The company’s appointment of a state watchdog as a sightholder has created a conflict of interest Mungo Soggot The man appointed by the state to advise on whether diamond producers should be exempted from paying export tax has been made a sightholder by the diamond giant De Beers. Being a sightholder means that MacDonald Temane, […]
An audit report has found that the office wastes much-needed money and resources, and has little contact with its own hospitals and clinics Paul Kirk Following a series of exposes by the Mail & Guardian, auditors have recommended that the national office of the South African National Tuberculosis Association (Santa) be closed down. The audit […]
Zo Wicomb’s new novel will be launched this week. She spoke to Jane Rosenthal David’s Story (Kwela), the new novel by South African-born Zo Wicomb her first fiction since her acclaimed story sequence You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town (1987) has been well worth waiting for. It began as a conventional novel on the […]
Belinda Anderson Investec research has shown that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE) all share index has outperformed most major global indices when measured over two years in US dollar terms. The JSE has grown by 10,5% over the past 24 months this considering the 22% depreciation in the rand during that time. Its closest competitor […]
The Eastern Cape premier’s wife became a partner in a hunting company shortly before it bid for hunting concessions Nawaal Deane A hunting company that has won a lucrative government contract in the Eastern Cape hired the provincial premier’s wife as a partner and shareholder before securing the tender. It is the second time this […]
David Le Page opera Keep your eyes closed, and you’re quite safe attending the Sasol-sponsored Pro Musica production of Verdi’s La Traviata at Johannesburg’s Civic Theatre. Effortlessly led by the voices of Elizabeth Frandsen as Violetta and Jannie Moolman as Alfredo, and the baton of Weiss Doubell, the production is musically very sound. Baritone Denver […]
THE Angolan rebel group Unita has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack against an oil complex in northern Angola last weekend in which an exploratory oil well was destroyed. The rebels also said they carried out an attack on a nearby village. During Sunday’s attack against the oil complex in the Kingila/Soyo park, the rebels […]
Barry Streek The people of the remote Richtersveld area near the Namibian border have lost the first round of their long legal battle to reclaim their land. The people of Richtersveld instituted an action in the Land Claims Court against the state diamond company Alexkor and the government in terms of the Restitution of Land […]
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles This time last year the talk was of the Oscars that mysteriously went missing before the ceremony, only to be found by Willie Fulgear, a scrap dealer who briefly became a hero. The happy ending had a sting in its tail it transpired that Fulgear’s half-brother was under investigation for […]
Barry Streek The government’s high-profile campaign to speed up court proceedings and cut the backlog has faltered as the number of unheard criminal cases in district and regional courts increased over the past 12 months. There are now 160102 unheard criminal cases, up from 132126 an increase of 21% in one year. In the high […]
FOR the first time, a diesel-powered passenger vehicle has become a South African Car of the Year. The BMW 320d was chosen by the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists for the 2001 title in the 16th running of the competition. CUSTOM SHARE SERVICE CUSTOMISE your share portfolio and have live prices delivered by e-mail or […]
Some fear that Carlos Cardoso’s murder might never be fully investigated as ‘many more crimes’ would be uncovered Rehad Desai It has been more than three months since the assassination of Mozambique’s leading investigative journalist, Carlos Cardoso. Last week the minister of police announced he had captured the hit men responsible. The announcement was followed […]
Belinda Anderson In his spare time, charismatic fund manager Peter Major dons his hang-glider and jumps off mountains in Cape Town. Now he’s taking another leap away from the world of big institutional fund management, to team up with South Africa entrepreneur-turned information technology billionaire Mark Shuttleworth. Major joins Shuttleworth’s newly formed company HBD (Here […]
Park plans to sell rhinos to ease a cash crisis Fiona Macleod The Kruger National Park is urgently selling 21 white rhinos in an attempt to stave off a cash-flow crisis that has seen it overdrawn by millions of rands in the past month. The sale includes eight rhino cows and their calves, who will […]
Katy Chance cornered Dr Iqbal Surv, the businessman who was once Bafana Bafana’s first team doctor, and got some knee-jerk reactions Dr Iqbal Surv is CEO of Sekunjalo a position he says he initially thought he would occupy for possibly a year. Five years on he is still firmly in the driving seat. How and […]
Accidents and arson have highlighted the urgency of updating South Africa’s railways Jaspreet Kindra and Glenda Daniels At least six metropolitan councils in South Africa will be given responsibility for developing and planning Metrorail routes in the near future. Provinces will also have these powers. Transport authorities representing provinces and municipalities will plan and develop […]
