Regulation cost South African firms R79-billion in 2004. This is the bottom-line result of Small Business Project’s pioneering study of regulatory compliance costs to the South African private sector, from large corporations through small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to the informal sector.
First the good news: the oil price spike witnessed recently is a temporary phenomenon, set to last only a few months. The bad news is that, because the greenback has strengthened over the past month, there is no inflationary shield usually offered by a weaker dollar.
President Thabo Mbeki has opted for a minimalist Cabinet reshuffle after the promotion of minister of minerals and energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to Deputy President, but he has sent some signals on the management of the economy.
The war in Iraq is creating a new breed of Islamic jihadists who could go on to destabilise other countries, according to a CIA report. The CIA believes Iraq to be potentially worse than Afghanistan, which produced thousands of jihadists in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of the recruits to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda had fought in Afghanistan.
It is trite that the Freedom Charter is an African National Congress document. The Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party are therefore stating the obvious when they allege as much. But those who plan to boycott the 50th anniversary celebrations of the document miss a bigger point when they focus on its ANC roots or outmoded language.
Rwanda and Ghana have become the first countries to bare it all before a panel of distinguished African experts as part of the African Peer Review Mechanism. Though critical areas of intervention have been highlighted, the completion of the stocktaking would have strengthened the hand of those who will be arguing Africa’s case at the G8 meeting, next month.
Maybe Lemmer’s been watching too many crime dramas, but when rumours of a poisoning start doing the rounds in connection with the death of the young Queen Modjadji, and almost immediately her coffin mysteriously catches fire, Oom Krisjan smells a rat. Or petrol and Blitz firelighters. The official cause of the fire? No one is sure, but the ancestors seem to be a top contender.
A South African government spokesperson expressed irritation on Thursday at the so-called bogeyman approach being used to scare African countries into conforming with the West. ”I am really irritated by this ‘kgokgo’ approach,” presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said when approached for comment on a call by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for African action against Zimbabwe.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has announced that five members of Parliament "involved in the travel investigation" — now known as Travelgate — have resigned from Parliament. They are Ruth Bhengu, Mildred Mpaka, Rhoda Joemat, Pamela Mnandi and Mavis Magazi.
The Department of Water Affairs on Wednesday supplied MPs with a timetable showing key dates in their plan to reform the way water is supplied to users in South Africa, a process it hopes to complete by 2013. The plan aims to shift the primary responsibility for provision of water services from national government to more than 200 local and regional water service authorities.