Never heard of Deluxe? Well, nobody can really blame you. Lloyd Gedye meets the newest sensation in soft rock.
You’ve probably spotted the Citroën C4 robot dancing across your TV screen in the past few months, but you may not be aware that it wouldn’t be dancing at all without the expertise of Cape Town-based Atomic Visual Effects. The commercial was directed by South African-born director Neill Blomkamp.
High local car prices came under the spotlight recently as the Competition Commission highlighted possible abuses in car retailing by leading manufacturers and dealerships. Its findings on what appear to be restrictive marketing practices in franchising and the operation of discounts will be forwarded to the Competition Tribunal.
On July 1 the country’s 185 000 mini-bus taxi drivers will join the ranks of the formally employed, enjoying the benefits of a minimum wage, unemployment insurance and paid leave for the first time in the industry’s history. The sectoral determination on the taxi industry announced by the Department of Labour recently, aims to formalise the sector from the bottom up.
A new study commissioned by the South Africa Foundation into the cost of telecommunications in South Africa has highlighted the "excessive" pricing structures of Telkom and has recommended an increase in competition and regulation in order to bring South Africa in line with international best practice, promote economic growth and create jobs.
More than R11-billion flowed into unit trusts in the March quarter, as investors remained bullish on prospects for equity markets, figures released by the Association of Collective Investments on Thursday show. This was nearly double the December quarter’s inflow. Di Turpin, the association’s CEO, said domestic equity funds and asset allocation funds were the most popular destinations.
The United Nations last week condemned advertising campaigns by Dr Matthias Rath which portray anti-retroviral therapy as toxic and promote vitamin therapy as an alternative. In a statement released last week, the World Health Organisaton, the UN Children’s Fund and the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids lashed out at Rath’s advertisements, saying they were "wrong and misleading".
"I came here in search of a job. Everyone says that life in South Africa is good. It used to be good in Zimbabwe, but that’s all gone now." — A Zimbabwean farm worker Clever Tarindwa told the <i>Zimbabwe Independent</i>, after being caught trying to cross the border into South Africa. See what Zimbabwe’s press has to say.
Traditional medicine in South Africa could face severe shortages of raw materials because of stubborn seeds. Not only are these seeds unable to be stored effectively, but the traditional medicine market is causing these plants to be over-utilised and this could lead to extinction.
About 100-million sharks, rays and skates are being killed every year, and experts predict that if this current rate continues, in 20 years many species will become extinct. Already it has been established that some species of shark face the risk of extinction having dropped in population numbers by 89% between 1986 and 2000.
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/ 10 December 2004
The Human Rights and Democracy Awards returned on Friday night after a one-year hiatus. Last year’s awards were cancelled as the Independent Electoral Commission — which co-sponsors the awards with the Human Rights Commission and the Commission on Gender Equality — was preparing for the elections.
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/ 19 November 2004
Truworths CEO Michael Mark has hotly denied trade union claims that the retail chain is increasing cheap imports at the cost of local manufacturing jobs. "We find it very frustrating that they are targeting us in this way when we have done so much to ensure we import as little as possible, while other retailers have not," said Mark.
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/ 5 November 2004
Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula denied this week that the government has a policy of xenophobia, but acknowledged that police action was often a problem. She also denied that inmates of Lindela Repatriation Centre in Krugersdorp were ever tortured to death.
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/ 27 September 2004
The road to the new Thonga Beach Lodge is really no more than a set of criss-crossing sand paths across the towering coastal dunes that separate Lake Sibaya from the Indian Ocean coastline of Maputaland. Although the journey is exquisite, in itself the destination is what really counts. The recently opened lodge is an upmarket beach getaway that redefines the term "barefoot luxury."
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/ 3 September 2004
Two popular SABC personalities got the chop on Wednesday and insiders at the public broadcaster fear more axing will follow. Arts reporter Alan Swerdlow, who also produces Fiona Ramsay’s show <i>Art of the Matter</i> for SAfm, confirmed that his contract had been terminated. And presenter Tony Lankester’s <i>SAfm Weekend</i> show has also been axed.
These days conservation is a politically sensitive issue. It often involves the management of restricted land from which people have been displaced. This creates the need for conservationists to address sustainable livelihoods and poverty alleviation in their agendas. A new University of KwaZulu-Natal course aims to broaden students’ perceptions of conservation.
For most first-year students a tertiary study institution can be a daunting place, especially when if they are living on campus, far removed from their families and situated among thousands of students who are mostly, at first, complete strangers.
The dean of students at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT) is someone who has recognised these adjustment strains and decided to do something about it.
South Africa is to become the guinea pig for the production and testing of a controversial HIV/Aids vaccine that will be grown in genetically modified (GM) plants. But local environmental activists have warned they will fight the project, for which the European Union has granted 12-million euro (about R80-million) over five years.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119188">’Conflict of interest’ in GMO panel</a>
The tourism industry, a nascent economic powerhouse, is the latest to catch black economic empowerment (BEE) charter fever. It has given itself six months to draw up a BEE charter to ensure more blacks are brought into the industry. Fourteen mandarins have been appointed to lead the process. The future of tourism, it seems, is sunny, but not pale.
While most of the efforts in the fight against HIV/Aids seem to focus on education, prevention and provision of anti-retrovirals, the treatment of patients at the end of their lives is often forgotten. Palliative care is a branch of medicine that looks after people who cannot be cured, by focusing on symptom and pain relief. Yet health-care professionals rarely receive training in this capacity.