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/ 6 February 2004
Privatisation in South Africa lost momentum last year as the ruling African National Congress deferred to its trade union ally, suggests a new report by the BusinessMap Foundation. The government frequently cites the poor market conditions and state of the global economy as reasons for not pressing ahead with privatisation.
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/ 6 February 2004
About 40% of the South African adult population — or about 11-million people — have at least one basic bank account, a South African Reserve Bank publication has estimated. This compares poorly with the number of "banked" Americans — about 90% of the total population.
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/ 6 February 2004
New legislation aimed at bringing financial services within the reach of South Africa’s estimated 17-million "unbanked" adult citizens is in the pipeline. The Dedicated Banks Bill is currently being fast-tracked by the government and could be on the statute books as early as next year.
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/ 6 February 2004
Opposition parties in Africa are always complaining that governments, secure in overwhelming majorities in their legislatures, ride roughshod over them. But many Southern African politicians point out that it is also crucial that opposition parties present themselves as credible — and better — alternatives to the existing governments.
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/ 6 February 2004
Bafana Bafana has managed to regress in the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) – from winners in 1996 to a first-round exit this year. The tournament left the South African team battered, beleaguered and bruised. They returned home on Friday to lick their wounds.
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/ 6 February 2004
Europe is the world’s largest exporter of white sugar, even though it costs twice as much for European producers to grow the stuff as farmers in poor countries. The high prices European consumers pay for sugar subsidises European exports, which destroy the livelihoods of more efficient farmers abroad.
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/ 6 February 2004
A strike by more than 70 000 supermarket staff in California is intensifying, with a policy of civil disobedience and the intervention of everyone from religious leaders and Hollywood stars to right-wing think tanks. The outcome of the strike is seen as crucial to the future of the union movement.
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/ 6 February 2004
Businesses are using corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a shield behind which to campaign against environmental and human rights regulations, warns a report published recently. Christian Aid claims CSR in some cases worsens relations between business and local communities.
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/ 6 February 2004
Zimbabwe’s land seizures have escalated with the government’s confiscation of the country’s largest sugar producer, Hippo Valley. The vast estate in the south-eastern corner of the country annually produces 236 000 tonnes of sugar, said to be worth about R519-million.
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/ 6 February 2004
South African parliamentary Speaker Frene Ginwala’s second term in the job is about to expire, and she is unlikely to take up a third. But she may end up as Speaker of the Pan African Parliament (PAP), in the formation of which she has played a key role.