Denny Mushrooms landed in hot fat this week when two employees were nabbed for allegedly defrauding the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market. A vendor who buys from the market was also buttoned. The market is deeply worried about the mushrooming losses from suppliers dodging the payment of commission.
Imported French ingredients, fine wine and rare cigars are to the political and business elite what diamond-encrusted platinum pendants the size of hubcaps are to rappers: a way to flash your newly acquired squillions and your exquisite taste –the culinary equivalent of bling.
The R96 000 that Gauteng Provincial Minister Paul Mashatile splurged on a taxpayer-funded dinner at a French restaurant has cast a spotlight on the abuse of government credit cards and is further evidence of the growing high life of our public representatives.
When will the public get its Oilgate money back? Almost two years after Imvume diverted R18-million from a state oil contract — the bulk of it to the ANC — about R12-million remains outstanding. After a history of broken promises and stop-start repayments, oil parastatal PetroSA has instructed attorneys to take action against Imvume.
A dog starved at his master’s gate, wrote Blake, predicts the ruin of the state. He was right, of course, but today culturally sanctioned brutality against dogs is usually just weekend overflow, the lads having a Saturday morning out together after five days of culturally sanctioned brutality against women.
It is disconcerting, even at the best of times, to be called "ma’am". Coming from someone such as Mamphela Ramphele, it’s downright humbling. But when I phone her for our interview, she replies to my "Hi, Mamphela?" with a "Yes, ma’am!" Ramphele’s CV can be summed up as daunting, writes Jocelyn Newmarch.
The World Bank ranks South Africa among the top 30 countries worldwide in terms of the ease of doing business, but it could boost its position up from 29 with just the "stroke of a pen", according to bank economist Caralee McLiesh. McLiesh is the programme manager of the bank’s Doing Business project, which investigates business regulation and the protection of property rights around the world.
Nursing her infant on a dusty pavement outside her printing shop in war-weary Gulu, Mary Amito says she isn’t convinced the recent talk of peace for northern Uganda will mean the end of 20 years of war. ”It’s going to start all over again,” she said, casting her eyes at a pile of stagnant rubbish gathering in a pothole.
Two men who threatened to hijack a Kulula.com airliner on Friday were arrested after the aircraft returned to the Cape Town International airport. When the flight reached 15 000 feet, a cabin controller was threatened by a passenger who said he was going to hijack the plane, Stuart Cochrane, spokesperson for the airline, told the Mail & Guardian Online.
The Economic Community of West African States called for innovative solutions to unblock the stalled peace process in Côte d’Ivoire as heads of state launched talks on Friday aimed to map a new route to elections in the world’s top cocoa grower. Time is running out in the war-divided country to decide a new transition arrangement.