Estimated expenditure for the Office of the President,=20 which includes President Nelson Mandela’s salary,=20 amounts to R16,3-million, an increase of R272000 from=20 last year, according to the 1995/96 Budget. Expenditure for the office of Deputy President Thabo=20 Mbeki is estimated at R8,8-million, a decrease of R1,2=20 million. Expenditure for the office of Second Deputy=20 President […]
The proliferation of nominee companies to obscure=20 ownership continues despite the King Commission’s=20 recommendations to the contrary. “One wonders what will=20 trigger a confrontation,” says the latest edition of=20 McGregor’s Who Owns Whom. “One hopes that the sane international norms will soon=20 replace South Africa’s obsession with secrecy,” says=20 Over the past 12 years the […]
Enoch Mthembu MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI’S key royal ally in the feud over the Zulu monarchy, Prince Gideon Zulu, was named in court this week as one of the mastermind’s of kwaZulu Police (KZP) hit-squad activities. Also named was Celani Mtetwa, the province’s Safety and Security Minister. During the mitigation hearing for three self-confessed KZP hit-squad killers […]
Economists believe the all-important Budget=20 deficit is still too high. Reg Rumney reports Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg did not go far enough=20 in cutting the projected Budget deficit to 5,8 percent=20 for the 1995/96 financial year.=20 This is the feeling among economists canvassed by the=20 Weekly Mail & Guardian. They felt the Budget does not […]
Michael McMurray ONCE considered to be South Africa’s heart of conservatism, if not darkness, Pretoria is finding itself in a grip of jungle fever as copies of “Whoomp”, a video portraying all kinds of acts across the colour divide, topped the best selling lists last week. “I’m all sold out, the white guys go crazy […]
NOW at last we know the precise mathematical point between a rock and a hard place. It’s Marcia Clark’s life.She’s the prosecutor in the OJ Simpson trial, a case so high-pressure and so celebrated that it’s headline news if she drops a verb. She’s a single mother competing with the big boys. When she tried […]
The poor middle class taxpayer has lost out most in the Budget — again, writes Reg Rumney The Budget presented to Parliament by Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg this week tightens the tax clamp on South Africa’s middle class, particularly professionals. The top marginal rate was raised, tax tables were not adjusted to counter inflation, excise […]
Pat Sidley SOUTH AFRICANS will not be able to see the full effects=20 of the first budget of the government of national unity=20 until the nine provinces present their budgets to their=20 provincial legislatures within the next few weeks. The budget presented in parliament this week reflected=20 the amounts allocated for various national government=20 departments […]
Pat Sidley Despite difficulties which will become more evident when the provincial budgets are announced and debated in the coming weeks, and a presentation which many regard as “messy”, the budget presented this week in parliament is designed to begin the process of redressing wrongs. Not only has a larger proportion of the budget than […]
So cautious was this week’s budget that the finance=20 minister has been dubbed the Kepler Wessels of finance=20 ministers, writes Reg Rumney It could be described as a Banker’s Budget, cautious=20 and conservative to a fault. Indeed, one humourist this=20 week described Chris Liebenberg as the Kepler Wessels=20 of finance ministers. To be fair to […]
Gaye Davis FREEDOM Front member Tom Langley’s nomination as South Africa’s ambassador to Portugal has sparked frantic behind-the-scenes lobbying in a bid to stop his Sources told the Weekly Mail & Guardian there was deep concern in Portugal over the move to post Langley, a former National Party and Conservative Party MP, to the country. […]
With a dose of South African wit and a whipping by the=20 British team, the local brand of rugby league kicked=20 off last week RUGBY LEAGUE: Luke Alfred THE recent test between the Rhinos (the South African=20 amateur Rugby League side) and their amateur=20 counterparts from Britain was the ideal laboratory to=20 test the following […]
This year’s Windybrow Arts Festival tackles inner-city=20 issues in an appeal to the people of Hillbrow. Matthew=20 Krouse reports T HE logistics of running an annual arts festival that=20 caters for all interest groups in Johannesburg and its=20 immediate surrounds continue to be hotly debated. In=20 planning such events, administrators leave themselves=20 as open to […]
The scrapping of non-resident shareholders’ tax is a=20 strong move to attract foreign investment, reports=20 Jacques Magliolo The scrapping of non-resident shareholders’ tax (NRST)=20 and remaining import surcharges has elicited a positive=20 response from the market during this week’s Budget=20 Experts perceived it as one of the most positive=20 Budgets in decades as it aimed […]
CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser AUDIENCES in Gauteng have been treated to a feast of=20 new music — a world premiere and two first South=20 African performances. For the third time Carlo Franci conducted the Transvaal=20 Philharmonic Orchestra in a first performance of one of=20 his works. But enough is enough. This year’s creation, Time of […]
Reg Rumney reports on what the Minister did not do to=20 the tax system. Finance ministers cannot do everything they are=20 expected to do, but the Budget this year has some=20 significant tax reform gaps. One big sin of omission was that no adjustments were=20 made to the tax table to take into account “fiscal=20 […]
