Perplexed about the complex issues surrounding privatisation of state assets? The International Finance Corporation offers this parable at the beginning of its latest publication, attributing it to an anonymous agency official. “To privatise is to drive a two-horse cart. The cart is the enterprise in question. One horse is called Political Goals and is flighty […]

An IFC study reveals the irrefutable links between politics and privatisation Reg Rumney reports Privatisation is always political, despite its economic benefits being widely accepted, note the principal authors of an International Finance Corporation (IFC) study of privatisation. Privatisation Principles and Practice is timely in the light of the renewed pressure for privatisation to reduce […]

GOLF: Jon Swift YOU HAVE to hand it to Brent Chalmers in many ways. Chalmers, who carries the title of tour commissioner of the South African PGA — one would have thought that the association with a commission in the South African context is not a wholly healthy one — does tend to get things […]

To trace the course of the Olifants River is to trace a history of appalling environmental degradation, writes Eddie Koch Look at a map of South Africa and you will see sprinkled over it names that reveal how rivers were once venerated by the early inhabitants, black and white, of this country. Amanzimtoti, the Sweetness […]

The draft of the Bill of Rights is a victory for South Africa’s poor, writes Gaye Davis THE first complete draft of a new Bill of Rights, laid before a Constitutional Assembly committee this week, represents a major victory – not for any one party, but for the country’s poor and powerless. The draft includes […]

SOCCER: Lungile Madywabe ORLANDO PIRATES’ hopes of being the first team from South Africa to feature in the finals of the Africa Champions Cup will be determined by the next 180 minutes of competition — starting on Saturday against Express of Uganda at the FNB stadium and culminating in two weeks time in a return […]

Charles Nupen, ace labour mediator, in The Mark Gevisser Profile When Lili Nupen, a Standard Six pupil at Roedean, had to do a research project into her relatives, she chose two lawyers. The first was her great-uncle, Buster Nupen, a Springbok cricket captain in the 1930s and an illustrious attorney. The second was her father, […]

Karen Harverson The Department of Public Works will set aside an as yet unspecified percentage of contracts for small black emerging businesses. This is part of an initiative by the Public Works and the Department of Finance to reform procurement policies to give small businesses access to the public sector market. A meeting will be […]

The Economist magazine has devoted a lengthy article to Anglo American’s staunch advocacy of conglomeration, which it points out is long out of fashion in business schools and American boardrooms. The Economist reports the reaction of Anglo chairman Julian Ogilvie Thomson to the 20 percent or so disparity between Anglo’s net asset value and the […]

Mozambique’s rivers all originate elsewhere — and by the time they get to the drought-ravaged country, they are almost useless. Justin Arenstein reports Mozambican goodwill towards South Africa is drying up –with a growing clamour that South Africa is responsible for that country’s increasingly parched crops and dwindling rivers. Not even a flying visit to […]