FORMER National Party cabinet minister and convicted fraudster Pietie du Plessis died of a heart attack in Pretoria on Wednesday morning, his friend and former cabinet colleague Pik Botha said. Although Du Plessis served three years of a nine-year prison term in Pretoria Central Prison for company fraud, he always retained his self-esteem and respect, […]
David Beresford another country The weekend was quite spoilt for me by the sudden apprehension that South Africa might be brain dead. That the body is kept alive for sentimental reasons by well-intentioned medics, functioning with the help of bits and pieces of machinery. But that the professionals attendant on the body would, if polled, […]
Ken Gooding in London, Barry FitzGerald in Melbourne and Tim Wood in New York Australian-headquartered BHP, the world’s fourth-largest resources group, and United-Kingdom-listed Billiton, the seventh-largest metals and mining company, announced earlier this week that they are to merge to “establish a premier diversified global resources group”. BHP Billiton will have a combined value of […]
Bafana Bafana take on Mauritius in an African Nations Cup qualifier this weekend and defeat against the Indian Ocean islanders is not an option for coach Carlos Queiroz Andrew Muchineripi Spare a thought for Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Queiroz this weekend as his team face Mauritius in an African Nations Cup qualifier at Telkom Park […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo soccer The beautiful game has become a multimillion-rand business with many clubs in search of sponsorship and partnerships. Yet just two Premier Soccer League (PSL) clubs seem to get the backers. Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates a season ago got a sponsorship of R60-million each from cellular network Vodacom. This week Pirates signed […]
With the HIV/Aids pandemic on the increase, the university’s dismissal of the head of its Population Research Unit has raised questions about where its priorities lie David Macfarlane Try to make sense of this scenario. A liberal university is situated at the heart of one of South Africa’s highest HIV infection rate regions. One of […]
THE convoy of Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar has been involved in a pile-up, injuring several people, adding to what Nigerians call the government road toll. Since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in May 1999, more than 15 top officials, including three ministers and a slate of governors, have been involved in fatal road accidents […]
Alec Hogg boardroom talk If you ever needed confirmation of the underlying trend for local share prices, the market’s response to some major announcements of the past month provided it. The investment terms bull and bear are in themselves rather innocuous, the first used to describe optimists, the other of the genre that believe the […]
David McKay inside mining No matter how you slice it, the proposed $28-billion merger between Australia’s BHP and the United Kingdom’s Billiton is a deal that functions on size. Every stated aim of the proposal geographical diversity, range of mined products, balance sheet power, need to access capital markets accepts the notion that big is […]
After turning her ex-husband into a household name, Anne Heystek is hoping to become South Africa’s latest wealth creator Bruce Whitfield Global markets are a testing place even for the most resilient fund managers. Scores are losing money hand over fist and are struggling to maintain their portfolios. Despite the difficulties faced by the investment […]
STATE security troops stormed Liberia’s national university to break up a students’ rally which was raising funds to pay the legal fees of four journalists detained for alleged spying. Witnesses said the troops arrested several students and added that many had been injured. “Officers of the Special Operation Division of the police and the elite […]
Paul Kirk Lucrative illegal casinos in Durban are operating with the full permission of both the police and the provincial Department of Justice. Driving down West Street the main drag from upmarket Berea to the beach the casino is hardly visible. It is only when one descends past the burly thug of a bouncer at […]
Marianne Merten The recent murder of a 15-year-old boy sparked a cycle of violence in Heideveld on the Cape Flats that has hit schools amid community fears that gangsters are randomly killing teenaged boys to stop them joining rival gangs. For almost a year the Americans and Junky Funky Kids gangs, and occasionally members of […]
SOME 200 Ethiopian refugees in Sudan are staging a protest against a decision by the UN High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) to strip them of their refugee status because the reasons that drove them from Ethiopia vanished with Mengistu Haile Meriam’s 1991 ousting. The refugees may now accept to be repatriated with UNHCR help or […]
Judge Ray Zondo knew at the age of 16 that he wanted to be a lawyer. Today he shows the same determination in his role as judge president of the Labour Court and Labour Appeal Court Glenda Daniels Judge Ray Zondo’s office is in Johannesburg, he travels to courts around South Africa constantly, and his […]
Michelle Matthews food People mill about the juicy cornucopia that spills from the small gallery into the street. Some stand, briefly, brows slightly furrowed, before moving to the wine table. Others lean forward, pointing out details to companions. Someone reaches out, plucks a grape from the display, and pops it into their mouth. “I didn’t […]