Heather Connon SHAREWORLD When FTSE International meets on March 8 to decide who is in and out, up and down, in the London stock market, construction company BICC’s lowly 330-million market capitalisation means it could be demoted to the small-cap index – of the smallest companies in the market. But Baltimore Technologies, a supplier of […]

EIGHT Mozambican rescue workers have drowned on the Limpopo river in the floodstricken southern province of Gaza, taking the death toll across Mozambique to at least 67. Radio Mozambique said the eight died on Thursday when their boat capsized due to strong waves in the Gaza district of Guija. They were members of the district […]

Adam Sweeting When the American record industry dishes out its annual awards this month, all eyes will be on Carlos Santana, the 52- year-old guitarist who has been nominated for 10 Grammys. That would be a remarkable achievement in any circumstances, but only a year ago Santana was thought of as a 1970s throwback with […]

Fumane Diseko COLOURS OF THE MOUNTAIN by Da Chen (Random House) DAUGHTER OF THE RIVER by Hong Ying (Bloomsbury) Both these books are autobiographical texts dealing with life in China. Da Chen, born in 1962 into a “landlord’s family” during Mao Zedong’s rule, suffers for the sins of his family. The roller- coaster policies of […]

Howard Barrell and Barry Streek New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk may be the ultimate victor as the African National Congress’s desperate bid to exploit the firing of maverick Western Cape MEC Peter Marais fizzled out this week. A plot to give Van Schalkwyk a seat of power – the premiership of the Western […]

Mercedes Sayagues Judging from President Robert Mugabe’s body language during his State of the Nation address on Tuesday, he was in shock. Stiff and aloof, albeit in a father-of-the-nation magnanimous style, he conceded defeat in the referendum over his draft Constitution. It was a far cry from the fist-waving, cocky Mugabe of earlier weeks. At […]

Ian Fife TAKING STOCK IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE SOUTH AFRICA’S LAST PROPERTY BOOM. THE LAST ONE PEAKED IN 1983, SO ALMOST EVERYBODY UNDER 40 HAS YET TO EXPERIENCE THIS KIND OF SOUL-STIRRING EVENT. THEN, ONLY WHITES COULD BUY GOOD PROPERTIES, SO MOST PEOPLE OVER 40 WERE SIDELINED AS WELL. A residential property boom is […]

Neil Manthorp CRICKET Having made one of his gutsiest half centuries of a pretty gutsy career during the triangular final last Sunday, Hansie Cronje had just a single day at home before joining the rest of his squad for the the flight to India on Wednesday. What a triumph it was. When Steve Waugh gloated […]

JUDGES in Angola warned on Thursday that they will take action if their working conditions are not improved and their salaries boosted. The average wage for a magistrate has stayed at $80 for several years now, despite sharp rises in the cost of living. The judges claim they submitted a wage proposal to the government […]

mail Yazeed Kamaldien As South Africa continues to promote an international image of a country in transformation and reconciliation, most citizens of the world are confronted with a contradictory image on the website www.creativewebs.co.za/apologies/. Created in 1998 to encourage white South Africans to apologise to their black counterparts for the injustices the latter suffered during […]