Vodacom, in partnership with United Kingdom-based virtual network operator Virgin Group, late on Thursday confirmed their intention to launch a joint bid for a major shareholding in mobile operator V-Mobile Nigeria. The partners said their intention is to bring together their extensive expertise in the mobile telephony market.
The most ominous thing about the judicial censorship of a report in this newspaper last week is the virtual silence that has been the response from the African National Congress. Asked by a weekend newspaper for comment, Smuts Ngonyama, head of the ANC presidency, declined to say anything. He didn’t even duck behind one of the usual threadbare excuses of the ANC.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma faces two choices: either he steps down from the Cabinet or the African National Congress will have to decide his fate at its national general council at the end of the month. Zuma’s image has been tainted by the trial of Schabir Shaik where the latter was found guilty of corruption and fraud this week.
CNN’s founder, Ted Turner, has accused the news channel of dumbing down by devoting too much airtime to what he termed ”pervert of the day” at the expense of serious news. Turner told staff at a celebration of CNN’s 25th anniversary that he had tried to create a channel that would eschew the ”trivial news” liked by local stations in favour of international coverage.
Roth, Grass, Updike, Lessing, McEwan, Spark, Garcia Marquez. It read like a rollcall of modern literature’s titans and anyone scanning the shortlist for the inaugural Man Booker International prize could have been forgiven for missing the giant of Albanian letters nestling among them.
Two Israeli soldiers on Thursday claimed they were ordered to carry out a series of revenge attacks on Palestinian policemen after the killing of six soldiers by militants. One soldier, from the Yael reconnaissance unit, described a ”crazy blood revenge rush” on the day of the attacks three years ago. ”I really enjoyed it,” he said.
EBay has agreed a m deal to buy Shopping.com, as part of an effort to offset slowing growth in its core business of online auctions. The deal is eBay’s largest acquisition since it paid ,5-billion for the online payment firm PayPal in 2002. Shopping.com is a price comparison website, allowing users to hunt down the cheapest prices for whatever they are trying to buy.
Over the past fortnight, the African National Congress has maintained that R11-million it received before last year’s elections was an ordinary donation from a private company. But Imvume Management was no ordinary private company, judging by its chief executive’s CV.
You’ve probably spotted the Citroën C4 robot dancing across your TV screen in the past few months, but you may not be aware that it wouldn’t be dancing at all without the expertise of Cape Town-based Atomic Visual Effects. The commercial was directed by South African-born director Neill Blomkamp.
Schabir Shaik’s trial, the Oilgate controversy and the intense public debate over the Telkom empowerment process have focused attention on whether the Malaysian model — with its interpenetration of politics and economic empowerment — is being duplicated here.