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/ 19 November 2007
Ongoing road works on South Africa’s busy routes has resulted in a surge in reports of windscreen chips and cracks. "But, the good news for consumers is that having windscreens repaired or replaced would seldom effect their premiums and result in them losing their no-claims bonus," says Santam’s Caroline da Silva.
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/ 19 November 2007
Not every former coal miner and farmer dreams of taking on Citibank, but maybe they will after hearing the story of Jiang Jianqing. Jiang’s name first appeared in the local press as a result of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s (ICBC) purchase of a 20% stake in Standard Bank for R36,7-billion. This is not incidental; Jiang is ICBC’s president and chairman. But despite his power relatively little is known about him locally.
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/ 19 November 2007
The United States government is afraid of ideas. At least it seems that way at the border. Over the past six years, numerous scholars, writers and human rights activists have found themselves suddenly barred from entering the US. Most happen to be vocal critics of Washington’s foreign policy, many are Muslim, writes Melissa Goodman.
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/ 19 November 2007
In September 2006 I sought to prevent the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> from publishing a story detailing allegations of possible fraud, violations of tender rules and contraventions of the Public Finance Management Act that took place while I was head of the South African Post Office, writes Maanda Manyatshe.
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/ 19 November 2007
The people of Delmas are suffering from an epidemic that does not officially exist. Despite the death of an infant and the treatment of 690 people in Botleng for diarrhoea in the past two weeks, authorities say they can find no cure for the illness sweeping the area. Residents fear this is a recurrence of an outbreak of typhoid in 2005, which was caused by municipal water being contaminated with human faeces.
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/ 19 November 2007
"This thing of rape," said Colonel Edmond Ngarambe, shifting uneasily on his wooden bench high in the mountains of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, "I can’t deny that happens. We are human beings. But it’s not just us. The Mai Mai, the government soldiers who are not paid, the Rastas do the same thing. And some people sent by our enemies do it to cause anger against us."
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/ 19 November 2007
Even though economic growth is substantial and social service delivery — while not as fast as we want — is reaching millions, Aids will continue to kill hundreds of thousands in South Africa, burdening families and orphaning children. Recent research in Swaziland presents a picture that is disastrous and deteriorating.
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/ 19 November 2007
Government is paying parents to save for their children’s higher education. The Association of Collective Investments — in partnership with the education department — has launched a savings plan for tertiary education where government pays an additional 25% of whatever parents have saved for the year as a bonus to beef up the savings plan, writes Maya Fisher-French.
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/ 19 November 2007
A breakdown in agricultural support structures appears to have sparked a crisis in the Land Bank. Allegations of mismanagement have dogged the institution in recent years, but the emerging farmers the bank is meant to help have been left worst off.
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/ 19 November 2007
The Mail & Guardian’s recent directors general scorecard was interesting, but my experience suggests that the optimism of the accompanying editorial might be misplaced. Certainly, the evaluation of my successor, Jabu Sindane, was somewhat unfair because a flawed process handed him a poisoned chalice, writes Mike Muller.