Barry Streek The state lottery had accumulated sales of more than R2-billion at the end of last year, but only R4,1-million has been paid out to 80 charities in “emergency funding”, Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin has disclosed. This represents just more than 1% of the money available to charities from the total […]
JAN HENNOP, Johannesburg | Friday THE world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, who were given a bloody nose in the Pretoria High Court this week, say they have become scapegoats for the South African government’s own inability to treat people living with HIV/Aids. Mirryena Deeb, chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PMA), accused […]
Khadija Magardie Body Language A close friend of mine, being born, as she woefully puts it, “without flowing-in-the-wind, shampoo-ad locks”, has had a love-hate relationship with tubes of hair straightener since her teens. Of course, like the numerous women who still use skin-lightening creams, it is entirely her prerogative to use disguises to hide things; […]
Belinda Beresford One of the largest manufacturers of copycat drugs in the world kicked the issue of generic drugs into play this week by applying for a compulsory licence to import eight Aids drugs into South Africa. Cipla, a company based in India, on Wednesday formally requested compulsory licences on the anti-retrovirals in a letter […]
Jaspreet Kindra Banking on Change by Helena Dolny (Viking) Rainbow Nation revisited by Donald Woods (Andre Deutsch) So was there a concerted effort led from the top to remove anti-apartheid activist Helena Dolny from the helm of the Land Bank? And did Dolny, a lefty in her own right and the widow of the South […]
whipping boy Fort Wood, sire of sensational Horse Chestnut, has been easily the most inspirational force in the local breeding industry in recent years. The American-bred stallion has also produced a number of big-race winners and continues to spawn quality horses. Mike de Kock, who trained Horse Chestnut for the Oppenheimers, attacks with a fair […]
Marianne Merten Gang boss Chris “Ougat” Patterson, who once handed over the R14 500 monthly bond payments on his Plattekloof mansion in cash, has been forced into reduced circumstances. He and his family have returned to his modest Factreton, Cape Flats, house currently the subject of an investigation under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. […]
Kathy Thersby The latest draft legislation on capital gains tax (CGT) was released last week, and the public have until March 12 to comment. The full draft legislation can be found at www.sars.gov.za under CGT. These are some of the most important changes to the first draft: l October 1 is the implementation date. l […]
Neal Collins You wait years for an all-conquering England team to come along and what happens? The whole edifice threatens to fall down around your ears. England proved again at Twickenham last Saturday that their current crop of rugby players and coaches are a little bit special. After record wins over Wales and Italy, Scotland […]
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David Le Page and Mungo Soggot Canadian mining interests are preparing to give Minister of Mineral and Energy Affairs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka a heavy critique of the draft Bill on her visit to Canada next week. The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada is understood to be preparing a written submission on the Bill for the […]
More than 20 franchisees have had their assets attached and others are still waiting for the deposit they put down for franchises that never existed Thuli Nhlapo Two years ago Nikki Rossi said “look what London Pie has brought me to” before he shot himself in front of staff at the franchise company’s head office. […]
Jonathan Jansen a second look There are three, among many other, cases that demonstrate the growing threat to intellectuals in our democracy, and to a democracy for all South Africans. These cases are the debate on HIV/Aids, the debate on the presidency and the debate on education. The debate on HIV/Aids was striking for the […]
Alec Hogg boardroom talk During a week when financial results from South Africa’s largest insurance companies grab the investment community’s attention, a share-price boom by a relatively small outdoor advertising business is easy to miss. Also, after seeing the price of Corpcom shares virtually double in the past 10 trading days, a natural assumption is […]
Sean O’Conner food My dear friend Elize was in mortal danger of over-salivating prior to last week’s Community Chest Carnival, held at Maynardville in Cape Town. Having never been to the Carnival before, she’d heard how important it was for her taste buds to peak at the right time. So she stopped smoking that morning, […]
Glenda Daniels A major shift is happening in South African politics as white workers flock to sign up for union membership. Are class alliances superseding race a Trotskyist dream come true? Is expedience at work as jobs are lost in thousands? Has political consciousness been raised? Or are white apolitical unions mushrooming because they can’t […]
David Macfarlane and Glenda Daniels The widely expected appointment of a woman as the next vice-chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand was announced this week but it is not Professor Leila Patel, the current deputy vice-chancellor. Instead, the selection committee this week recommended Irish candidate Professor Norma Reid. The university senate and the council […]
