ESKOM and the operators of Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa hydroelectric dam are seeking international arbitration over a tariff dispute, a spokesman for the operating company said Tuesday. Portugal’s Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), wants to increase a 1988 tariff of two US cents per watt, but Eskom does not agree. HCB insists that the tariff is […]
Neil Manthorp Cricket As far as rankings tell us anything, South African cricket lovers will find it very hard to keep a self- satisfied grin off their faces when they see the latest list of the world’s top 10 all-rounders in one-day cricket. Four of the top six are South African, including Hansie Cronje who […]
Gabriel Garca Mrquez on the crusading Colombian who could be the new Pope Cardinal Daro Castrilln Hoyos sleeps in the bed that Pope Pius XII died in. The painting of the Immaculate Conception hanging above the bronze bedhead once belonged to Leo XIII. His apartment, lying 30m from the border between Italy and the Holy […]
Joan Smith:BODY LANGUAGE Spinster, old maid, maiden aunt: the single woman has never had a good press. Whether she is perceived to be in search of a man, or too late to find one, the single woman’s state has long been regarded as a misfortune or a threat. Yet any woman who has been single […]
Alex Brummer in Omaha, Nebraska A record 15 000 shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway – the world’s most eclectic investment group – gathered in Omaha, United States, recently in the hope of catching the sage words of their chair and CEO Warren Buffett at the group’s annual meeting. The crowds attending the meeting at the Ak- […]
Chris Mann: CROSSFIRE Melvyn Bragg’s sketch of Christianity (“Onward Christian soldiers”, April 30 to May 6) is so culture-bound it needs challenging. How can a lapsed pre-war Church of England choirboy have any idea of what is happening to the inner lives of a million or so African Zionists celebrating Easter together in South Africa, […]
Marianne Merten Uniondale, Oudtshoorn, Calitzdorp. Tiny towns representing the Western Cape hinterland, and for the PAC, a potential heartland of support. Pan Africanist Congress president Reverend Stanley Mogoba – “the bishop”, or more informally to those close to him, “bra Stan” – visited tiny rural towns this week before focusing his election campaign in urban […]
Stewart Dalby SpendingIt Buying antique furniture is a good investment, according to figures in British Antique Furniture: Price Guide and Reasons For Value, an annual report published by the Antique Collectors Club (ACC). This claims that antique furniture prices rose by 5% in 1998, out-performing a FTSE index of 500 shares and house prices in […]
a hard sell Ivor Powell Recent opinion polls indicating a slide in support for Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement could be misleading. According to Human Sciences Research Council statistics released this week, the UDM’s share of the vote has halved from 6% last December to 3%. The Institute for Democracy in South Africa’s latest Opinion […]
Jon Henderson Rugby Fritz van Heerden, Leicester’s Springbok lock, has taken to English life. He starts each working day with the 10km drive in from Little Stretton, a tiny village to the east of London where he is a regular church-goer. “I like it there very much,” he says. “It’s so quiet and peaceful.” Having […]