Ferial Haffajee and Janet Smith The figures alone are enough to make you square-eyed. Together seven bidders for this country’s first national private and free television service have laid out R2.1- million to apply for a licence and each claims to have already spent between R2 and R3-million to finance the biggest media race yet […]

FRIDAY, 11.10AM: INDIA’s Under-19 squad beat Pakistan by five wickets in their MTN U19 World Cup semifinal match at Kingsmead on Thursday, but it was not enough to take them into Sunday’s final at the Wanderers. Pakistan hit 188 all out in 47 overs, to which India replied with 191/5 in 40,1. South Africa are […]

Why do we go on forking out for insurance, asks Rich Chanelle from London I give away about R8 000 a year. I don’t give it to good causes or charities. I don’t even give it to people that I like! I give R8 000 away, every year, to tycoons and multicorporations. Why not give […]

David Shapshak Subscribe to a free e-mail service and you will discover that you are merely another notch in someone’s pitch to win advertising on the Internet. Free e-mail on the Internet is driven by suppliers who view it as a way of enticing Web advertising. Their wares are displayed on a free e-mail home […]

Kathryn Flett : Gender While I struggle by with my shampoo, cleanser, facial scrub and one pot of posh moisturiser, it has come to my attention that my thirtysomething male lodger possesses an expensive and extensive range of unguents that rehydrate, soothe and psychoanalyse. But does the man who uses a bit of butch moisturiser […]

The South African Mint is certainly coining it, reports Belinda Beresford Lost down the back of sofas, stored in glass jars, hiding at the bottom of pockets or simply discarded, South Africans are very careless with their coins and about one billion new coins are needed each year to replace those removed from circulation. This […]

South Africans have cottoned on fast to the saving — not spending — prospects of credit cards, reports Belinda Beresford More and more South Africans are using their credit cards to save as well as to spend. Banks report rising numbers of customers using their plastic as de facto savings accounts to take advantage of […]

Barbara Ludman : Moveable feast Police say the rate of serious crime is falling, even if you’re staring a handgun in the face. And maybe they’re right. Who knows? Will tomorrow bring a better job, a retrenchment, a ”right-sizing”? Will the schools see out the year? Will the prosecutors get their overtime pay? Will the […]

THURSDAY, 12.30PM: ANGLO American and Gold Fields are getting closer to establishing a deal whereby the companies will jointly mine Driefontein gold mine. The deal will nullify conflict that has arisen over control of an asset both groups covet. Sources in the Industry on Wednesday indicated that Gold Fields — the result of a merger […]

THURSDAY, 12.30PM: A TASK team from the National Economic, Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) is on the threshold of finalising a draft social plan agreement to minimise the socio-economic effects of job losses on communities, local economies and the country as a whole. Yet to be finalised, the agreement stipulates a range of measures to […]