Medical costs will not diminish until abuse of medical benefits ends, reports Sharon Gill `The medical scheme environment must not keep the sick and elderly out, but rather make sure we keep the young and healthy in,” says Neville Koopowitz, marketing director of Discovery Health. “Schemes need to balance their risk profile in order to […]

In the week the SABC showed graphic footage of the carnage in Sierra Leone, a Port Elizabeth businessman has been accused of fuelling the civil war in that country. Peter Dickson reports A Canadian probe into the diamond trade in Sierra Leone has accused a controversial Port Elizabeth businessman of peddling weapons and mercenaries in […]

Tom Roach Yachting For this year’s millennium race the weather in the South Atlantic has not followed the expected pattern. Instead of spending days on end sailing downwind under huge spinnakers, crews found themselves battling fickle winds on their beam, or from ahead. Frequent sail changes, often several times an hour, kept them on their […]

Donna Block The Alpine resort of Davos is where the world’s leading movers and shakers are gathered for the next few days to ponder the challenges of globalisation in the 21st century. New Beginnings: Making a Difference is the premise of the 30th annual session of the World Economic Forum which started on Thursday, with […]

Sarah Bullen Nerves of steel are no longer mandatory to fill in a medical aid application form if you are suffering from a chronic condition. Those polite questions inquiring about the state of your health can no longer serve as embedded red flags that will ensure your application lands neatly in the trash pile. The […]

ST ELMO’s restaurant in Camps Bay, Cape Town, which was ripped apart by a pipe-bomb explosion in November, was on Thursday provisionally liquidated after its insurers refused to pay its claim. The restaurant owners applied for provisional liquidation, saying they are operating at a loss, and thus can not meet their business obligations. But insurers […]

Stephen Bierley Tennis Jennifer Capriati overcame her old troubles to reach the final four of the Australian Open. Drugs were bound to come up. And they did within minutes of Capriati beating Japan’s Ai Sugiyama 6-0, 6-2 on Tuesday to reach her first grand slam semi-final since 1991. At the subsequent press conference she was […]

system? Serjeant at the bar Last week the British Home Secretary, Jack Straw, found himself under the political cosh. He introduced a Bill to restrict the right to trial by jury such that in a range of cases the choice of a jury trial would be given to the presiding magistrate. The Bill passed through […]

Andy Capostagno Golf It’s nearly February and the major golf tours around the world have shaken off their winter torpor and are heading towards full swing. But a few big names have stayed on in South Africa for this week’s Dimension Data Pro-Am at Sun City. Defending champion Scott Dunlap is absent, having earned his […]

Local markets should benefit this year from renewed international approval, writes Donna Block. Go along for the ride It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have it, it requires ten times as much skill to keep it. Ralph Waldo Emerson made […]