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/ 1 September 2006
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has offered his country’s oil expertise to Angola, sub-Saharan Africa’s number two crude producer, in a strategy to boost ties with what he calls "Mother Africa" and counter United States influence there. "It’s absolutely a lie that the destiny of the world has to be signed off by Washington," he said in a speech at the presidential palace in Luanda.
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/ 1 September 2006
An armless New Zealand man has been cleared of dangerous driving after being found driving a speeding car with his feet. Police dropped the charges on Friday after Colin Smith (31) provided evidence he could drive an unmodified car with automatic gears safely, despite being born without arms.
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/ 1 September 2006
A row erupted at the South African Democratic Teachers Union conference recently, with heated claims that the African National Congress top brass barred the party’s deputy president, Jacob Zuma, from addressing delegates. The uproar was a further sign of the intense power struggles in the union movement two weeks before the ninth congress of the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
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/ 1 September 2006
South African support for Iran held firm as a United Nations deadline for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme expired, potentially triggering sanctions by the UN Security Council or the United States and its allies. A flurry of diplomatic activity followed the visit to Pretoria by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottak
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/ 1 September 2006
African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma’s personal adviser, Elias Khumalo, has hit back at Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
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/ 1 September 2006
I’m convinced that Cape Town has the most transparent theatres in the country. Not because they would tell you how they select their shows or what they’re paying their actors (getting this information is still as hard as an away-from-home judge in a Mumbai hotel), but because the city with the foulest weather also has the largest number of open-air theatres, writes Mike van Graan.
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/ 1 September 2006
It is brave to take on a production of the cult hit, <i>The Rocky Horror Show</i>. It is also plainly foolish if you do not have deep pockets. But Spier has taken a bold step in staging the first all-black Rocky Horror Show, writes Brent Meersman.
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/ 1 September 2006
Someone had misplaced the public protector’s collection of James Taylor tapes and the office was in uproar. Lawrence Mushwana was livid. Despite handwritten signs all over the building, declaring the touching of his tapes a firing offence, they always went missing, and precisely at the moment when he most wanted to give them another whirl on the official tape-deck.
South Africa recorded a deficit of R7,746-billion for its trade with non-Southern African Customs Union trading partners in July after a deficit of R4,219-billion in June and a shock deficit of R7,005-billion in May, according to customs and excise figures released on Thursday.
Kenyan wildlife rangers in choppers killed a pair of rogue elephants this week after a series of fatal attacks on people in incidents highlighting growing human-animal conflict, officials said on Thursday. The rampaging bulls, blamed by locals for leading larger groups of jumbos onto farms to raid crops, were shot dead on Sunday and Wednesday.
South Africa’s producer price index (PPI) rose by 8,1% year-on-year (y/y) in July from a 7,5% y/y increase in June, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday. The PPI rose 1,7% on a monthly basis after June’s monthly rise of 3%. PPI was expected to have risen to 7,5% year-on-year in July, unchanged from the surprise 7,5% increase in June.
The infrastructure for the refining and transporting of petroleum products has to be expanded in order to ensure that the demand can be satisfied, the South African Petroleum Industry Association said in its latest annual report. It said that the demand for petroleum products in South Africa has grown by 12% in the past four years.
Australian telecoms giant Telstra said on Thursday it had paid $254-million for a majority stake in Chinese real-estate and home furnishing website SouFun Holdings. Telstra chairperson Sol Trujillo said the site was a market leader in China and would be managed by Sensis, which runs Telstra’s online directories such as the yellow and white pages.
Eastern Cape-based <i>The Herald</i> newspaper dominated the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Regional Awards, walking away with five accolades. Francois Rank, Nicky Blatch and Roux Van Zyl won in the Print News, Print Feature and Financial/economic categories with
On the face of it, the rights and wrongs in the crisis over Iran’s uranium enrichment programme are easy to discern: the Islamic republic conducted a clandestine nuclear programme for 20 years. When details finally emerged, and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency began, it failed fully to satisfy investigators that its activities were peaceful in nature.
Business against Crime South Africa on Wednesday announced the appointment of Siphiwe Nzimande to replace Kenny Fihla as the organisation’s CEO. Fihla has stepped down as CEO at the conclusion of his three-year contract. Nzimande held the post of commercial director at Murray and Roberts Construction before joining Business against Crime.
