Small businesses have a disproportionately high failure rate in their first three years of operation. While franchises may be less likely to fail, they’re certainly not immune. "The three major reasons are: the wrong location, an ill-suited franchisee and an unproven concept," said Anita du Toit of Franchising Plus.
At least 58 people were killed in a spate of attacks across Iraq on Sunday, including 31 Shi’ite pilgrims who died in a car bombing as they returned from a religious festival, security officials said. The car bomb exploded as pilgrims arrived in several vehicles at Baghdad’s downtown Karrada district from Karbala in central Iraq.
A gay couple who only tied the knot in January look set to become the first same-sex partners to divorce in South Africa after one of them moved in with another man. Theatre director Richard Thornton (52) told the <i>Sunday Times</i> that he had filed for divorce from 20-year-old Andries Jacobs on the grounds of desertion and irreconcilable differences.
Zimbabwean police on Saturday vowed to block an anti-government rally planned in Harare by a coalition of opposition and rights groups on Sunday. National police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena told journalists police had received information from a whistleblower that the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change was arming youths to engage in violent protests across the country.
A militant Islamist group in Iraq has threatened in a videotape showing two purported German hostages to execute them if the Berlin government fails to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The Kataeb Siham al-Haq (Righteous Arrows Battalions) said in the videotape posted on Saturday on an Islamist website: "We give the German government 10 days from the date of this statement …"
Indonesia has suspended the pilots of a jet that crash-landed and erupted in flames, killing 21 people, a report said on Saturday. The pilot, Marwoto Komar, and co-pilot, Gagam Saman Rohmana, have been "grounded" until the accident investigation is over, Yurlis Hasibuan, the head of the air transport directorate, told the <i>Republika</i> newspaper.
Europe became the world leader in tackling climate change on Friday when 27 governments agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, and commit the EU to generating a fifth of its energy from renewable sources within 13 years. Greenpeace praised it as the biggest decision taken to fight global warming since the Kyoto protocol 10 years ago. European leaders said it was an historic pact.
The end of the world, the Vikings sang, would be drenched in the blood of gods and monsters. On that final day, the day of Ragnarök, the legions of evil would launch their final assault on the capricious, petty overlords of Asgard, beyond the Rainbow Bridge.
Elinor Sisulu reviews Elizabeth Maxwell and Alice Mogwe’s <i>In the Shadow of the Noose</i>.
Airbus plunged into its first-ever operating loss in 2006 and will be in the red again this year, parent company Eads said on Friday in another twist of the crisis at the European plane maker. Analysts at Citigroup investment bank said that prospects for Airbus were now "awful" after management warned about vast cost problems.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) announced on Friday it would be intensifying its campaign to encourage small-business owners to apply for amnesty, and as a result, a number of Sars officials will visit various business premises in Hatfield, Pretoria.
At least two people were killed on Friday when a cyclone slammed into Australia’s north-west coast, paralysing mining operations and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Authorities feared category-four Cyclone George had also claimed a third life and caused numerous serious injuries, but said they were struggling to reach remote communities lashed by winds of 275km/h.
Gautengers rejoice, your cost of living is in the bottom quartile of 135 cities surveyed by <i>The Economist</i>. Johannesburg and Pretoria are ranked 100th in a survey of the world’s most expensive cities, having dropped 23 places since last year. This is according to the Worldwide Cost of Living survey, released by <i>The Economist</i> intelligence unit.
A total of 1,000 journalists were killed between January 1996 and June 2006, according to a study released by the International News Safety Institute (INSI) this week. “Nine out of 10 murderers in the past decade have never been prosecuted- This is the most shocking fact at the heart of the inquiry,” says Richard Sambrook, BBC global news director and chairman of the INSI study.
Gautengers rejoice, your cost of living is in the bottom quartile of 135 cities surveyed by <i>The Economist</i>. Johannesburg and Pretoria are ranked 100th in a survey of the world’s most expensive cities, having dropped 23 places since last year. This is according to the Worldwide Cost of Living survey, released by <i>The Economist</i> intelligence unit.
