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 […]
Bill Elliot golf Five hundred years after it was first used for something that at least vaguely approached golf as we know it, the jury is still out on whether the Old Course at St Andrews is a work of erratic, supernatural genius or just an erratic work. Views vary from the reverential tone of […]
VISA and Standard Charter Bank have launched the first chip based pre-authorised, offline payment card in Ghana. Visa CEMEA president, Anne Cobb, said that their chip card should help overcome infrastructure weaknesses that have traditionally held back the introduction of payment cards in emerging markets. No telephone authorisation is required when the card is used. […]
15 years after its birth in a tiny Braamfontein office, the Mail & Guardian is still going strong – winning awards and annoying the government of the day Barbara Ludman and Rehana Rossouw ‘I give your paper one year, no more.” The message from letter-writer J Paris of Berea, published in The Weekly Mail in […]
South Africa cannot afford not to treat HIV-positive pregnant women with anti- retroviral drugs Howard Barrell The government will save the South African taxpayer more than R800-million a year – and will save more than 8 000 children’s lives each month – if it makes anti- retroviral drugs and milk formula available to all HIV-positive […]
A hunter in Kuruman allegedly shot a white rhino 14 or 15 times without killing it Fiona Macleod Kuruman’s favourite rhinoceros was slowly tortured to death in a municipal game reserve in the small Northern Cape town by hunters who did not want to shoot it in the head because they did not want to […]
Jaspreet Kindra The African National Congress has launched a concerted effort to woo the Afrikaner community ahead of the local government elections. A sense of urgency has been added to the recruiting drive with the launch of the newly formed Democratic Alliance (DA) of the Democratic Party and the New National Party. The ANC is […]
THE King commission of inquiry, set up to probe corruption in South African cricket after Proteas captain Hansie Cronje admitted to bribe taking, is to hold a second and final round of public hearings beginning on October 2. Commission secretary John Bacon said it had not yet been decided whether Cronje would be recalled to […]
The Springboks will have to tackle all day if they hope to stop the Todd Squad Andy Capostagno The story of the All Blacks, once a kind of Auckland Aenead, has become a Canterbury Tale. Coach Wayne Smith, captain Todd Blackadder, halfbacks Justin Marshall and Andrew Mehrtens and many more have proclaimed the Super 12 […]
Brenda Atkinson review OFTHEWEEK I revisited MuseuMAfricA at the weekend to find a few favourite things to write about – helpful signposts, if you like, in the extraordinary terrain of objects and events that is Urban Futures. I thought I would focus on the fourth floor, site of Rory Doepel’s exhibition Bones and Bytes: Healing […]
A new breed of traders has come into the market: they trade on momentum rather than on proper research Patrick Mathidi Three months ago, we saw the Nasdaq shed 25% of its value. On one Friday alone it experienced a 355-point drop, to 9,7% below opening levels. Yet the following Monday it surprised everybody by […]
The new book by Pamela Jooste, prize- winning author of Dance with a Poor Man’s Daughter, is out Shirley Kossick Like Water in Wild Places (Doubleday) is Pamela Jooste’s third novel, following the prize-winning Dance with a Poor Man’s Daughter (1998) and Frieda and Min (1999). Like Water in Wild Places tells the story of […]
EIGHTEEN bodies, including those of five civil defence workers, have so far been pulled from the rubble of a collapsed clothing factory in Egypt’s port city of Alexandria. The factory caught alight on Wednesday night and firefighters extinguished the blaze seven hours later. The civil defence workers then went into the fire-gutted factory with their […]
Mark Ouma olympics Unfazed by her late inclusion into the Olympics squad, Tania Tallie is determined to make her mark in Sydney. A full-time employee in a boat-building business in St Helena Bay in the Western Cape, Tallie has been working for three years to qualify for the Olympics. She achieved her goal just in […]
The fact that one of a group of juvenile detainees was her sister’s murderer did not stop Patricia de Lille from fighting for their rights Marianne Merten Pan-Africanist Congress MP Patricia de Lille entrenched her reputation as one of South Africa’s more principled politicians this week when she came to the rescue of juveniles from […]