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/ 1 October 2007

Sisters can now retire in peace

Domestic workers now have an affordable and simple retirement savings plan that will make it easier for employers to provide for their workers’ retirement. The product launched by the Presidential Working Group on Women and Old Mutual forms part of a much larger initiative by PWGW to create a women’s retirement plan, writes Maya Fisher-French.

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/ 1 October 2007

The three bears that ate the Goldilocks economy

Once upon a time there were two countries separated by an ocean. One was called China and its people worked long hours to produce cheap goods. The other was known as the United States. Once its people worked hard and it was the workshop of the world. But recently the US had not worked so hard and for every $100 of goods and services produced in its factories and offices, $106 was spent in its shopping malls.

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/ 1 October 2007

Poor peace prospects for Niger Delta

Temperatures in the Niger Delta’s swelling creeks are up again following threats by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) to resume attacks on oil infrastructure and kidnapping expatriates in the area. Mend made the threats recently after the arrest in Angola of Henry Okah, aka Jomo Gbomo, the leader of the main Mend faction.

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/ 1 October 2007

A gem of a healthcare scheme

A wakening giant is threatening to turn South Africa’s private health industry upside down. The Government Employees Medical Scheme (Gems) has seen sensational growth, which has taken it from little more than a pipe dream to South Africa’s third-largest medical scheme in just three years.

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/ 1 October 2007

Going home

Going home … going home … am a-going home … The lovely words of Aaron Neville’s song ring in my head for a whole fortnight before my three-week vacation in Zimbabwe. Each day I wake up and pump up the volume. I am so excited, I can’t wait. I haven’t been home for more than five months. This is long overdue, writes Everjoice Win.

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/ 1 October 2007

The whoo-whoo club

The Oprah Winfrey Show is about as compelling and gruesome as road kill: no matter how much it grosses you out, you just can’t help looking. A particularly bloody lump of matter recently made it on to our small screens, courtesy of the queen of talk shows, in the shape of a posse of smug self-help gurus whose brand of snake oil has seduced millions the world over. Yes, it’s The Secret.

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/ 1 October 2007

Pomfret: mercenary town?

The town of Pomfret will be razed to the ground by December despite a recent assessment by the national department of public works showing that it could be developed into a fully fledged local authority. Bob Namusi, a councillor at the Molopo Local Municipality, under which the town falls, says the national public works department had mistakenly given residents of Pomfret the impression that the asbestos-polluted town could be rehabilitated without its residents moving.

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/ 1 October 2007

US navy to camouflage ‘swastika’ base

Painting a swastika on a public building is a hate crime. But what happens when the building itself is the swastika? While appearing innocuous from the ground, the striking shape of a construction in San Diego, now on view to internet users accessing Google Earth, is unmistakable — it resembles the Nazi symbol.

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/ 1 October 2007

Nepal peace hiccup

After the heady excitement of last year’s pro-democracy uprising in Nepal that forced King Gyanendra to restore Parliament, Nepal’s eight-party coalition has fallen apart with the Maoists quitting the government. The move did not come as a surprise, as the ex-guerrillas had been warning of this for months. But it does put the fate of elections for the constituent assembly, scheduled for November 22, in real doubt.