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/ 7 November 2006
Tumi Makgetla singles out the National Arts Festival highlights, including those moving on to other theatres.
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/ 4 November 2006
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel last week upped the government’s contribution to the pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) to R9-billion, with a commitment to spend R6-billion over the next three years. The money keeps rolling into what was originally a R2-billion project — but whether it is a hugely expensive dud or a money-spinner will not be known for at least five years.
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/ 30 October 2006
Audit reports for the past year indicate continued high levels of financial mismanagement and poor compliance with reporting procedures, Auditor General Shauket Fakie told members of Parliament recently. Compared with seven in the previous financial year, 11 departments received qualifications, meaning their reports were inadequate.
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/ 27 October 2006
The medium-term budget policy statement released on October 25 commits the government to increasing spending by R80billion over the next three years. However, past performance suggests that government departments may struggle to spend the funds coming their way.
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/ 20 October 2006
Oil has been such an economic bogeyman in recent times, hogging the headlines, that not noticed is as severe a threat — food inflation. Food staple maize has been trading internationally at record highs, driven by the world’s move to energy diversification to produce bio-fuels as an alternative to fossil fuels.
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/ 13 October 2006
There is a silver lining to the large-scale emigration of Ghanaian professionals and skilled workers: remittances back home are soaring, reaching ,6-billion last year. Research indicates that in some African economies, remittances have become so significant that they have overtaken levels of foreign direct investment.
Slumming it means using the knife and fork placed before you at a restaurant. However, if you can afford to drop R300 a plate at The Meat Company a couple of times a week for a few months, that fine establishment will reward your rapacious and unswervingly loyal, if slightly boring, taste with a steak knife of your very own.
Despite its strident objections to the lottery, Cosatu has emerged as one of the major shareholders in Gidani, the consortium recently awarded the licence to operate the national lottery. In 2003 Cosatu made a submission to Parliament objecting to the introduction of the National Gambling Bill, which established the lottery, saying it would have negative consequences on the quality of life of the most vulnerable.
The World Bank ranks South Africa among the top 30 countries worldwide in terms of the ease of doing business, but it could boost its position up from 29 with just the "stroke of a pen", according to bank economist Caralee McLiesh. McLiesh is the programme manager of the bank’s Doing Business project, which investigates business regulation and the protection of property rights around the world.
South Africa has handed over a key trading weapon in its arsenal to China as part of the controversial agreement to get the country to agree to import quotas on a range of clothing items. China agreed to the quota deal, which covers 200 clothing products, in exchange for South Africa agreeing to give it the status of market economy in trade relations.