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/ 22 October 2007

Race debate awaits World Cup heroes

They may be the world champions, but the Springboks have few illusions that their new status will stave off a new push by the government to overhaul the team’s racial composition. Meanwhile, Springbok wing Bryan Habana was on Sunday named the International Rugby Board player of the year.

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/ 22 October 2007

PIC: Too big for comfort?

The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is not afraid to throw its weight around and rattle cages. A strong champion of shareholders can be a good thing, but when does size become dangerous? The PIC is the largest fund manager in South Africa. It controls about R791-billion, almost double its closest rival, Old Mutual, which manages R396-billion of South African assets.

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/ 22 October 2007

Africa: The next big thing

Booming stock markets, bustling city centres, huge reserves of natural resources and soaring economic growth. Welcome to the new Africa. Last week one of Britain’s leading asset managers, New Star, became the first to launch a fund that will invest solely in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa.

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/ 22 October 2007

Backlash fears as India rides high

The stock market boom in India reached new heights on Monday with the Mumbai index shooting past 19 000 for the first time and creating paper fortunes worth billions of dollars for the country’s richest industrialists. The record high, which saw Mumbai’s Stock Exchange Sensitive index, or Sensex, rise almost 3,5% in the course of the day, was fuelled by foreign investors seeing rapid economic growth and company profits in India.

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/ 22 October 2007

The Amazon burns again

Veteran Amazon pilots such as Fernando Galvao Bezerra are hard men to shock. During 20 years in aviation Bezerra (45) has ferried prostitutes and wildcat miners to remote, lawless goldmines. He has taxied wealthy loggers between ranches, and once survived when his plane plummeted out of the sky.

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/ 22 October 2007

Trampling with Trump

It must be dispiriting at times to be one of the local protesters in Aberdeenshire, on Scotland’s east coast, trying to stop the billionaire Donald Trump from building a $1billion golf complex along one of Scotland’s finest stretches of dunes. His visit to the site recently has reminded them — if they needed it — that they are pitted against one of the world’s most famous and famously ruthless businessmen.

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/ 22 October 2007

Tanzanian ‘fraud’ draws foreign flak

A political storm over corruption allegations in Tanzania could compel President Jakaya Kikwete to sack Prime Minister Edward Lowassa — and is already damaging the country’s standing with international donors. Tanzanian press reports in the past two months have linked Lowassa to a major financial fraud that precipitated 10 months of power-rationing last year.

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/ 22 October 2007

Developing world easier for working women

Women in developing countries find it easier to break through the so-called glass ceiling than their colleagues in the West, according to a global study by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The firm interviewed more than a hundred business people in eight countries, including China, India and Germany, for the report on women’s economic participation for the Women’s Forum held in Deauville, France, last week.

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/ 22 October 2007

The ups and downs of the rand

For the better part of last year and until recently, the rand seemed to be a one-way bet relative to just about any currency in the world. Having broken R7 to the dollar in late 2003, the rand traded steadily to around R6 to the dollar by early last year. In May last year the strength started to evaporate and the rand quickly devalued to R7,80 to the dollar in the five months to October.