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/ 5 February 2007
Shipped halfway across the world to Asia as a seafood delicacy, abalone has become a prized commodity for South African entrepreneurs as well as criminals who have poached the mollusc almost to extinction. Known colloquially in South Africa as ”perlemoen”, abalone is so endangered the government has drastically reduced the total allowable catch.
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/ 5 February 2007
United States military commanders in Iraq have been forced to adopt new security tactics in the wake of a fresh threat from insurgents after it was confirmed that all four US helicopters that have crashed there in the past two weeks were brought down by ground fire.
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/ 5 February 2007
When the foundation stone was laid for the Mulungushi textile factory three decades ago, the project was hailed as another demonstration of communist China doing for Zambia what the capitalist west would not. It grew to become the biggest textile mill in the country, manufacturing 17-million metres of fabric a year and 100Â 000 pieces of clothing.
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/ 5 February 2007
While some South African CEOs earn more than R20-million a year, the head of the country’s largest shareholder, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), earns less than R2-million a year. This pay disparity between top executives looks set to become a contentious issue after Brian Molefe, head of the PIC, signalled that he would be paying close attention to the remuneration of company directors.
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/ 5 February 2007
Between corporate South Africa and the government there is about R700-billion of cash sitting in the bank. Corporate South Africa has steadily increased its cash holding from about 12% of GDP in 1994 to a massive 38% of GDP in 2006. This equates to more than R600-billion.
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/ 5 February 2007
We of the “old establishment” are indeed terrified by the advent of Ronald Suresh Roberts on our shores, as he himself puts it. Here is a post-colonial liberator of impeccable credentials, and handsomely endowed features to boot, who, although, again as he says, we have never had a substantial conversation, takes us on as the major problem in his hitherto life of literary fame and glory in his forcibly adopted native land.
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/ 5 February 2007
Far more unites men and women than divides us, but when it comes to negative stereotypes, women win hands down. Girls are "bossy" and grow into women who "nag", while boys of all ages are "authoritative" and "natural-born leaders". When men go out for a drink together it is considered positive social interaction or "networking"; when women get together they "gossip".
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/ 5 February 2007
Last month, Kenya’s most celebrated literary icon, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, gave a series of lectures entitled <i>Re-Membering Africa</i> at the University of Nairobi. This was a historic moment, marking Ngugi’s first lecture in his homeland in nearly three decades, delivered at the very institution that stripped him of his professorship after he was detained without trial by the Jomo Kenyatta regime in 1977.
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/ 5 February 2007
Reading the newspapers during the past two weeks could easily have created the impression that the only role South Africa has played since it assumed a non- permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council was to vote against the resolution on Myanmar, writes Xolisa Mabhongo, Chief Director: United Nations (Political) Directorate, Department of Foreign Affairs.
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/ 5 February 2007
The Kenyan government’s frantic attempts to bury the ghost of high level corruption haunting President Mwai Kibaki’s administration suffered a major setback when exiled former anti-corruption czar, John Githongo, dropped yet another bombshell in late January, which appeared to link the president and his henchmen to a brazen bid to cream off millions of dollars through fictitious projects.