When will Stals ease up on interest rates and give=20 homeowners a break, asks Reg Rumney Real interest rates _ adjusted for inflation _ in=20 South Africa are punitively high, especially for=20 those buying a new home, but the reaction from=20 economists and the man-in-the-street is curiously=20 muted. The prime rate, the rate banks are […]

My Fleeting Moment with Nelson Mandela (in his=20 absence, of course) THE first time I was in the presence of the man=20 whose influence was to permeate South Africa was in=20 the early 1970s. He was thousands of miles away,=20 but hey, I was in his presence _ in his house in=20 Orlando West, which […]

Reg Rumney First National BANK (FNB) announced bottom-line=20 earnings up almost 23 percent this week at R920- million for the year to end-September. The bank saw strong growth in advances and in non- interest revenues. Those advances were driven=20 mainly by consumer demand. Margins were squeezed, as interest expenditure rose=20 40 percent while interest income […]

The McDonald’s trademark battle flares up as local=20 MacDonald’s opens. Karen Harverson reports Pipping United States McDonald’s at the post _ the=20 South African version, MacDonald’s, opened its=20 doors in central Johannesburg this week, just 24=20 hours before the grand launch of its American rival=20 in Randburg. The store, situated on the corner of Commissioner=20 […]

Data mining can unleash a gold mine of information=20 from one’s own databases. Leon Perlman reports Unbeknown to many corporates, they’re sitting on a=20 gold mine. Buried deep inside their databases are=20 vast repositories of data patterns that could=20 unlock acres of productivity and millions of rands=20 in revenue. The key to this info labyrinth […]

Karen Harverson Brands, though intangible, are often the most=20 valuable asset of a company, more so than its real=20 estate, equipment, stock, investments and=20 technology. “A brand has an economic value because of the=20 relationship that it creates between the supplier=20 and the customer,” says Raymond Perrier, executive=20 director of Interbrand, a specialist in the […]

BASKEBALL:Rowan Callaghan=20 WEMBLEY Stadium won’t be echoing with the loud=20 cries of excited fans or the hoarse grunts of=20 determined players forcing their way to the hoop=20 for a while now. The last time the stadium came to=20 life was in the league final two weeks ago when the=20 Johannesburg Spartans won a hard-fought contest=20 […]

Biceps, butts _ and community spirit. HAZEL=20 FRIEDMAN finds out what makes Mr South Africa tick `HI, honey [the sweetener is optional]. Love your=20 pectorals. You must be a Taurus.” It may not be=20 the ideal opening gambit, but what else can you say=20 when you’re interviewing a hunk with wall-to-wall=20 muscles, whose baby blues […]

Without the skills, choosing a satellite system can=20 be a technological nightmare. Annicia Reddiar=20 guides you through the labyrinth MORE than a month after the MultiChoice satellite=20 launch, the equipment needed to access its system=20 is not widely available. Most retailers complain=20 that they have no stock of the two MultiChoice- compatible receivers, and people […]

MALU VAN LEEUWEN visited Cape Town’s custom=20 motorcycle show _ and found that the `easy rider’=20 of the Sixties is the big spender of the Nineties BIKES new and old _ some of which hadn’t seen the=20 light of day in decades _ were wheeled out, dusted=20 down and lovingly shined up for Cape Town’s […]