JOHANNESBURG businessman Jonty Sandler has pleaded not guilty to a charge of indecent assault in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court. Sandler allegedly sodomized a security guard at the Himeville Arms Hotel near Underberg on September 10 last year. The 21-year-old guard testified on Monday that Sandler arrived at the hotel around midnight and asked to be […]
GENSEC denied that US investment bank, JP Morgan, had made it a buy-out offer. “We have absolutely not been approached by JP Morgan as far as I am aware,” Gensec CEO Angus Samuels said. He said that Gensec, in its entirety, would be included as part of an eventual merger between Sanlam, Metropolitan and New […]
SOUTH Africa is facing an intensifying drug abuse crisis which sees about half the patients requiring specialist treatment in Gauteng reporting cannabis and/or Mandrax as their primary drug of abuse, according to a report by the Medical Research Council (MRC). Of more concern, says the report, is an increasing shift by mandrax-users to harder drugs […]
The controversial French film, Romance, broke the South African record for the biggest opening week ever for a foreign-language film. The film’s performance at the box office improves on previous records set by Roberto Benigni’s Oscar gem Life is Beautiful and the award winning Central Station. Romance explores the sexual odyssey of a young schoolteacher […]
BoE believes the United States economy’s dramatic growth spurt is coming to an end Anet Ahern The global economy has continued to recover in the last quarter, but signs are emerging that world growth is beginning to peak. Global leading economic indicators are topping out, and there are initial signs of a slowdown in the […]
Belinda Beresford Hundreds of Cape Town penguins owe their lives to recycled cooking oil and a schoolboy inventor. Louis Kock was 17 when he developed and patented BD1, a chemical that helps strip crude oil from feathers. The product, which is produced from vegetable oil, is being used to clean the penguins caught in the […]
Charl Blignaut LIFESTYLE One had to wonder, at some of the lower points of the evening, as the swirling lights hailed yet another African dawn, the corporate voice-over declared yet another renaissance-in-heels and the worst of the human zebras passed on the catwalk, what New York would make of it all. The four winners of […]
sector cannot be avoided Claude van Cuyck Investors may be wary of the TMT (technology, media and telecoms) sector following Nasdaq volatility in the past six months, but it continues to be the fastest growing sector in the world and investors who ignore it will miss out. Sectors geared to the superhighway (TMT and electronics) […]
Thebe Mabanga Comedy lovers can brace themselves for a dose of good fun, rasping wit and downright silliness when two events bring a total of nine comedians to stages in Gauteng. The first event is the 5fm/Savannah Dry Jay Thang Heavyweight Comedy Jam, which brings together some of the circuit’s finest comics. Heavyweight Barry Hilton […]
Outgoing Transnet managing director Saki Macozoma has ruled out any possibility of returning to full-time politics when his contract expires with the transport company next year. Macozoma, who announced last week that he will not seek renewal for his contract, this week said he was looking at spending most of his time at Standard Bank […]
Khadija Magardie In a landmark judgement, Britain’s highest court has given 3 000 South African litigants the go-ahead to sue United Kingdom asbestos company Cape Plc in the UK. The litigants are all suffering from various asbestos-related illnesses which they contracted while working for Cape, which pulled out of South Africa in the 1970s. The […]
Neal Collins The very first helmet camera to hit British television screens belonged to Richard Johnson, a Grand National jockey, in 1998. Sadly, Johnson, riding a horse called Banjo, fell at the first fence. Though it was a spectacular crash where we saw turf, fence, sky and turf again, we were given no further glimpses […]
Central Johannesburg has had the life sucked out of it by surrogate central business districts – the shopping malls David Le Page In the 1970s Johannesburg residents used to talk about “going to town”, the central business district, without contemplating the hire of an armoured vehicle. In fact, for any serious business or shopping, there […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi The SABC this month begins searching for someone to fill the country’s top media executive position – head of the public broadcaster’s beleaguered news department. The position is expected to be advertised soon, as well as the posts of CEO and chief financial officer. The news candidate is expected to harmonise what has […]
The simple investment, unit trusts, doesn’t seem that simple anymore Alan Finlay The growth of the local unit trust industry holds something of an irony. The point of unit trusts is that they allow ordinary individuals, who may not have much economic savvy, to invest sensibly in the market. The advantage of maximum returns has […]
David Le Page The extremely cold weather that has hit the country this week may feel aberrant to most of us, but meteorologists and climate modellers are adamant that it’s nothing unusual. A cold front, or large and unpleasantly cold mass of moist air, moved across the Western Cape on Wednesday afternoon. Preceding it, along […]
