FRIDAY, 3.00PM: SOL KERZNER’S Sun International Hotels reports record third quarter results, with earnings per share 96% up on the same period last year. The Company generated net income of $17,2 million compared to net income of $7,7 million for the same period last year. For the nine months ended September 30, the Company achieved […]

Dominique Gallois On October 27 the French oil company Elf Aquitaine published a communiqu stating that its chair, Philippe Jaffr, had gone to Congo-Brazzaville on October 26 and met the victor of the civil war, Denis Sassou- Nguesso. This was the second time in the past few months that Elf had to reveal its chair’s […]

track Madeleine Wackernagel : TAKING STOCK Mahathir Mohamed, the Malaysian premier, was right in criticising the currency speculators at this week’s G15 meeting, but for the wrong reason. Since the crisis first struck in Thailand in July, the economies of South-East Asia have borne the brunt of the currency and stock-market fallout. Much of that […]

Matthew Engel reports on the troubled heart of Kenya, once Africa’s greatest hope, now with its social fabric crumbling and an election due before the end of the year It is half way through the equatorial afternoon. In the wood-panelled parliamentary chamber, a grey-haired African in a dark suit gets to his feet on the […]

Barney Spender : Rugby Crossing the road in Bologna can be a difficult and dangerous business. The drivers of the cars and buses at least have the decency to lean on their horns before flying past; the ubiquitous Lambrettas, on the other hand, do not. They come from nowhere and are gone before the dawdling […]

Charl Blignaut A decade ago, when South African pay channel M-Net was launched, the company had already attracted its fair share of critics. There were those who complained that the Hollywood-crazy, sport-obsessed, money-making television service was not really interested in an African broadcasting agenda and was not intending to invest in much local television production. […]

Luke Harding in Durban There was a certain wry symbolism as Prince Harry watched his father greet the crowds from the 12th-floor balcony of the Royal Hotel in Durban. As Charles shook hands in the civic square with British expatriates, Harry waved at his dad. Charles waved back at the diminutive red-haired figure above him. […]

It seemed like the bad old days were back in the Free State this week when a white man was fined for beating a worker, writes Ann Eveleth A 38-year-old Free State farmer grinned in the Welkom Regional Court last Friday as he paid a R3 000 fine for beating and chaining a shepherd to […]

FRIDAY 10.30AM: The South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) says South Africa’s growth, employment and redistribution (Gear) economic strategy is protecting the country’s economy from the harsh international evaluations other emerging economies are suffering. Releasing Sacob’s business confidence index on Thursday for October — which remained unchanged from the previous month — economic policy director […]

Gustav Thiel Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi’s plans to tie the entire police force into performance contracts could be throttled by a lack of funds. The plans, which Mufamadi unveiled in February, were vaunted as a key step toward lifting police performance – rewarding the good and punishing slackers – in a strategy designed […]