South Africa’s Standard Bank Group said on Wednesday full-year headline earnings per share rose 23,4% to R1 033,4 cents, but it warned it would take a short-term hit from its deal to sell a 20% stake to China’s biggest lender ICBC. Africa’s biggest bank by assets said normalised headline earnings per share rose 20,6%, and normalised return on equity was 24,8%.
”I am shocked to learn from ‘A democracy of untouchables’ (February 8) that Independent Communications Authority of South Africa councillor Robert Nkuna was involved in drafting the African National Congress’s proposal for a print-media tribunal,” writes the Democratic Alliance’s Dene Smuts.
If there is one product on the supermarket shelves that is sold on packaging alone, it is bottled water. Identical in content and taste, the only real difference between competing brands is the marketing value of the label. You’d be hard pressed to differentiate between French, Belgian and British water in a blind taste test.
John Aitchison writes an open letter to Minister of Education Naledi Pandor on his unpleasant experiences after being appointed to a ministerial committee on literacy in January 2006. He was appointed lead writer of the committee’s report, which was approved by the Cabinet in November 2006.
Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh Kambakhsh is a young journalism student at the University of Balkh in northern Afghanistan. A few weeks ago, he was sentenced to death for blasphemy after a summary trial in which he had no legal representation and no opportunity to defend himself.
The Mail & Guardian tried to put some tough questions to Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) chairperson Abbey Makoe, and asked some of the country’s top editors for their opinion on the relaunch of the FBJ and its blacks-only, off-the-record briefing with Jacob Zuma.
Ferial Haffajee’s article ”In office, but not in power” (February 1) was a response to an earlier article by African staff and student leaders at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (”Selective outrage: on racism and rape at UKZN”, January 25). Her response is disappointing.
A Cape Town nurse who was detained in Saudi Arabia would soon be brought back to South Africa, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. Dannelene Noach (54) reportedly went missing in November last year from a hospital in Riyadh.
The emergence of the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) indicates there are problems in the media, South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) CEO Tseliso Thipanyane said on Tuesday. ”What is going wrong in media rooms to lead to the establishment of the FBJ?” he asked at a discussion on how the media cover race and racism
The South African theatre industry needs transformation, the co-producer of the musical The Lion King, Lebo M, said on Tuesday. He expressed his thoughts following the Naledi Awards in Johannesburg on Tuesday. He said the fact that so few black South Africans won awards was a sorry indication of the role of black people in the theatre industry.