It’s been the season for earthquakes. First Mozambique and much of Southern Africa was hit by an uncharacteristic once-in-100-years event. Then there has been the seismic activity around fuel and petrochemical giant Sasol, which saw R25-billion wiped off its market capitalisation in a five-day period.
He spoke to us; he joked; took his shirt off. He acknowledged problems. He gave interview on interview. How nice! How unusual! President Thabo Mbeki hit the hustings over the past fortnight to boost the flagging fortunes of his party and to ward off a low turnout in the election.
Workers employed by two of Transnet’s business units want to become bosses. They want the units’ activities to be outsourced to them, or for the shares to be sold to worker cooperatives rather than to private companies. These two assets are at the heart of the festering dispute between the transport parastatal and four trade unions.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/262374/vote-box_blue.gif" align=left>Official opposition Democratic Alliance leader, Tony Leon, held out the olive branch to Independent Democrats (ID) leader Patricia de Lille. The DA leader said party was willing, on a case-by-case basis, to enter into opposition coalitions or to participate in minority governments in municipal councils.
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The Democratic Alliance was leading the race in the closely contested Cape Town metro council with just over 95% of the vote captured and audited by 10.30pm on Thursday. A final result would not be available before Friday morning, provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson told reporters.
How do you turn a paper clip into a house? Not a tiny wire house suitable for an ant, but a real one made of bricks? Tricky, but Kyle MacDonald is halfway there. MacDonald, a 26-year-old Canadian, has harnessed the power of the Internet to his advantage. MacDonald’s idea was to take his favourite childhood game and make it into a business.
Google lost yet more of its shine this week after a senior executive admitted growth at the company was slowing. Shares in Google fell 13% in early trading on Wall Street after chief financial officer George Reyes told an investor conference in New York that ”growth will slow”, although he added: ”Will it be precipitous? I doubt it.”
The Democratic Alliance failed to regain most of the hinterland municipalities in the Western Cape it lost to the African National Congress through floor-crossing, despite its aggressive ”Take back your city” campaign. Instead, Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats emerged as potential queenmakers in several finely balanced rural municipalities.
Vodafone wiped £28-billion off the value of its business recently as it warned that tough competition in its core European markets, regulatory price cuts and the effect of new technology, such as free calls on the Internet, will hurt profits. The news, the company’s third warning about tough trading in four months, sent its shares into reverse, increasing pressure on embattled chief executive Arun Sarin.
The African National Congress appeared to have substantially increased its majority in the local government poll, while the Democratic Alliance, hit by voting for other opposition parties, had not done as well as as it hoped. These appear to be the major trends of Wednesday’s voting for South Africa’s 284 municipalities.