David Beresford Another Country I’ve made an application to Grenoble, France, for the brain operation to deal with my Parkinson’s. Whether I will be accepted, despite being a known admirer of that scourge of Napoleonic France, Lord “‘Oratio” Hornblower, is another matter. I must also confess to a certain anxiety as to whether my schoolboy […]
Charlene Smith crossfire The list of conspirators against President Thabo Mbeki grows ever longer. On Monday I returned home from lending support to a young rape survivor, took out a thick wad of letters from people with HIV in my letter box, and downloaded e-mails to discover that I was leading a right-wing media conspiracy […]
Peter Robinson cricket There_s no getting away from the record: since a hiccup in Nairobi in October, South Africa have swept aside any and all opposition placed before them. Other than achieving a perfect, 100% success rate, very little more could have been asked of, or provided by, Shaun Pollock and his South African team. […]
Ken Gooding The World Gold Council (WGC) can’t be particularly pleased with the findings of the report it commissioned from the London Business School (LBS) on the impact of derivatives on the gold market. For the study flies in the face of perceived wisdom and shows that hedging had only a marginal impact on the […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo In the space of two months, Africa has experienced four soccer tragedies. The latest occurred in Ghana on Wednesday, when more than 130 soccer fans were killed in a stampede at the Accra stadium. Five minutes before the end of the match between Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Ashanti Kotoko, with Hearts leading […]
Glenda Daniels The Commission for Gender Equality has 11 new commissioners who aim to create a new vision for women in the millennium, starting with a national gender summit in August. The new full-time commissioners are theologian Bafana Khumalo, academic Sheila Meintjes, rural expert Nombulelo Siqwana-Ndulo and Gertrude Fester, a Western Cape gender specialist. They […]
Glenda Daniels crossfire Incontestably the African National Congress is the best party to rule. But last weekend’s advertisement in a Sunday newspaper highlights a potentially catastrophic weakness in the party and among its allies a propensity for dredging up phantom enemies. The full-page advertisement says the media is a platform for rightwing forces consisting, we […]
Nawaal Deane After a five-year suspension an inspector in the Department of Public Works in East London is being charged for allegedly defrauding the department of R450 000. But the suspension has cost the department close to R400 000 because Dennis Maart, a building inspector, is still on a full salary and it has taken […]
David Macfarlane The National Development Agency (NDA) could have to fork out R2,5-million as the price of getting rid of its CEO, Dr Thoahlane Thoahlane. And while embattled NGOs around the country are applauding the unexpected and sudden departure of Thoahlane a few days ago, they also point to serious ongoing problems at the agency. […]
Martin Spring London calling If stock markets give an early signal of economic recovery, as is widely believed, then the performance of the Tokyo bourse in recent months suggests that the world’s second- biggest economy will soon start to pick up speed. There are two reasons why Japanese shares are outperforming. One is that the […]