Barry Streek South Africa should introduce a food voucher scheme to ensure low-paid workers and their families can use smart cards to buy food apart from their cash earnings the Women’s Development Bank (WDB) has urged. Food vouchers could ensure food security in a country where 73% of all households receive monthly incomes of less […]
Guyana is one of the few places in the West Indies where fast bowlers are not always in the ascendancy John Young One of Guyana’s nicknames is “Mudland”. The pitch at the Bourda Ground in Georgetown, where the Test series begins on Friday, is nearly a metre below sea level. They get a lot of […]
Robert Kirby CHANNELVISION When it comes to television documentaries there seems to be a peculiarly British disease, rampant among directors particularly at the BBC. It is a pathological inability to leave well enough alone. In a recent BBC Panorama programme the subject was the spectacular cock-up that constitutes the current British railway system. After last […]
David McKay Inside mining Anglo Platinum, the world’s largest platinum group metal (pgm) producer, expects the pgm market to remain stable despite significant increases in production. Anglo Platinum, for one, is building yearly production to 3,5-million ounces by 2005, a growth in that company’s output of about three-quarters. The increasing use of pgm in autocatalysis […]
Nawaal Deane South Africa’s newest editor marked her first week running one of the country’s most prestigious financial publications with a thunderous attack on her management about editorial independence. Caroline Southey, who took over the helm of the Financial Mail (FM) last week, found herself in disagreement with her employers over her authority. BDFM, the […]
David Le Page Tiego Moseneke, CEO of empowerment company New Diamond Corporation, does not concur with some of the more severe criticisms of the Mineral Development Bill. He feels the provisions for security of tenure, for example, are adequate. “Once you are at mining stage, the Bill countenances the granting of 25-year leases that’s as […]
A KENYAN businessman trying to trace his mobile phone rang the number from his house telephone – and heard the gadget ringing inside his two-year-old German Shepherd’s stomach. When the mobile telephone went missing from the bedside table he thought his toddler son had removed it. When he dialled the number, he said, he didn’t […]
Key features of the National Plan for Higher Education include: l reducing the number of institutions; l eliminating duplication of programmes offered by institutions in the same region; l establishing a single distance education provider by merging Unisa, Technikon South Africa and Vista University’s distance education centre; l merging Vista’s contact tuition campuses with other […]
Ntuthuko Maphumulo The African Credit Bank has launched a money school to empower its clients on consumer issues relating to the financial market. The bank, which recently repositioned itself as a credit bank to cater for the lower end of the market, identified consumer education as one of its key corporate strategies to meet the […]
To mark International Women’s Day, a special Court of Women heard moving accounts of hardship from women displaced by war Marianne Merten ‘My husband was an ex-soldier and in my country [with the coming to power of a new government] ex-soldiers were pursued [for political reasons],” explains refugee Susan Matata. Matata, who comes from a […]
Sipho Seepe no blows barred Education has tended, throughout history, to serve the interests and objectives of political, cultural and economic systems. In South Africa education was once an instrument that divided people racially and ethnically. This Verwoerdian prescription became the bedrock that was to direct educational policies for 40 years of apartheid rule. The […]
THE United States supports the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo but does not plan to provide troops, says Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell told the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee the United States supports the 1999 Lusaka peace accords for the war-ravaged central African country. The accords call for a […]
Madoda David Mabunda right to reply The report “Kruger National Park R36m in the red” (March 2 to 8) warrants setting the record straight. The memorandum on “Drastic measures to curb non-essential expenditure” sent to 300 cost-centre supervisors and managers was an open internal management tool rather than a secret classified information document hidden in […]
The cruel legacy of the Group Areas Act is still being resolved by Paarl communities Marianne Merten Despite the settlement in Paarl last weekend of several claims for compensation for homes lost to forced removals, the struggle for restitution continues. The Paarl Land Claims Committee wants to meet authorities next week to discuss compensation for […]
David Beresford another country John Diamond has finally died of his cancer, mourned by a nation. Which brings to mind the memory of a hilarious newspaper column, Time to Go, by Richard Geefe. Diamond, who described himself as “an ordinary coward”, won fame in Britain for the “courage” with which he faced up to his […]