IN one sense the collapse of New Age Beverages (NAB) is an everyday tale from the world of business – a story of straightforward mismanagement. The company expanded too fast, too soon, making fundamental strategic mistakes along the way, the biggest in distribution. Losses mounted, market share shrank and the shareholders baulked at throwing good […]

Robin Blackburn CHE GUEVARA: A REVOLUTIONARY LIFE by John Lee Anderson (Bantam Press, R182,95) CHE GUEVARA helped Fidel Castro to topple Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and then masterminded Cuba’s break with the United States. These events established him as a revolutionary statesman of global reputation. With his subsequent renunciation of the fruits of power and […]

This year will be `difficult and challenging’ for the SABC, says its head, Zwelakhe Sisulu. In the light of the current turmoil there, this looks like a considerable understatement Ferial Haffajee THE South African Broadcasting Corporation is to demand nearly R1,8-billion from the government – and will threaten to pull the plug on special coverage […]

A task force reports that immigrants to South Africa need not be bad news, reports Marion Edmunds THE Green Paper on immigration recommends scrapping the country’s current system and dealing with skilled immigrants as national assets. The proposals, handed to Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi last week, call for his department officials to be […]

Chris McGreal in Kinshasa, Congo A GROWING tide of resentment against the conspicuous presence of Rwandans in President Laurent Kabila’s victorious army this week transformed a political protest into a demonstration against foreign intervention. Alliance of Democratic Forces troops broke up the protest – called against Kabila’s failure to include a leading anti-Mobutu politician in […]

FRIDAY, 12.00NOON PRIVATISATION and restructuring of the state-owned Northern Cape Diamond mine Alexkor has been suspended by the mine’s restructuring committee after it declared a dispute with government and Alexkor’s board. The committee, made up or representatives of Alexkor management, labour, community and provincial government, said the dispute arose after Public Enterprises Minister Stella Sigcau […]

Stewart Nkosi THE only reason I sat through Jump the Gun is because I had invited a companion along and it really would have been rude of me to yank her off the seat and walk out. I did ask her whether she would mind leaving, but she wanted to see all of it. So […]

The current disinflationary policies pursued by the Reserve Bank have serious implications for growth and job creation, writes Asghar Adelzadeh in the eighth of a series on economic policy EMPLOYMENT strategies to be presented at the October job summit will remain frustrated if the costly effects of the current disinflationary policy of the Reserve Bank […]

Anthony Egan ANATOMY OF A MIRACLE: THE END OF APARTHEID AND THE BIRTH OF THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA by Patti Waldmeir (WW Norton, R134,95) SING THE BELOVED COUNTRY: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA by Peter Hain (Plutos, R98) ALL SIDES OF THE STORY: A GRANDSTAND VIEW OF SOUTH AFRICA’S POLITICAL TRANSITION by Kaizer […]

As the Mpumalanga housing scandal escalated this week a picture emerged of a profitable schemefor its developers. Justin Arenstein, Stefaans Brmmer and Mungo Soggot report MPUMALANGA’s controversial rural housing scheme hands the developer a profit mark-up that exceeds the gains typical of low-cost housing deals. A consultant to Motheo Construction – the company set up […]