<b>CDS OF THE WEEK:</b> Take a song and make it your own by not respecting the original too much and breathing new life into it, and you will succeed, writes Lloyd Gedye.
Black ownership is now concentrated in more than 20 significant empowerment groupings, including Mvelaphanda Holdings, Johnnic Holdings, Sekunjalo, Thebe Investments, Matodzi Resources, Worldwide African Investment Holdings, Safika and Shanduka.
Elder statesman Neil Young has produced a blistering assault on George Bush with his new album titled <i>Living with War</i>, writes Lloyd Gedye.
In a move to slash bandwidth prices, the government has instructed the communications regulator to nationalise the landing station for the undersea SAT-3 submarine cable and to declare it an essential facility. At present, as SAT-3’s largest investor, Telkom has monopoly rights on access to and pricing of international bandwidth on the undersea cable.
Customers who have a fixed line pay a rental of just under R100 for the copper line that delivers their voice service. Telkom then performs a slight upgrade to this line estimated to cost under R40 in order to allow the customer to receive broadband through the existing copper line.
South African cellphone users can finally start getting used to paying for the actual airtime they use now that the leading players are offering per-second billing on some (Vodacom, MTN and Cell-C) or all (Virgin) of their packages. But this is only for cellphone calls to other cellphones or landlines.
<b>CD OF THE WEEK:</b> Lloyd Gedye reviews one of the most blindingly brilliant albums you may ever hear, The Flaming Lips’ <i>At War With the Mystics</i>.
Here are seven good alternatives to cow’s milk. Peta Bee reports.
With the competition authorities rejecting a tie-up between privately owned Sasol and Engen, owned by Malaysia’s Petronas, there are signs that the state-owned PetroSA may be getting ready to grow muscles in the domestic market. Senior PetroSA and government officials met Petronas in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last month.
Small and micro businesses face less onerous empowerment requirements, following announcements recently by Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa. He was reacting to business comments on the draft black economic empowerment codes of conduct, which were published in December last year.