Lisa Buckingham The Bank of England has begun a discreet investigation into index tracker investment funds. It is worried that the burgeoning growth of such “passive” stock market vehicles risk destabilising London’s financial markets. A team of senior executives in the bank’s financial stability unit is monitoring the issue amid growing fears that tracker funds […]
Ian Clayton Some “struggle accounting” was uncovered in the Department of Trade and Industry by Auditor General Henri Kluever when he examined its accounts for a R3,1-million small business conference. The department spent an extra R1,2-million without authorisation over and above the R2-million it received from the Danish government for the second national conference on […]
Sunday night in front of the box fed up with endless images of bombs, refugees and Nato briefings I did a little channel surfing and came across a lovely little film, called A Month By the Lake, starring Vanessa Redgrave. She plays a spinster looking for romance during an Italian holiday just before World War […]
Last year there was more hype around Josiah Thugwane’s participation in the London Marathon than about the millennium bug. This year, the Olympic champion is downplaying his chances after inadequate preparation, leaving Elana Meyer to carry the burden of South African hopes at one of the world’s top three big city marathons. The 32-year-old Meyer […]
censorship? Ann Eveleth The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) this week slammed the new Film and Publications Amendment Act, which passed virtually unnoticed through Parliament and the National Council of Provinces on March 25, as an “effort to return the power of censorship to the government”. FXI representative Laura Polecutt warned this week that the […]
axed Wally Mbhele The political future of Mpumalanga Premier Mathews Phosa, hanging on a knife-edge pending the outcome of an ANC investigation into political infighting in his province, was given a dramatic boost last weekend. In what observers describe as a solid vote of confidence in Phosa’s leadership, all his principal political rivals in the […]
Peter Makurube It can only happen in South Africa: the most popular morning show radio host in the country is hardly known beyond his audience of 1,7-million. DJ Chomane Chomane started out at Lesedi FM as a junior presenter, and he had to deal with the bureaucrats of the old SABC. At the time each […]
LESOTHO’S King Letsie III (36) is engaged to be married, Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili told the country’s parliament on Thursday. A date for his state wedding to Karabo Motsoening, a science student at the University of Lesotho, has yet to be announced.
Yeoville has long been known as South Africa’s pre-eminent bohemian enclave. But today Yeovillites fear for the future of their suburb. Overcrowding, informal trading, unlicensed nightclubs and rampant drug dealing have come to represent a widespread social unravelling. To save Yeoville from falling victim to Johannesburg’s inner-city urban decay, the Yeoville Community Development Forum (YCDF) […]
invasion Two of South Africa’s top kwaito groups play in London this weekend, and if they are a success they could pave the way for other township acts, writes Bongani Madondo Flashback – 1985. Soweto, Thokoza and its satellites are burning. The only recognisable fragrance in the air being burning tyres, if not human flesh. […]