The good news is house prices are up 14% on last year. The bad news is this is the slowest growth in prices in four-and-a-half years. While lower transfer fees — after lower transfer fees were announced by Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel in the Budget — were expected to bring resilience to the sector of the market up to R1-million, the cooling down in prices is across all sectors.
<i>The Time of the Writer</i> festival kicks off in Durban this week, attended by over 25 writers from South Africa and abroad. One of the key themes to be explored is negotiating identities.
Local play <i>Cards</i> is graphic in its depiction of inner-city prostitution, yet audiences are laughing it up, writes Malena Amusa.
The suspension of Connie Molusi as the chief executive of the media group Johncom this week is being treated as a standard boardroom drama, pitting the CE against the board chairman Mashudu Ramano. The word is that Ramano is in alliance with Caxton’s majority shareholder, Terry Moolman, the enigmatic media baron who reportedly wants to step into Molusi’s shoes.
South African organisers of the 2010 World Cup, their ardour fuelled by the country losing to Germany for the 2006 edition, said at the World Cup handover ceremony in Berlin on Friday they have their hearts set on a jamboree that can transform the world’s perception of the whole African continent. President Thabo Mbeki said the 2010 event will be one to remember.
A veteran of 20 African summits, Hassan Sunmonu, secretary general of the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity, recently declared that the Banjul gathering of the continent’s leaders was the best he’d experienced. He raised eyebrows in the gathering of NGOs where he was a panelist.
Justine Henin-Hardenne is one victory away from a career grand slam. Henin-Hardenne defeated fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Thursday to reach the Wimbledon final and close in on the one major title missing from her collection. She will face Amelie Mauresmo on Saturday, who beat Maria Sharapova 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson insisted on Thursday he expects Ruud van Nistelrooy to return to Old Trafford for pre-season training. Dutch striker Van Nistelrooy (29) has been linked with a move away from the English Premiership club after losing his place in the United team towards the end of last season.
Rafael Nadal shrugged off a controversial doping storm to move closer to a dream Wimbledon title clash against Roger Federer with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 semifinal victory over Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen on Thursday. The 20-year-old Spaniard became the first French Open champion to reach the last four here in the same year since Andre Agassi in 1999.
Somali Islamists said on Thursday they had arrested two Muslim militiamen accused of shooting dead two people this week during a protest in central Somalia against a ban on watching the World Cup. The pair is to be tried, possibly for murder, under Sharia law according to two senior clerics involved in the case.