THE King commission of inquiry, set up to probe corruption in South African cricket after Proteas captain Hansie Cronje admitted to bribe taking, is to hold a second and final round of public hearings beginning on October 2. Commission secretary John Bacon said it had not yet been decided whether Cronje would be recalled to […]

EIGHTEEN bodies, including those of five civil defence workers, have so far been pulled from the rubble of a collapsed clothing factory in Egypt’s port city of Alexandria. The factory caught alight on Wednesday night and firefighters extinguished the blaze seven hours later. The civil defence workers then went into the fire-gutted factory with their […]

Jonathan Steele A second Look Now that the furore over Zimbabwe’s election has abated, let’s draw a deep breath and admit it: Zimbabwe is an African good-news story. At about 90% the country has one of the highest literacy rates on the continent. Its race relations are excellent. The attempt to fan black hostility against […]

Gregory Mthembu-Salter The Zambian government this week secured $1-billion in funding from international donors despite pre-election political intrigue that has suggested dictatorial behaviour on the part of President Frederick Chiluba. The Consultative Group (which is the annual gathering of donors) for the first time met in Lusaka rather than Paris. The group gave the government […]

BoE believes the United States economy’s dramatic growth spurt is coming to an end Anet Ahern The global economy has continued to recover in the last quarter, but signs are emerging that world growth is beginning to peak. Global leading economic indicators are topping out, and there are initial signs of a slowdown in the […]

Thebe Mabanga Comedy lovers can brace themselves for a dose of good fun, rasping wit and downright silliness when two events bring a total of nine comedians to stages in Gauteng. The first event is the 5fm/Savannah Dry Jay Thang Heavyweight Comedy Jam, which brings together some of the circuit’s finest comics. Heavyweight Barry Hilton […]

Central Johannesburg has had the life sucked out of it by surrogate central business districts – the shopping malls David Le Page In the 1970s Johannesburg residents used to talk about “going to town”, the central business district, without contemplating the hire of an armoured vehicle. In fact, for any serious business or shopping, there […]

Glenda Daniels An investigation into sexism in South Africa’s trade unions has shown widespread discrimination against women who remain unrepresented in union leadership structures. The probe, conducted by the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s (Cosatu) research wing – the National Labour and Economic Development Institute (Naledi) – shows that trade unions are dominated by […]

Richard Kommel Traditionally, geographical regions have dictated share prices. However the current market environment is a globalised one, where picking the right themes and the “best of breed” shares within these themes is key to success. Often, it is easier to identify the losing themes as opposed to the winning ones. At present, these appear […]

She’s bossed the ‘Firm’ for nearly 70 years, but as she approaches her 100th birthday, how far should we venerate the Queen Mother? Anthony Holden Codenamed Operation Lion, a classified document planning the Queen Mother’s obsequies has been kicking around Whitehall for decades, constantly in need of revision as the fortunes of the monarchy faltered. […]