Standard Bank is emerging as a key player in the black economic empowerment landscape, with significant investments in two of the country’s top empowerment groupings, Shanduka and Safika. The companies are led by Saki Macozoma and Cyril Ramaphosa respectively.
Nu Metro says it will be taking court action against video rental outlets that continue to flaunt copyright laws by renting DVDs and videos without a licence. It says it is aware that some video stores have been renting unlicensed products that they have purchased at retail stores. Nu Metro intends dropping its prices from August 1, a move it says is intended to combat piracy.
Every now and then helicopters have been flying towards the Gleneagles Hotel, carrying one or another of the G8 leaders whose three-day summit began on Wednesday. But through the three days of talks little agreement is looking likely. And just as unlikely is any sweet agreement to agree to disagree.
In the world of political miscalculations, none has been as dramatic recently as the African National Congress leadership’s belief that ordinary ANC members would accept the resignation of Jacob Zuma from organisational activities. It was a stupendous mistake that nearly derailed the national general council.
The continuing flow of arms from neighbouring countries into the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo threatens the fragile peace in that region, Amnesty International recently. Also, the International Court of Justice in The Hague began hearing a case brought by the DRC, accusing Rwanda of armed aggression between 1998 and the present. Rwanda has rejected the allegations.
Once upon a time, there was a magical fairyland called South Khrazania, which was under the baffled rule of a group of deranged control-freaks calling themselves the Association of Nepotists and Cronies. In control of the ANC was an elitist cabal of fabulously wealthy fairies and pixies and ministers and dwarves and elves and trades union leaders all of whom were hopeless addicts.
Police had to hold back a placard-wielding crowd of fifty from disrupting a glitzy celebrity party at the London Natural History Museum where diamonds from South African mining company De Beers were being exhibited. The charity Survival International organised the protest to highlight the Botswana Bushmen’s claim that their land had been taken away from them to mine the diamonds.
The leaders of eight of the world’s wealthiest countries are capable of delivering justice for Africa. We take a look at their differenty agendas and also look at the domestic pressures that each of them in carrying out these agendas.
Although health awareness and the availability of sound nutritional guidance are increasing in Egypt, many women still find it difficult to overcome economic and cultural barriers to maintain a healthy weight. About 75% of overweight people in Egypt are women, says Dr Sherif Azmi, a nutritionist at the Nasser Health Institute.
Rich Western countries spend up to 25 times as much on defence as they do on overseas aid and have increased their assistance to the poorest African countries by just a head since 1990, according to United Nations figures. Research to be shows that every country in Western Europe and North America has a bigger military budget than overseas development budget.