TUESDAY, 5.00PM: WATER Affairs and Forestry Minister Kader Asmal on Tuesday unveiled a far-reaching new Water Bill that puts an end to private ownership of water. Asmal said in terms of the proposed new law, the right to use water will no longer be allocated primarily on the basis of land ownership, with allocations to […]

TUESDAY, 5.30PM: A SOLID day’s trading helped Johannesburg Stock Exchange industrial shares better themselves. Gold stocks fell on weaker bullion prices, but not as much as they could have, said dealers. The positive mood on the markets is probably linked to fewer worries about the Asian economies and a relatively stable Wall Street, despite the […]

MONDAY, 12.30PM: SOUTH Africa’s Under-19 cricket team may well be through to the final of the MTN Under-19 World Cup, if they can beat Sri Lanka. The tenacious South Africans beat New Zealand by five wickets at Newlands on Sunday after being set a target of 195. South Africa were, however, put under quite a […]

MONDAY, 12.30PM: TIGER Woods’ prediction came true when he beat Ernie Els in a play-off for the Johnnie Walker Classic title after being eight shots adrift entering the last day. Woods shot a 65, and then went on to beat Els on the second hole of a play-off with a 15-foot birdie putt. Woods had […]

MONDAY, 2.30PM: ZIMBABWEAN opener Grant Flower scored his first century in one-day cricket to take Zimbabwe to an imposing total of 281 for six in their third and final one-day international against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Monday. Flower, who was dropped twice by Sanath Jayasuriya on two and 18, made full use of his […]

Marion Edmunds Skilled officials from the Department of Public Enterprises — including its chief accounting officer, Professor Sipho Shabalala — are abandoning their minister, Stella Sigcau. Sigcau’s representative, Wandile Zote, confirmed this week that Shabalala, public enterprises deputy director general, had resigned and would leave at the end of the month, in what appears to […]

Journalists frequently fall into the trap of writing too much about their own profession. It is, therefore, with some reluctance that we return to the subject, specifically by drawing attention to a column written in the latest edition of the Financial Mail by Joe Thloloe, headed “Motshekga and the media” — referring to the Mail […]

Jos Havermans Despite the turmoil in the world’s stock markets, it seems almost every country in the world — even the poorest — wants to have its own stock exchange. And Malawi, one of the world’s 15 least developed countries, is no exception. After a three-year apprenticeship period, the Malawi Stock Exchange is poised to […]

Mukoni T Ratshitanga South African Housing Trust chair Reverend Frank Chikane has ordered a forensic audit into corruption allegations levelled against the trust’s subsidiary, Khayalethu Home Loans (KHL). The audit was prompted by a Mail & Guardian report last week in which KHL management was accused of paying a consultant for work he had not […]

The issue in Microsoft’s attempt to rule the browser market is a fear of tomorrow’s cheap, simple, ‘networked’ computers, argues Philip Machanick The only puzzling thing about the fact that the United States Department of Justice is pursuing a case against Microsoft is why it took so long to find a reason to tackle it. […]