Dan Mofokeng, Gauteng Minister for Local Government and=20 Housing, in the Mark Gevisser Profile One of Dan Mofokeng’s colleagues, who clearly has other=20 things on his mind at the moment, describes the Gauteng=20 Minister for Local Government and Housing as the prop- forward of the ANC team in the province: “He is not the=20 most […]
Reg Rumney So far, labour relations look calmer than they have=20 been in previous years, despite union protest action=20 over the Draft Labour Bill. Wage increases this year are likely at least to match=20 inflation of 10 to 11 percent and in some cases outpace=20 Until the Draft Labour Bill heightened tensions, labour=20 relations seemed […]
Eddie Koch A BUSINESS organisation, which this week promised to=20 mobilise more than 100 000 workers of all races to=20 neutralise union mass action against the labour bill,=20 collaborated in dirty tricks operations to undermine=20 the ANC and its trade union wing in 1991 and 1992 –=20 long after Nelson Mandela was released.=20 Top secret […]
There has been an outcry over the payment of=20 traditional leaders, but there are sound reasons behind=20 the proposals, writes Ann Eveleth BEHIND the draft Remuneration of Traditional Leaders=20 Bill approved by Cabinet last week and President Nelson=20 Mandela’s long-term proposal to provide chiefs with=20 parliamentary perks lies a comprehensive strategy to=20 turn traditional leaders […]
Sam Ramsamy is now=20 on the IOC and there is other good news for=20 Cape Town’s Olympic=20 bid, writes Julian Drew AFTER several months earlier this year when the Cape=20 Town Olympic Bid seemed to be on a kamikaze course of=20 self destruction, followed by a period of quiet=20 uncertainty, South Africa’s delegation to the […]
Lynda Loxton reports on the union-backed research=20 project that has moulded the new government’s=20 industrial policy The South African government should not ape Korea in=20 the 1960s by trying to intervene to help carefully=20 chosen “winning sectors” of the economy. This is one of=20 the conclusions of a detailed study of South African=20 The study, […]
CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser IT was only with her last two encores, a hilarious=20 performance of Victor Herbert’s comic Art is Calling=20 for Me and a sweetly introspective rendition of a Maori=20 traditional song, that Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s recital=20 before an overjoyed Pretoria audience came to life. Not that there wasn’t much to admire […]
Justin Pearce The South African Police Services are to face a court=20 challenge over the exclusion of people with HIV=20 infection from the force. Police unions and human=20 rights law organisations have filed papers in the=20 Transvaal Supreme Court arguing that SAPS policy of=20 pre-employment HIV testing is discriminatory in that it=20 excludes people with […]
Reg Rumney IT may be fashionable to focus on manufactured goods,=20 but commodities still earn most of South Africa’s=20 foreign exchange. Precious metals, diamonds, base metals and mineral=20 products make up 69 percent of South Africa’s exports. Indeed, rather than ignore its traditional source of=20 foreign exchange, South Africa should actually=20 diversify within its traditional […]
TELEVISION: Luke Alfred ALTHOUGH former Radio Rat Jonathan Handley is on the=20 other end of a telephone, one can imagine his eyes=20 lighting up at the magical sound of “pop”. The word has=20 special connotations for the man who, years ago, penned=20 that eerie local classic, Z-X Dan. For Handley, now in his 40s and […]
Rehana Rossouw THE Department of Foreign Affairs has been blasted for=20 “embarrassing” South Africa by not affording diplomatic=20 recognition to fellow Organisation of African Unity=20 member, the Sahrawi Republic. African National Congress executive committee member=20 Jeremy Cronin, writing in the South African Communist=20 Party publication African Communist, gave two examples=20 of South Africa’s ambiguous relationship […]
THEATRE: David Le Page ‘GOT green chillies, makooooti!” Pertulia Ramaphala’s=20 cry echoes in between sprays of invective directed at=20 the men who harass her character Gladys in the=20 Johannesburg Civic Theatre’s Got Green Chillies Makoti. Gladys is a vegetable seller with a chequered past that=20 includes a private education interrupted by pregnancy,=20 posing as Winnie […]
Reg Rumney For many small businessmen tax planning boils down to=20 declaring half of what you actually earn; employees in=20 the lower ranks of big companies don’t even have that=20 illegal option. Both would benefit from employing a good accountant so=20 that they can participate in the upper-class sport of=20 avoiding — not evading, which […]
South Africa’s input at the UN conference on the=20 extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty won=20 wide acclaim, writes Abdul Minty provides some=20 background to the decison THERE has been considerable confusion and=20 misunderstanding about the Nuclear Non-Proliferation=20 Treaty (NPT) Review and Extension Conference which=20 took place at the United Nations headquarters during=20 April and […]
Alan Morris and Stefaans Brummer IN the new South Africa, the military-industrial=20 complex should expect to find it a lot harder to=20 operate in the covert, money-is-no-object manner of the=20 The government set up the Cameron Commission to=20 investigate the industry after a large consignment of=20 South African rifles and ammunition was found in a=20 […]
As the Rugby World Cup reaches its peak this weekend,=20 Luke Alfred looks at a book which examines the=20 relationship between the sport and life in South Africa IN AUGUST 1992, a dark month for South Africa in=20 general and rugby in particular, a journalist from the=20 Sunday Star wrote: “It is hard to write […]