South African industrial group Imperial Holdings on Wednesday reported a 26,1% rise in headline earnings per share to 1 222,1 cents for the year ended June from 968,8 cents a year ago. Diluted headline earnings per share were also up 26% at 1 148,3 cents.
South African mobile operator MTN on Wednesday reported a 27,5% increase in adjusted headline earnings per share to 278,5 cents for the six months ended June from 218,4 cents for the six months ended September 2005. MTN also advised that its subscribers were up 9,4% to 25,4-million for the six months to June.
If a monopoly is what every true-blooded ambitious corporate desires for itself, it can all too easily be a consumer’s worst nightmare. This is where strong, but even-handed watchdogs are essential. Thembani Bukula, the man in charge of regulating South Africa’s electricity industry, explains it neatly.
South Africa’s daily unleaded petrol price over-recovery surged to 75,605 cents per litre (c/l) on August 29 from 54,917 c/l on August 28 and only 21,136 c/l on August 9. An over-recovery means that the basic petrol price based on the daily product price and exchange rate is less than the basic fuel price used in the calculation of the monthly retail petrol price.
The increase in South Africa’s consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) for metro and other areas, used by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) for its inflation target, was up 4,9% year-on-year in July after a 4,8% year-on-year increase in June, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
A brothel in Australia’s biggest city, Sydney, is tapping into discontent over high petrol prices by offering clients a discount of about 15% a litre, a report said on Wednesday. Madam Kerry’s brothel said that like many other Australian businesses, the sex industry has been hit by a slump triggered by soaring world oil prices and the rise in prices at the pump.
Finding a date for the school prom is often a daunting business for high school students worldwide. Not so for Jordan Avramides from Sydney, Australia. At his formal end-of-year dance, sixteen-year-old Avramides will be walking in with the undisputed belle of the ball on his arm — Miss Universe Australia 2006, Erin McNaught.
Investcom, which MTN Group acquired in July 2006 for $5,5-billion, on Wednesday reported a 26% rise in total subscribers to 6,14-million at the end of June. Investcom has operations in Ghana, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Cyprus, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic and Liberia.
The development of contemporary dance has often been hailed as one of the more remarkable artistic achievements in our new democracy. And times are changing for dancers, once considered the enfants terribles of the arts industries, writes Jay Pather.
Cixi, the last empress of China (1856 to 1908), is one of those historical figures people love to be nasty about. But the tide of opinion now seems to be turning. New read <i>Empress Orchid</i> is a further, feminist step on the road to her rehabilitation, writes Julia Lovell.
Radio and newspaper journalists have excelled in the Western Cape Vodacom Journalist of the Year Regional Awards, with the Independent Newspaper group and SAfm each scooping two awards.
Artist Beezy Bailey celebrates his two decades in fine art production with a solo exhibition at Rosebank’s Everard Read Gallery. It marks a return to Johannesburg for the artist who grew up in Gauteng, but who has become a fixture in the Western Cape. The multi-disciplined Bailey is no stranger to controversy. The <i>M&G</i> dispenses the Qs and Bailey the As.
South Africa’s skills challenges "manifest especially" in those areas of the economy that need technical and specialised skills, such as engineers in mining as well as in the chemical, electrical, mechanical and nuclear fields, while artisans, geologists and economists are also needed, Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica said on Tuesday.
South Africa doesn’t have any plans "at the moment" to ease the continued burden of fuel increases on the South African public and any subsidy through the use of the country’s equalisation fund will quickly dry up, Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica told an MP on Tuesday.
Several foreign takeover suitors are understood to be sizing up the Foster Group for a potential takeover, the <i>Sydney Morning Herald</i> reported on Tuesday. "The world’s largest brewer, InBev, is believed to be running the rule over Foster’s, with its next largest competitor, SABMiller, rumoured to be also be mulling over whether to make a AUS$11-billion-plus play for Australia’s largest wine and beer group," the report said.
The owner of historic Greek basketball club AEK Athens, winners of the 1968 European Cup, has put the team on sale for €1, the club announced this week. "Those interested in taking over the club’s shares for the price of €1 should contact [our] legal counsel," AEK said in a statement.