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/ 13 November 2006
The poets are unhappy. First I read that Rian Malan saw only sad decay for our future. Then André Brink was being quoted around the globe spreading similar doom and gloom. Malan worried me no end. The last I heard, he was living in Fish Hoek or thereabouts with a person called the Princess, or something like this.
The murder rate in Rosebank, Johannesburg, is up by 100% on last year — from one murder to two. Nearby Parkview also recorded two murders last year. This underlines the fact that South Africa’s high national murder rate — 39,5 per 100 000, down from 47,4 five years ago — conceals wild variations from area to area.
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/ 18 September 2006
If there’s a substance we take for granted, but would have unimaginable consequences for modern life if we were to lose it, it’s concrete. It gives us much of the built environment we daily take for granted. Yet, as noted by a recent article in The Guardian, cement — the basic building block of concrete — comes at a high environmental cost.
A headline in one of the country’s largest newspapers a few weeks back told us that five of the members of the African National Congress’s national executive committee have amassed R1,5-billion from empowerment wheeling and dealing. The <I>Sunday Times</I> based its story on the publication of its annual Rich List, which calculates the wealth of leading South Africans based on their shareholdings in JSE-listed companies.
Fuel giant Sasol has rolled out the big guns in its fight to resist the imposition of windfall taxes, presenting a 256-page report to the team tasked with recommending whether such taxes should be applied to liquid fuels and, particularly, synthetic fuels in South Africa.
Ours is a coal culture. We have an abundance of the stuff, enough to make tons of electricity and supply a big chunk of our fuel needs as well. Our electricity is among the cheapest anywhere costing, say, just 20% of what they pay in Europe. So cheap that it has been used as an investment tool. Come here for cheap electricity, investors are told.
United Kingdom-headquartered cellphone giant Vodafone, is dangling a R60-billion carrot that would represent the country’s largest foreign investment to date, dwarfing the R33-billion Barclays invested for a controlling stake in Absa.
We reached the mountain top in the Malutis as it began to snow. The icy wind bit into our cheeks. The weather was closing in fast.
The genetic modification (GM) battlefield has been extended to biofuels production, with South Africa featuring among a number of countries that are being asked to allow the import of GM maize to make ethanol. The GM industry worldwide wants to use GM to boost the energy properties of crops for ethanol production, says an environmental lawyer.
Bank fees, we are told by a recent voluminous report for the Competition Commission, have little to do with costs. They also appear to have little to do with service, as you can pay a lot or almost nothing for exactly the same facility. Most consumers know that shopping around for the most competitive home loan can lead to substantial savings.