Pretoria High Court Judge Essop Patel, who was presiding over the criminal trial of alleged child molester Cezanne Visser, alias ”Advocate Barbie”, has died. Patel died of cancer after a long sickness, media reports said on Tuesday. He will be buried according to Muslim rites on Tuesday morning at Johannesburg’s Newclare cemetery.
The African National Congress Women’s League on Monday objected to court rulings evicting a family from ”ancestral land” in Limpopo and refusing permission for a matriarch to be buried there. The league has noted a ”deliberate attempt on the part of the landowners to frustrate the process”.
A massive marketing push by the financial services industry is urgently needed, according to government figures. "The irony is that the nation has the greatest array of financial products in its history, but makes the least use of them," says Kim Zietsman, Stanlib’s head of single-manager unit trusts.
A year ago, 1LifeDirect came to the market offering consumers the opportunity to cut out the broker and buy life cover directly. The industry was sceptical because other attempts at this model, such as Old Mutual’s Greenline, had not been a success. The argument was that, because it is a grudge purchase, people do not buy life insurance, writes Maya Fisher-French.
When you took out your life-insurance policy or signed up for disability or disease cover, did you opt for a premium that could change at any time, a premium that is guaranteed for a certain number of years or a premium that carries a compulsory increase? Gerhard Joubert, CEO of the Life Offices’ Association, has a warning to share.
The first round of the French presidential election entered its final phase, as attacks turned personal and record numbers of voters remained undecided. As official campaigning began, a poll showed 42% of voters could still change their mind before the election on April 22, which will select two candidates to go head to head in a final vote on May 6.
A Western Cape African National Congress (ANC) councillor and South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) executive member was gunned down in Guguletu on Saturday night, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Sunday.
The country’s third cellphone services provider, Cell C, said on Friday there was "absolutely no truth" to claims that the company was in a "financial meltdown". Zeona Motshabi, chief corporate officer of Cell C, said in a statement that the company had registered very strong earnings growth over the past two years.
France’s Nicolas Sarkozy says he will carry out all his major reforms in his first two years in power if elected in May, including streamlining the government into 15 superministries. A summer session of Parliament would push through tax cuts on income earned through overtime, incentives for home buyers and tougher sentences for repeat offenders.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi has added a note of caution to the proposed name change of Durban highway in KwaZulu-Natal — currently named "Mangosuthu Highway" in his honour. eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba has proposed that the highway be named, instead, after a late liberation-struggle hero.