANYBODY out there love the Village People? Anybody, in those heady days, when disco inferno met queer lib, regard them as fabulous, fluffy-slut pop role models? Well darlings, shock and horror: not only did the Village People never sing their own songs, but only one of the six was even gay. In an […]
Three years have passed since the inception of the RDP. Two writers consider how it is faring today Hein Marais THE Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) debate has become a pantomime, a rehearsal of predictable affirmations and affectations, gripes and allegations. Issuing from the government comes the cheery mantra that the RDP remains the cornerstone […]
Andrew O’Hagan THE DIVING-BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY by Jean- Dominique Bauby (Fourth Estate, R99,95) THERE have always been writers capable of rising to the occasions and complications of their illnesses, and some of them – Katherine Mansfield, Oscar Moore – might be thought to have been at their best when doing so. Not all writers […]
Employee share schemes offer much hope, yet signify very little in real terms for workers, writes Asghar Adelzadeh of the NIEP in the seventh of a series on economic policy EMPLOYEE Stock Ownership Plans (Esops) first rose to prominence in South Africa in 1987. After a blaze of publicity and debate, all was quiet until […]
FRIDAY, 1.00PM PARLIAMENT’S communications committee convened a hasty meeting today (Friday) to be told that councillors were required to give three months notice. Only the president may dismiss a councillor for misconduct. But the committee resolved to accept the resignations and call for new applications for posts as speedily as possible. The IBA is unable […]
FRIDAY, 5.00PM AFTER six weeks of talks, the two largest of Gauteng’s warring taxi factions agreed to merge, ending a bloody five year war in which both drivers and passengers were casualties. The Soweto Transport Services and Soweto Taxi Association, rivals on the routes in south and southwestern Soweto, will now be known as the […]
Jim Day THE number of black students studying to be doctors declined this year, leading government health officials to question the commitment of university medical schools to change. But medical deans reject this and blame the poor-quality education of many would-be medical students. South Africa is educating enough doctors for its needs, said the Health […]
Ann Eveleth BLACK students attending school in a working-class Afrikaans suburb of Pretoria West should “go back to Soweto”, said white parents standing guard outside Elandspoort High School this week after three days of racial clashes which saw two students hospitalised with bat and knife wounds. By Thursday morning the school was still struggling to […]
Paul Farrelly in London and John Aglionby in Jakarta THE gold rush is over. The prospectors, tarnished by the Indonesian Bre-X gold hoax, have lost their sparkle. Small mining firms panning in Indonesia and Africa have seen their shares slump as wary investors query the value of their prospects and plan an exodus from the […]
THURSDAY, 11.00AM ALTHOUGH a country’s airspace is sovereign, organisations are looking into ways to improve air safety over Africa, according to Transport Minister Mac Maharaj. Under consideration is a meeting convened by SAA of all airlines flying north-south routes over Africa, in which each airline would “adopt” a country whose procedures were suspect, “taking responsiblity […]
SUTTNER IN SWEDEN RAYMOND SUTTNER, chairman of parliament’s foriegn affairs committee and a vociferious proponent of an “ethical” foreign policy, has been appointed ambassador to Sweden. Sheila Sisulu, director of World Wide Africa Investment Holdings, has been appointed consul general to New York. ZIM BANS LANDMINES ZIMBABWE announced a ban on the sale and use […]
THURSDAY, 4.00PM: TWO pupils have lodged assault charges after being injured in racial clashes at Elandspoort High School in Pretoria West (see below). Police are investigating attacks on a white boy, Chris Janse van Rensburg, and a black girl, Gina Mokabe — Van Rensburg’s nose was broken and Mokabe’s ear was torn after she was […]
THURSDAY, 8.30AM MINING HOUSE Gold Fields SA announced last night that it is in talks with black empowerment group New Africa Investment Limited, backed by Rembrandt, to buy 34% control of the company, split equally between them. The complex deal, which also involves the related company Driefontein Consolidated, is expected to take several months. Goldfields […]
THURSDAY, 12.00NOON: WESTERN Province triumphed in the Nite Series rugby final against Boland, when they won 36-25 at Newlands in Cape Town on Wednesday night. Province led 19-10 at half time, and then kept the lead despite a concerted effort by Boland in the second half. Province had five tries from Pieter Rossouw, Robbie Fleck, […]
Coetzee was the first security policeman to publicly confess and recant for his crimes.
