Standard Bank has managed to gain a bigger slice of the lending pie. Since June 2003, its share of mortgage loans has increased from 21,2% to 24,5%, while its stake in the domestic credit card market has grown from 26,6% to 30,9%. Its share in the area of instalment finance has ncreased from 21,5% to 22,5%.
Guy Berger takes on Trevor Ncube, owner and CEO of the Mail & Guardian, reminding him that companies should operate on a ”triple bottom line” basis — covering not only a focus on financial profit, but also environmental and social records. Ncube should even embrace a quadruple bottom line for media businesses, including one that reports on the quality of their content.
Representatives of civil society in Kenya have called for its inclusion in the redrafting of a policy on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the East African country. They say they were denied an opportunity to comment on the policy when it was first drafted. Private-sector lobbyists have also complained of being locked out of consultations on the initial draft of the policy.
The Road Accident Fund (RAF) is being defrauded of R1-billion a year in false claims, SABC news reported on Tuesday. This figure is double the amount estimated by the auditor general. RAF chairperson Saths Cooper said the auditor general’s new audit would give a clearer indication of the scale of the problem.
The African Union (AU) has urged its members to urgently impose travel sanctions on leaders of Burundi’s recalcitrant rebel group that claimed responsibility for last week’s slaughter of 160 refugees in Burundi. ”The council reiterates its appeal to all member states … to impose, with immediate effect, restrictions on the movement of the leaders and members of the Palipehutu/FNL,” the AU said in a statement.
The world is heading for wildly uneven population swings in the next 45 years, with many rich countries ”downsizing” during a period in which almost all developing nations will grow at breakneck speed, according to a comprehensive report by leading United States demographers released on Tuesday.
Israel announced plans for 1 000 houses in the West Bank on Tuesday, accelerating the expansion of the settlements. The pace of construction is in marked contrast to the slow pace of its much-publicised withdrawal from the settlements in the Gaza Strip.
The mystery bird was certainly distinctive: dark brown, red bill, red legs, call like a trumpet, pretty hopeless at flying. You couldn’t miss it if you knew it was there. Many of the 8 500 residents of Calayan, an island in the remote Babuyan group in the northern Philippines, knew it was there and occasionally caught it by mistake in their chicken traps.
Oprah Winfrey, one of the United States’s wealthiest women and most recognisable faces, has accepted a ,20 a day job after being picked to do jury duty at a murder trial in Chicago. She told ABC news: ”I’m just hoping it doesn’t take longer than a week because I’ve got shows to do.”
He may be fuzzy on the war and vague on trade but when it comes to women, the Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry knows his mind. Speaking to the United States edition of the magazine GQ he was asked his advice on what to seek in a woman. Asked which actors he found attractive he said: ”I think Charlize Theron is pretty extraordinary.”