The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was weaker at midday on Friday due to profit-taking after Thursday’s closeout and the stronger rand. Trades stemming from the closeout boosted volumes, but otherwise the market was very quiet, dealers said. By 11.59am, the all-share and all-share industrials shed 0,42% and 0,51% respectively.
When the Constitutional Court returns a verdict in the case pitting Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang against pharmaceutical companies and pharmacists, it will in effect be ruling on the duel between the government’s developmental economics agenda and the conventional market approach.
The Queensland Reds beat the Waikato Chiefs 20-6 in Super 12 rugby on Friday, snapping a three-game losing streak and winning their first match in New Zealand since 1999. Winger Drew Mitchell and prop Greg Holmes scored first-half tries, while Julian Huxley kicked two conversions and two penalties for Queensland.
Five MPs were convicted of fraud and sentenced in the Cape Town Regional Court on Friday morning. The MPs pleaded guilty to fraud and were the first of 23 MPs implicated in Travelgate, the multimillion-rand travel-voucher scandal, to be criminally convicted. They were sentenced as part of a plea agreement with the Scorpions
Russian third seed Maria Sharapova advanced to her first Indian Wells WTA/ATP Masters Series semifinal on Thursday, beating Mary Pierce of France 6-4, 6-3, to extend her match-winning streak to 11 games. Her victory set up a clash with American top seed Lindsay Davenport, who continued her domination over France’s Nathalie Dechy.
Ferrari boss Jean Todt has tipped the world champions to bounce back from a poor start to the season and retain their constructors’ crown by the end of the year. The Italian team chose to start the season with a modified version of their old car and found themselves outpaced by their rivals.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Mira Nair does a good job of turning William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair into a two-hour celluloid production with Reese Witherspoon at the helm, writes Shaun de Waal.
CD OF THE WEEK: 50 Cent’s last album, The Massacre, sounds like the work of someone for whom music is merely a sideline, a distraction from the serious business of perpetuating a violent, ghoulish sideshow, writes Alexis Petridis.
AUTHOR’S NOTES: ”I am out there to mike what I like and, frankly, you don’t have to like what I mike.” Poet Kgafela oa Magogodi released his latest collection of poetry and prose last week. He shares a few words with ZA@Play.
In football, messiahs should never reach middle age. Far better that they suffer martyrdom young or fall under a bus before their 40s. Otherwise they become mere mortals. This is what has happened to Kevin Keegan, whose final exit from the game at 54, which his departure from Manchester City surely is, has been his least dramatic.