A three-month dry spell could drive maize prices up to R2 000 a ton by the end of the month, in what farmers are calling “the worst drought in 40 years”. Maize farmers in North West and Mpumalanga have watched in horror as their crops have withered during the current drought. The Crop Estimates Committee put the forecast for the harvest at 7,757-million tons.
Five broadband internet providers are competing for a share of the South African market, but the benefits of the price war are cold comfort for consumers who still face an uphill battle in deciphering the different broadband options on offer. Even when you find the option that suits you best, you might just be buying a lemon.
The SABC may have reached a turning point in its attitude to gay content on the airwaves. This is the message from commissioning editors, who told the audience at the Out in Africa gay and lesbian film festival how gay and lesbian issues are being increasingly positively portrayed on the broadcaster, and have arrived on widely watched programmes.
A new ANC faction has emerged in North West which plans to oust leaders of the dominant grouping from ANC party structures and government positions in the province. Nicknamed the “Potch mafia”, the grouping is allegedly led by Ndleleni Duma, provincial deputy secretary of the ANC and sports, arts and culture provincial minister.
Two very different South Africans have grabbed the headlines in Britain this week. One is at the peak of his career, enjoying his first goal in England and is responsible for unfashionable Blackburn Rovers becoming the first side into the last four of the FA Cup. The second admits to old legs and ”feeling like a grandad”.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool faces a crisis after his own party, the ANC, supported a Democratic Alliance call for an investigation into whether he lied to the Western Cape legislature. ANC national spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama told the Mail & Guardian that President Thabo Mbeki was as surprised as Rasool by the ANC’s support of the motion.
About 40 minutes from Cape Town, close to Kuils River, a Coca-Cola sign cheerfully announces: “Welcome to Happy Valley.” The notice is a tad misleading, judging from the daily queue outside the Afrika Breadline soup kitchen, the blocked toilets and the streets of wood and plastic shacks.
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Sometimes I wonder if the fitness industry is secretly having a laugh at our expense. I wonder whether the big-wigs of the gym world sit on exercise bikes in some glossy aerobics studio, brainstorming the most outlandish ideas for new fitness crazes that will leave us looking as ludicrous as possible.
In January, during an interview, Mark Wurr, head of trading for Global Trader, said: "What this market needs is a nice 10% to 15% clean-out. A nice sell-off would bring foreigners back into the market." Traders love volatility and Wurr is seeing quite a shake-up at the moment, with the markets all over the place as data from the United States housing market sent shockwaves across the world this week.