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for his An official in the Botswana attorney-general’s office this week said charges against Matthews “have not been withdrawn, neither have they […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
We are of our time. Just a few years ago, even a relatively progressive Budget from a National Party government drew almost universal howls of outrage and fury at its lack of concern for the majority of people in the country. Now, a conservative budget from an ANC- led government draws almost universal praise for […]
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 […]
Jacques Magliolo WHILE local stores-listed companies fight for market=20 share on South African soil, there is a universal trend=20 for retailers to become world players. The Americans,=20 Asians and Europeans have suddenly realised the=20 advantages of the global village and they intend to=20 make the most of its conveniences. Everyone has heard of easy access […]
R750 000 in church funds have gone missing but anti- apartheid activist Rev Eddie Leeuw denies he benefited THE Reverend Eddie Leeuw, one of the leading church activists of the Eighties and current director of Eastern Cape Peace Initiative, has become embroiled in a R750 000 church fund fraud scandal. The announcement of the police […]
CDs/Malu van Leeuwen SWANS: The Great Annihilator (Young God) MICHAEL GIRA must be the most depressed individual in=20 the galaxy. “I am insane,” he intones on I am the Sun,=20 with Jarboe warbling somewhere from the third ring of=20 Saturn. Still, if Gira ever cheered up, scores of Swans=20 devotees would sink into irreversible melancholia. […]
Native tongue Bafana Khumalo It was that time of the evening when one can glare at the boss and waltz out of the office and the glare is followed by a smug smile that says: “This time is mine and there is nothing you can do about it. For the next couple of hours I […]
CINEMA: Stanley Peskin THE brilliantly coloured and designed credit titles for=20 High Heels (1991) are shots of high-heeled shoes which=20 in the film come to be associated with the world of=20 fashion and show business, as well as with=20 impersonation and performance. These are replaced with=20 shots of revolvers, and so murder and mayhem are=20 […]
Jan Taljaard NO ma’am, you’re most definitely not welcome. If there is one group that will not be curtseying along in the expected upsurge of post-colonial fawning that will accompany Queen Elizabeth’s visit, it will be the far- Addressing a public meeting in Pretoria on Thursday night on the theme: “British Queen, keep out!” the […]
South Africans eager to get housing could learn a lot from the way Afrikaners used co-operatives, argues James McGregor All of South Africa’s citizens are aware of the challenge ahead in aiming to house the nation’s lower- income population. The recently published White Paper quantifies the problem: 40% of all households earn less than R800/month; […]
With his strong union and civic background Thozamile Botha is well-placed to tackle the problems in the Eastern Cape, writes Shadley Nash THE man whose job it is to turn governance in the Eastern Cape from “crisis management” to “strategic management of change” was one of the founders of the civic movement. But Thozamile Botha, […]
Justin Pearce A new initiative by the Department of Justice is set to transform the face of South Africa’s magistrate’s courts by allowing lay people to share the bench with The lay assessors, with whom the magistrates will confer in deciding on the guilt of a suspect and in passing sentence, will be appointed by […]
Justin Pearce AS the University of the Western Cape battled against boycotting students this week, Professor Cecil Abrahams was still pondering whether or not to take up the post of rector which he was offered last Thursday. After consulting students, workers and academics on campus, the UWC council voted unanimously to give the job to […]
Critical Consumer Pat Sidley CONSUMERS needing glasses and looking for cheaper or quicker alternatives to traditional optometrists may have noticed a growth in new and different forms of doing business among some optometrists. They’ve been at it a while — and hassled by officialdom for doing it. But their type of practice appears to be […]
Gaye Davis SERIOUS concerns about Peter Mokaba, under fire for failing to commit enough time and energy to a crucial parliamentary committee he chairs on environment affairs and tourism, were aired this week at a meeting attended by ANC chief whip the Reverend Arnold Stofile. Mounting frustration among committee members over Mokaba’s repeated absence from […]
Gaye Davis PARLIAMENT’S creche — vaunted as a symbol of the new government’s commitment to gender equality — has closed because of staffing problems, forcing MPs and other parents to make other arrangements for the care of their children. Parliamentary under-secretary Robbie Karreman said it was hoped the creche, which closed two weeks ago and […]
Annie Mapoma THE government’s decision to rename “Sharpeville Day” on March 21 as Human Rights Day, has infuriated the Pan Africanist Congress. March 21 has for 35 years been an unofficial stayaway day for black South Africans marking the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, when police shot dead 69 people and wounded 177 others during a pass […]
While Chris Liebenberg announced the long awaited=20 scrapping of the discriminatory tax on married women,=20 he said child rebates would be abolished.=20 However, to lessen the burden on lower income earners,=20 who are most affected by the loss of the child rebate,=20 the primary rebate would go up by R400. The middle classes were the […]
The government is threatening to use the law against=20 tax advisers who come up with fancy avoidance schemes,=20 reports Reg Rumney THE first Budget of the new Government of National=20 Unity studiously avoided gnashing its teeth at anyone=20 other than those who use dodgy tax avoidance schemes. Finance Minister Chris Liebenberg took these schemes to=20 […]
Ann Eveleth A KEY witness in an African National Congress (ANC) court application against the controversial kwaZulu/Natal House of Traditional Leaders was brutally gunned down just weeks after deposing to an affidavit in support of the case, the ANC said this week. ANC organiser Celani Radebe was shot dead in the Ntabamhlope district of Estcourt […]
Phil Collins combines good music with all the right=20 political credentials, writes Pat Sidley FOR those with their hearing (and purses) still intact=20 after the Rolling Stones blast, the best reference for=20 the Phil Collins concerts has come inadvertently from=20 the Stones’ own publicist, who thinks Collins’ concert=20 is one of the best on the […]
Simon Segal THE capital market will easily absorb the borrowing=20 requirements set out in Chris Liebenberg’s first Budget=20 — no upward pressure will thus be exerted on interest=20 The market itself responded by pushing the long-dated=20 South African bond, called the R150, down initally by=20 10 points to 16,37percent (by the end of Budget day=20 […]
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 […]
Clive Simpkins With all the brouhaha about a national health scheme,=20 the whole issue of marketing safer sex to ill-informed,=20 superstitious and suspicious communities is in danger=20 of being eclipsed, or altogether lost. Get ready for an=20 unpopular and un-PC but vital series of observations. The recent international Aids conference in South=20 Africa highlighted some […]
Pace against power in the loose forwards is a question=20 that will be highlighted in the Super 10 clash between=20 Transvaal and Western Province RUGBY: Jon Swift THERE can be little doubt that Transvaal have already=20 taken on the look — and demonstrated the drive in=20 patches — of this country’s preeminent provincial=20 Despite what […]
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 […]
Jan Taljaard As high courts go, the new Pretoria Supreme Court has had little time to steep itself in history. No smells of previous life-or-death dramas cling to the machine- tooled benches. The lighting is almost overbearingly efficient and clinical, the texture of the wood panelling, if not exactly cheap, symbolises transient society rather than […]