Old Mutual’s range of smoothed funds has delivered record-breaking returns of between 23,8% and 26,2% in 2006, says Steven Levin, general manager: products at Old Mutual. With year-on-year inflation at 5,8%, these funds have provided above-inflation returns of 18% and more in 2006.
Although South African investors displayed resilience to global market jitters sparked by China when the Shanghai 180 index fell more than 9,25% last Tuesday, the local stock market did not escape the sudden volatility. While the JSE all-share index got off reasonably light, the trouble in China resulted in a double whammy for South Africa.
The body of a seven-year-old girl abducted from her Pretoria home last month was found on Monday with the help from a police investigator who broke the Leigh Matthews kidnap and murder case, said police. The body believed to be that of Sheldean Human was found in a small river in Pretoria West.
At least two South Korean power generators said they aim to buy coal from South Africa despite the distance and costly freight as utilities face delays from regular suppliers. Coal is taking longer to arrive from China, Australia, Indonesia and Russia due to growing domestic demand in those countries.
Fearful of soaring internet addiction and juvenile crime, China has banned the opening of new internet cafés this year. The ban comes as lawmakers at China’s annual session of Parliament, the National People’s Congress, called for stricter regulations to keep teenagers away from internet cafés.
Britain’s ambassador to Ethiopia made an emotional appeal for information about the five Britons snatched from a remote border area on Monday night as efforts to negotiate their safe release were stepped up. Foreign Office officials said that progress was being made in the search for two women and three men who were kidnapped at the end of an adventure tour.
The Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, issued an environmental wake-up call to China on Monday, saying the world’s fastest-expanding economy had to move away from red-hot growth towards a greener, leaner, slower model of development.
Motor-vehicle accidents and incidents of violent crime in South Africa are leaving their mark on people’s lives in many different ways. Apart from the emotional trauma suffered, the long-term effects of physical injuries can also cause major disruptions. Severe injuries or illness could force one to make adjustments or stop work altogether.
United States President George Bush on Monday promised a series of US-financed measures to help Latin America’s poor, in a belated effort to try to combat the growing influence over the continent of the Venezualan President, Hugo Chávez, and other left-wing leaders.
They should have got Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa to play Idi Amin in <i>The Last King of Scotland</i>. Shilowa at least has the seductive/menacing looks of the fleshy African power-man that Amin became. Forest Whitaker, looking slightly slimmer than he was when I last saw him on screen, unfortunately still just looks like a fat black man from the Louisiana plantations.