The David Gleason Column After a really dreadful year, what price De Beers, South Africa’s diamond giant and arbiter of the world’s rough diamond trade? Well, still not much – and the market underlines this view through the miserable price it continues to mark the counter. At a conservative estimate, De Beers’s net asset value […]

Donna Block : Share World International markets. Global markets. Sounds pretty awesome, huh? “Sure,” you say, “but I live in Bloemfontein or Johannesburg or Cape Town. What in the name of Nelson Mandela’s undershorts does all this have to do with me?” Good question. Ever since South Africa began relaxing exchange controls it has been […]

Evidence wa ka Ngobeni The rector of the troubled University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cecil Abrahams, has not apologised to the university community for the ”short-sighted, inhuman and mechanical manner” in which he implemented a retrenchment process. Abrahams was censured by the university’s senate and ordered to issue a public apology ”at an appropriate […]

DAVID LE PAGE, Johannesburg | Wednesday 11.30pm. THE day for which South African rugby fans have long waited — when popular Western Province captain Bobby Skinstad dons the Springbok green and gold — comes at last on Saturday when the South African team faces Scotland at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. Though Skinstad (22) has played seven […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, New York | Thursday 12.30pm. FRANCE’S 1995 Australian Open champion Mary Pierce thrashed South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer 6-1 6-0 in New York at the WTA Chase Championships on Wednesday. The 45-minute humbling of Coetzer, who was the last player to qualify for the season’s final tournament, sets up a repeat of last year’s […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Wednesday 5.30pm. THE long-awaited cut in interest rates by the United States Federal Reserve on Tuesday night failed to inspire the local market on Wednesday, despite global markets’ positive response to the move. The all share index closed 0,58% lower, led down by the financial index which shed 1,47% on the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday 11.00am. ZIMBABWE was hit hard on Wednesday by a second anti-government national strike as trade unionists pressed their demands for pay rises, price cuts and an end to corruption. Factories and building sites fell silent across the country, with most shops and banks also closed, as trade unionists proved for […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.30pm. THE real value of building plans fell by 10,3% during the first nine months of the year, representing a loss of R1,27-billion to the economy, according to the latest building statistics released by Statistics South Africa on Wednesday. This continues a falling trend since the second half of 1996. […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Monday 5.00pm. LOCAL markets had a fairly flat day on Monday with almost no movement in the key indices, with the exception of the all gold index which ended significantly lower on profit taking. Dealers said the day was vacuous, with the market just holding its ground after last week’s heavy […]

ROB DAVIES, Johannesburg | Tuesday 10.15am. WHEN the South African mid-week rugby team take on Edinburgh Reivers at Eastern Road on Tuesday evening Springbok coach Nick Mallett will have his selection spectacles focused on more than one Test hopeful. We all know that Mallett prefers not to change a winning combination, but after Saturday’s near-catastrophe […]