The Western Cape government is taking seriously a request by African National Congress councillors to have Cape Town placed under provincial government administration and is forcing Democratic Alliance mayor Helen Zille to account for the continuing political strife in the council.
Two of the key empowerment companies embroiled in the massive theft from Brett Kebble’s JCI and Randgold & Exploration companies have hit back at suggestions that they were party to the alleged fraud. Instead they claim they were duped by Kebble, in what has now emerged as a ”simulated transaction”, allegedly based on forged documentation.
Bill Gates is set to meet communist Vietnam’s leaders on Saturday to promote licensed Microsoft products in the country where an estimated 90% of software is counterfeit. Gates was expected to speak about joint efforts with government bodies and schools and visit a village post office outside Hanoi on Saturday to launch a project that uses Vietnamese-made computers with Microsoft programs.
<b>MOVIES OF THE WEEK:</b> Shaun de Waal reviews two movies with a more thoughtful take on family.
In her debut novel, Pamphilia Hlapa recounts a traumatic journey into womanhood, but leaves aesthetics aside in favour of reliving the lead character’s ordeal in harrowing detail. Kwanele Sosibo reviews.
Riaan Wolmarans asks Arno Carstens about the Samas, gigging in Britain and working with the Nudies again.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is battling to contain serious internal divisions over the party’s stance on African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma, with rumours circulating that next year’s SACP congress will be used to weed out the anti-Zuma lobby in the party.
President Thabo Mbeki has bounced the Icasa Amendment Bill back to Parliament, striking a blow in support of the independence of South Africa’s telecommunications regulator. The Bill was the subject of heated debate after amendments that stakeholders accused of undermining the regulator’s independence were passed by the National Council of Provinces.
It is, to be sure, a time like no other. On Wednesday the JSE touched a record high of 21 000, at one point trading at 21 150. When the JSE started its current rally two Octobers ago, it did so in defiance of a strengthening rand. That trend continued this week as the record was touched, just as our currency broke through the R6 to the dollar level.
Up to 50% of the South African banking industry’s revenue comes from bank charges carried by consumers, some of the highest in the world, the Competition Commission has found in a groundbreaking report. The report, called <i>The National Payment System and Competition in the Banking Sector</i>, was released on Thursday.