If you’re buying on credit at your friendly filling station you have to take two credit cards with you, one for fuel and one for the other stuff. So sensitive were the authorities in the past to the spectre of discounted petrol, that a whole separate credit card had to be issued just to ensure there was no discounting.
Unanswered questions remain following the brouhaha after the <i>Sunday Times</i> again found that banned industrial chemical dyes in certain chilli condiments.
Hundreds of people have rushed to a village in eastern India to see a male calf defy its herbivore nature by eating live chicks. Poultry farmer Ajit Ghosh said he discovered the calf’s strange behaviour after dozens of his newborn chickens went missing from his combined cow shed and chicken coop.
Get Stratton back from Oz It is extraordinary that John Stratton’s South African attorney would make an urgent application in the high court to interdict the National Prosecuting Authority from pursuing an extradition request with the Australian authorities (February 23 ). Stratton may be a suspect in the Brett Kebble murder case, but this pales […]
No Hout Bay ‘apartheid’ Your coverage of Hout Bay is simplistic and immoral. It is not an “apartheid” conflict, as you suggest, with racist, affluent whites on one side and poor, victimised black people on the other. It is about upholding the law and trying to find a humane and practical solution to unhealthy, overcrowded […]
Johnnic Communications, the JSE-listed media and entertainment group, has increased its stake in online recruitment-services company CareerJunction. The acquisition of a further 25% of CareerJunction from permanent recruitment services and flexible staffing sector company Adcorp Holdings will raise Johncom’s shareholding to 85%.
MortgageSA, one of South Africa’s largest mortgage originators, says early indications are that February and March are, once again, going to be the months when the property market is most active. It lists five key reasons for the typical February-March spike.
Sony has unveiled plans for its own virtual universe for the PlayStation 3 where users will be able to socialise, shop and even go to the movies — all without setting foot outside in the real world. The free service, called <i>Home</i>, will allow PS3 users to set up an apartment for life-like virtual characters, or avatars, which can invite friends or strangers over.
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) head of news Snuki Zikalala was warned that should blacklisting of political commentators by the public broadcaster occur again stronger action would be taken against him, SABC news reported on Wednesday.
When Kwame Nkrumah remarked 50 years ago that "the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked with the total liberation of Africa" he may not have known how much of a catalyst he was providing for the subsequent wave of decolonisation that swept the continent.
I am principal of a school called Nkone Maruping Primary School, situated on the outskirts of an RDP settlement called Braamfischerville, named after the struggle icon, Braam Fischer. It is not far away from Dobsonville and Roodepoort, west of Gauteng.
Gold production in South Africa slumped by 7,5% last year, hitting its lowest level since 1922, according to figures released by the Chamber of Mines on Wednesday. Total production in 2006 was put at 275Â 119kg, the lowest level since a strike 84 years ago reduced production to 218Â 031kg, the chamber said in a statement.
Violence against women continues unchecked "in every continent, country and culture" because it is frequently concealed or tacitly condoned, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday. In a message to mark International Women’s Day on Thursday, the UN secretary general said violence "takes a devastating toll on women’s lives".
The bitter rivalry between Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the country’s leading elder statesman has erupted into a public struggle for control over economic policy. Hashemi Rafsanjani set the scene for a power struggle by telling Iranian journalists that Ahmadinejad’s "trial period is over".
Former South African Reserve Bank deputy governor Gill Marcus is to take over as independent chairperson of banking group Absa, it was announced on Wednesday. She will succeed Dr Danie Cronje, who will step down as chairperson on July 1 but remain as a director of Absa Group as well as Absa Bank until the end of July.
Fed up with the constant trilling from the stalls, Russia’s oldest theatre has come up with a novel solution to the ubiquitous problem of cellphones going off — jam the signal. The Alexandrinsky theatre in St Petersburg last month became the first theatre company in the world to instal jamming equipment.
Afghan confidence in Western military forces was further frayed on Monday when a United States air strike on a house near Kabul killed nine people spanning four generations of the same family. US warplanes dropped two 900kg bombs on the house in Kapisa province, hours after an attack on a nearby US base.