FRIDAY, 8.00AM NELSON MANDELA has sent President Mobutu Sese Seko a proposal that he hand over power to a transitional authority, and given him until Monday to respond. Mandela said he was confident of a resolution of the Zaire war, after two hours of talks with rebel leader Laurent Kabila in Cape Town. Neither Kabila […]
THURSDAY, 4.00PM MPUMALANGA safety and security MEC Steve Mabona finally appeared before the Moldenhauer Commission into fake drivers licences, quoting biblical phrases and insisting that the special treatment given to parliamentary Deputy Speaker Baleka Mbete-Kgositsile was reasonable. Mabona, who failed to appear last week due to “stress”, said the deputy speaker deserved to be transported […]
THURSDAY, 8.30AM THE European Investment Bank yesterday gave South Africa a soft loan of R2 billion to finance infrastructure: and the European Union announced that it will provide another R2 billion in grants over the next three years to development projects. The Investment Bank money will be released in parcels over three years to finance […]
THURSDAY, 10.30AM: The older hands have been left out of the Gauteng Lions team to face the Natal Sharks in the Super 12 match on Saturday night. After a trail of injuries claimed the Springboks on the team, young players have been put in the side to face Natal. “We decided it would be better […]
THURSDAY, 10.00AM: BAFANA BAFANA will lose some key stars for the friendly against England at Old Trafford on May 24, becuse the Premier Soccer League title race interferes with the international. Bafana Bafana will have no members from the top two teams in the Premier League, Kaizer Chiefs and Manning Rangers, who have pulled their […]
WEDNESDAY, 9.00AM: UNITED Cricket Board MD Ali Bacher announced yesterday the UCB will donate 20% of all ticket sales last summer to disadvantaged sports. The sum, over R4-million, will be divided between the board’s development programme, the Sports Trust, and towards improving cricket facillities in disadvantaged areas. Bacher said over a million people had bought […]
WEDNESDAY, 6.00PM: VIOLENCE erupted again in the Groblersdal area on Tuesday night, as demonstrators set fire to a truck and to the local ANC offices, in continued protests demanding that the area to be included in Mpumalanga Province. Despite the tesnions, Constitutional Affairs Minister Valli Moosa failed to arrive to address a crowd of 15 […]
WEDNESDAY, 6.00PM FORMER president FW De Klerk said he was shocked to learn that torture was widely used by South African police under his government: “I deny there was toleration of any such practice,” he told the Truth Commission on Wednesday. TRC investigations director Glen Goosen told De Klerk that the commission had evidence of […]
WEDNESDAY, 6.00PM RACIAL clashes have blown up at a Pretoria high school, closed since Tuesday after brawling when two black pupils allegedly insulted a white teacher. White pupils at Elandspoort High School in Pretoria West were sent home at 10.00am this morning after renewed fighting, and while principal Hennie Breedt addressed the black pupils. The […]
WEDNESDAY, 10.00AM: ORLANDO Pirates kept their third spot in the Premier Soccer League log just one point behind Kaizer Chiefs, when they beat Vaal Professionals 1-0 in their clash at the Iscor stadium near Sebokeng Tuesday night. There was no score at half-time, and the only goal came in the 61st minute, from Bucs’ striker […]
WEDNESDAY, 8.30AM A DELEGATION of top executives from the $76billion a year Korean multinationl Daewoo arrived in South Africa to look at new investments of up to more than R1,2 billion. But first, the delegation wants a meeting with government to discuss tax breaks and other incentives for investing here. The company has been offered […]
HUGE FINNISH AID DEAL FINNISH President Maarti Ahtisaari signed a R50 million aid and development co-operation agreement with President Nelson Mandela at Tuynhuys today. Ahtisaari, who lavished praise on Mandela for his role as an African peace broker, is known to South Africans as the UN mediator who overaw the transition to independence of Namibia. […]