FORMER security policeman Paul Erasmus has given the=20 first explanation of what happened to Mamelodi activist=20 Stanza Bopape, who disappeared without trace in 1987. Erasmus never dealt with Bopape, but he was told by two=20 of his colleagues that Bopape was beaten to death=20 during interrrogation on the 10th floor of John Vorster=20 Square in […]
Durban’s fledgling centre for the arts is preparing to=20 fly, reports HUMPHREY TYLER MAYBE they should hire lifeguards for the official=20 opening in a few weeks of the Bat Centre beside the=20 water in the harbour in Durban. Vusisizwe Mchunu=20 (mostly known as Vusi), the centre’s project manager=20 and a prize-winning poet, shook his head […]
Anne Eveleth Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom rejected reports=20 that legislation he proposed to Cabinet this week was=20 aimed at privatising tribal land rights, and said the=20 draft Bill would instead provide legal security to=20 millions of impoverished black rural South Africans=20 living on tribal land in the former homelands. Hanekom said the proposed Interim […]
Writing stories on the sex lives of presidents has become a dangerous occupation for Southern African journalists, writes David Lush Just last month, the publisher and two editors of Zimbabwe’s Financial Gazette were arrested, interrogated and charged with an offence which has hardly seen the light of day since the fall of Ian Smith’s Rhodesia […]
Misapprehensions and misrepresentations followed the=20 Irish Republican leader on his visit to South Africa,=20 writes David Beresford There was, it must be said, room for misunderstanding,=20 and misunderstanding there surely was as the Irish=20 Republican leader made a triumphant entry into the=20 Transvaal shanty town of Phola Park on Sunday. “I don’t know who this […]
Ann Eveleth The Wildlife Society of Southern Africa has called for the creation of an environmental court to hear cases involving environmental disputes. Wildlife Society representative Jeremy Ridl, who made the submission to the first public hearing of the KwaZulu/Natal Constitutional Committee in Durban this week, said the multi-faceted nature of environmental disputes requires people […]
Justin Pearce Kathy Berman, producer of NNTV’s youth magazine programme The Works, is to conduct her own defence when the SABC appears before the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC) today. The SABC has been summoned before the BCC in connection with an insert entitled Sex and Romance in the Nineties which was broadcast as part of […]
WITH regard to your two excellent articles (M&G May 12 to18), “Abortion — A Test for Women’s Rights” and “Miscarriage of Justice”. It is estimated that over 200,000 illegal abortions are performed in South Africa each year — many of which are unsafe and even result in death. Three black women die every day due […]
Kiri Te Kanawa is visiting South Africa at the height of her ability to draw crowds. Coenraad Visser reports IT was with a sense of relief that one greeted Dame Kiri Te Kanawa at her first encounter with the press shortly after her arrival in Johannesburg. She currently limits her public appearances to about 18 […]
Lynda Loxton reports on moves to make the public service more creative and efficient More than a year after the first democratic elections, South Africa’s previously mainly white civil service has started to reflect the new South Africa. But if the recently released draft white paper on the transformation of the public service is anything […]
Sam Ramsamy is likely to be invited to become a member of the IOC — a just reward for his long battle against racism in sport, writes Julian Drew ON a weekend when the Springboks and All Blacks will be battling it out for the right to face each other in next Saturday’s Rugby World […]
With three weeks to go, HUMPHREY TYLER begins the countdown to the Grahamstown Festival of the Arts RELAX. If you are going to the Standard Bank National Arts Festival next month, you won’t have to walk under step- ladders. Grahamstown will be ready for you. The staff in the Monument building no longer go to […]
ALTHOUGH many white farmers have reacted with outrage to Derek Hanekom’s new Land Reform Bill for labour tenants, the draft law is neither new nor revolutionary. It is, in fact, based on regulations that are common in free market societies, writes Andra The Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Bill, published in the Government Gazette this month […]
South Africa’s semifinal opponents, France, have power and flair, but they don’t always seem able to use these RUGBY: Jon Swift IN many ways the World Cup semifinal facing South Africa on Saturday will be something of a relief. Against the French at Kings Park in Durban there is the first real chance, since the […]
Movable Feast Humphrey Tyler THE first thing you do when you arrive at the Imperial Hotel in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu/Natal is wonder why on earth you didn’t bring your horse. This has nothing to do with the food. It is the early colonial atmosphere. (Actually, I don’t ride horses. Horses give me hay fever.) But […]
Rehana Rossouw People campaigning for the new South African Constitution to promote a Christian state are political opportunists trying to reinstate minority baasskap, said African National Congress MP Carl Niehaus this week . Niehaus — who has a theology degree — was responding to the recent march on Parliament by several thousand conservative Christains demanding […]