Glenda Daniels An investigation into sexism in South Africa’s trade unions has shown widespread discrimination against women who remain unrepresented in union leadership structures. The probe, conducted by the Congress of South African Trade Unions’s (Cosatu) research wing – the National Labour and Economic Development Institute (Naledi) – shows that trade unions are dominated by […]
A UN report predicts that by 2015 Aids orphans will constitute between 9% and 12% of South Africa’s total population Charlene Smith The government will reach the point where it will not be able to train teachers fast enough to replace those who die from HIV/Aids. South African schoolchildren – sexually active as young as […]
The whole world loves him – but monkish Moby isn’t that impressed with himself Paul Lester An hour into my interview with Moby, he gets up from his seat at the back of the air-conditioned tour bus and reaches for a switch. “I have to show you this,” he says with a flourish, lighting a […]
Deregulation of the unit trust industry means that the small investor may have to pay more to management companies Sarah Bullen Earlier this year the unit trust industry was given the flexibility to restructure its products into different classes. As part of the deregulation of the industry, the Association of Unit Trusts (AUT) and the […]
Richard Kommel Traditionally, geographical regions have dictated share prices. However the current market environment is a globalised one, where picking the right themes and the “best of breed” shares within these themes is key to success. Often, it is easier to identify the losing themes as opposed to the winning ones. At present, these appear […]
Andrew Muchineripi soccer How do you react to an overcrowded fixture list that has resulted in probably the first 12-month soccer season in the world? You add another competition, of course. On Saturday at Johannesburg stadium, Kaizer Chiefs host Wits University in the first BP Top 8 quarter-final, followed 24 hours later by the clash […]
Dennis Brutus CROSSFIRE Last Friday afternoon I joined a demonstration that led to the disruption of the Urban Futures 2000 conference final plenary session at Wits University’s Great Hall. The delegates are owed an apology, but the two lead administrators of Wits and Johannesburg Metro who were prevented from speaking are, on reflection, not. I […]
The recent icy weather has added another danger to the many already faced by circumcision initiates Khadija Magardie Police in the Free State town of Bethlehem have opened a murder docket after three boys attending a circumcision school at nearby Frisgewag farm died of exposure. Temperatures in the area have plummeted during the recent spell […]
She’s bossed the ‘Firm’ for nearly 70 years, but as she approaches her 100th birthday, how far should we venerate the Queen Mother? Anthony Holden Codenamed Operation Lion, a classified document planning the Queen Mother’s obsequies has been kicking around Whitehall for decades, constantly in need of revision as the fortunes of the monarchy faltered. […]
Iden Wetherell Crossfire Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has crafted a predictable excuse for his party’s dismal performance in last month’s parliamentary poll. Zanu-PF was up against the forces of British and Ameri-can imperialism, he told his followers, and in the circumstances did pretty well. “The totality of the weaponry of the British, newspapers and television […]
an investor’s biggest challenge Bennie van Wyk Investment risk is one of the most difficult concepts for average investors to grasp. The relationship with investment returns is understood vaguely – the higher the risk, the higher the potential return. But if the risk turns out to be only too real, the adviser is in the […]
Andy Colquhoun in Christchurch It’s cold in Christchurch. The city clenches its shoulders against the freshening breeze coming off the Pacific or tumbling out of the freezer of the southern Alps. No one dawdles in the streets, the tables and chairs optimistically placed on the pavement by cafe proprietors sit empty. It’s as far from […]
A WOODCUTTER found the torso of a teenage girl in a shallow grave near the town of Atlantis, about 50 km north of Cape Town, police said on Friday. The girl’s head and limbs had been cut off and were still missing, police spokesman Riaan Poole said. Forensic experts estimated the girl died about five […]
Cedric Mayson Spirit Level Many comedians have quoted the spousely spat which ends: “Darling! I have already made up my mind. Please don’t confuse me with facts!” It is also the attitude of religious conservatives with minds closed to anything except their cherished beliefs. “God has revealed this … the Bible says that … the […]
Do unit trust awards actually provide any useful information for the investor? Thebe Mabanga The unit trust industry is entrusted with the responsibility of looking after the wealth – and often livelihood – of investors with relatively little knowledge. At the end of the March quarter, this wealth amounted to R117-billion and was controlled by […]
David Beresford Another Country ‘The truth” is a wonderfully elusive thing. The thought reoccurs with the international controversy over The Patriot – Mel Gibson’s latest mind-blowing assault on the verities of history. The Hollywood blockbuster reportedly offers a unique account of America’s War of Independence by which the British redcoats are portrayed as role- models […]