It is incumbent upon legislators to pen their semantic outpourings in a manner comprehensible to the populus … Sorry, government language should be simple, argues Justin Pearce ‘ESSENTIAL budgetary reforms, linked to the enhancement of systems and institutional management and the improvement of professional practice, will bring major equity, efficiency and productivity gains, amounting to […]
The Budget sacrifices public health to the interests of=20 the tobacco industry, says the anti-smoking lobby=20 Jacques Magliolo reports=20 IncreaseS of 25 percent on cigarette taxes and nine=20 percent on beer are not high enough, the National=20 Council Against Smoking has commented on this year’s=20 “The new tobacco taxes continue to reflect a conflict=20 between […]
The ANC’s Code of Conduct is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough, argues Anton THE ANC’s Code of Conduct is strong in some aspects, weak in others. The Code should end the old National Party system in which ruling party MPs were handed directorships by major Afrikaans companies […]
The Department of Defence has been allocated R9,8- billion, which is a 11,7 percent decrease (or a cut of=20 R1,3-billion) from last year’s R11,1-billion. However,=20 the South African Police Service was allocated R8,9- billion in the 1995/96 Budget.=20 The reduction in defence will finance increased=20 spending on social services, said Chris Liebenberg=20 during his Budget […]
So far the battle between the Zulu king and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi has been a war of words — now it’s headed for the courts, writes Ann Eveleth INKATHA Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s new power base in kwa-Zulu/Natal, the controversial House of Traditional Leaders, came under a double-edged legal sword this week following […]
It is the viewer who makes the artwork, Chile’s Carlos=20 Capel=FCn told Ivor Powell IN 1974, Carlos Capel=FCn was one of a group of anti- dictatorship activists in Chile who, as the chilling=20 violation of grammar has it, “were disappeared”.=20 Somehow, this particular group managed to smuggle out a=20 piece of paper bearing the names […]
EGYPT is the third-largest movie producer in the world,=20 earning the country the title of the “Hollywood of the=20 Middle East”. The Egyptian Film Festival, which begins=20 today at the Seven Arts Cinema in Norwood,=20 Johannesburg, will present eight of the country’s=20 landmark films, made between 1968 and today.=20 The films, presented by the Egyptian […]
This week, the Weekly Mail & Guardian presents a simple lesson in how to prevent corruption among Members of Parliament and provincial legislatures. We publish below the ANC’s Code of Conduct, which sets out the rules the organisation has set down in a bid to prevent its members from being corrupted. Much has been said […]
Weekly Mail & Guardian Reporter The total tax burden in the 1994/95 financial year is=20 Total tax revenue will amount to 24,8 percent of gross=20 domestic product (GDP) in 1995/96 — almost the same as=20 the actual 1994/95 figure. Direct taxes remain the most important contributor to=20 total tax revenue in 1995/96 at 52,6 percent […]
Estimated expenditure for the Office of the President,=20 which includes President Nelson Mandela’s salary,=20 amounts to R16,3-million, an increase of R272 000 from=20 last year, according to the 1995/96 Budget. This is a miniscule 1,7 percent increase over last=20 year’s Budget’s expenditure. Expenditure for the office of Deputy President Thabo=20 Mbeki is estimated at R8,8-million, […]
Stefaans Brummer BOTSWANA authorities are reviewing charges of trust fund embezzlement against South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Safety and Security, Joe Matthews — who skipped bail there in 1985 — and may ask for his An official in the Botswana attorney-general’s office this week said charges against Matthews “have not been withdrawn, neither have they […]
CINEMA: William Pretorius BLUE SKY, in which Jessica Lange plays the=20 unconventional wife of an army officer, is British=20 director Tony Richardson’s last film. Working in=20 Europe, Britain and the United States, Richardson’s=20 career has veered wildly from brilliant (Tom Jones) to=20 awful (The Hotel New Hampshire), with seldom a dull=20 He has a definite […]
Yo, Babe! Bafana Khumalo welcomes Queen Elizabeth with some helpful advice for her visit to South Africa. He will be following the royal entourage throughout their I sure hope you had a cool trip and and you were chillin’ in your set of water wheels. I am certain that you are going to have a […]
SOCCER: Clinton Asary BOASTING a smile as wide as Kimberley’s famous big=20 hole, there is no doubt that Kaizer Motaung was by far=20 the happiest man at Rand Stadium last Saturday, as he=20 watched his side crush Hellenic 5-1. But it was not the scoreline that had the Kaizer Chiefs=20 camp smiling, rather the way […]
The SANDF has come clean on covert links with African countries during the 1980s, writes Stefaans Brummer THE National Defence Force has owned up to a secret mid-eighties project to help build a military base in the West African state of Gabon — part of Pretoria’s efforts to forge covert links with African states whose […]
President Mandela’s report to the UN World Summit on Social Development shows that South Africa still has a long walk to prosperity, writes Justin Pearce South Africa is one of the most unequal nations in the world with regard to income distribution. This is the essence of the National Social Development Report which President Nelson […]