Part of the prosecution case against Michael Jackson was in danger of unravelling on Thursday when his ex-wife jumped to his defence and made him appear a victim of ”opportunistic vultures” around him. Debbie Rowe, who had two children with Jackson during a three-year marriage in the 1990s, said he was ”a great person and a great father”.
United States President George Bush was bundled into an underground bunker, Vice-President Dick Cheney was evacuated to an ”undisclosed location” and heavily armed secret servicemen took up defensive positions when a fast-moving cloud scudded towards the White House, it was reported on Thursday.
Yvonne Vera died shrouded in her own mysteries, just as she wrote them. In retrospect, it seems as if that is what she intended. But why? In one of her novels, <i>Butterfly Burning</i>, she wrote: "The fire moves over her light as a feather, smooth like oil." Fire would burn away the delicate elegance of the butterfly. A moth drawn to the naked flame.
Ford has launched a new high-performance version of its excellent Fiesta in South Africa. This two-litre Ford Fiesta ST completes Ford’s performance ST (Sports Technologies) range, alongside the Mondeo ST220 and the Focus ST170. The factory claims that no other car in this price range can match the Fiesta in terms of outright performance.
Toyota South Africa has revealed full details of the Japanese manufacturer’s IMV (internationally manufactured vehicle) programme. This will see the South African Prospecton factory churning out 10 000 Hilux bakkies every month by the end of 2007. The plant will be one of five making the vehicles for worldwide distribution.
Absa Bank is withdrawing its annual funding of R500-million from Verus Farm Group, a risk management company that provides input profits for South Africa’s grain farmers. This decision comes amid a crisis in the agricultural sector as a three million ton oversupply of maize from last year.Maize accounts for more than 50% of grain farmers’ income.
South Africa’s short-term prospects of job creation lie in the growth of medium-sized companies (employing between 100 and 1 000 people) as small businesses are hampered by red tape and the big ones may be looking to foreign markets. But growing the medium enterprise sector requires tough action, such as breaking the Telkom monopoly to help grow the IT sector.
Motorcyclists past, present and future will converge on Kyalami this weekend for the fifth annual Mecer Motorcycle Expo. There they will be exposed to the very best of motorcycling, with quads, superbikes, commuter machines and scooters from all the importers being available for testing.
A recurring refrain in discourses about the state of South African education is that the school system is not producing enough matriculants with adequate skills in mathematics and science, especially in the higher grade. Another is that too few young people are choosing careers in science and technology. Can an ancient fish make education sexy? Maureen Brady finds out.
Calls for debt relief to be awarded to African countries have become de rigueur in non-governmental circles and a good many news publications. But does the matter crop up during dinner conversations across the continent? Is it sufficiently important to crowd out sports talk among people riding minibus taxis on their way to work?