South Africa’s competition tribunal has prohibited the proposed R403,8-million merger between listed retailer and distributor Massmart and sports retail group Moresport. Announcing its decision on Monday, the tribunal said it would hand down its reasons for the refusal in due course.
The South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) says protests, such as those planned by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in May, can only damage the economy and add to general impoverishment. Sacob was responding to Cosatu’s intention to continue with protest action during four specific days in May.
Tectonic has learnt that the South African Revenue Service (Sars) tender that could see 14 000 Windows machines migrated to Linux has been frozen until Sars wraps up its financial year-end. Sars’s tender for a proof-of-concept for Linux on the desktop has mysteriously disappeared from the taxman’s tender site. It has been learnt from reliable sources that the tender is frozen until Sars completes its tax year-end process.
My friend Zakes Mda asked me to be more specific about the comments I had made some weeks ago about Gavin Hood’s film adaptation of the Athol Fugard novel <i>Tsotsi</i>. So here we go. Adapting a film from a novel demands some severe choices. Inevitably much of the essence of the novel’s complexities will be lost in the interest, supposedly, of meeting the tighter demands of a film.
Afrojazz band Freshlyground have become one of the country’s biggest musical sensations. Jocelyn Newmarch talks to founder member Simon Attwell, who plays the flute, mbira and harmonica. "Setting up a new band takes a lot of guts and a lot of effort, with literally no financial return," Atwell says.
In a tale reminiscent of the last <i>Wallace and Gromit</i> movie, furious villagers in north-east England have hired armed guards to protect their beloved communal vegetable gardens from a suspected monster rabbit. Leeks, Japanese onions, parsnips and spring carrots have all been ripped up and devoured by the mystery were-rabbit.
Zimbabwe’s 12-month inflation rate jumped to a new record high of 913,6% for March, officials said on Friday, surpassing a central bank forecast as the country’s economic woes continue. "The year-on-year rate of inflation in March 2006 was 913,6%, gaining 131,6 percentage points on the February rate of 782%," said Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the Central Statistical Office.
With black economic empowerment (BEE) codes of good practice and industry charters set to impact on businesses in South Africa, auditing and advisory firm KPMG is to conduct annual BEE surveys, it announced in a statement on Friday. The surveys will be conducted as at December 31 each year, starting with 2005 and the results of the first survey are scheduled to be released in June.
The environment group Greenpeace on Thursday launched a campaign against McDonald’s, accusing the United States restaurant chain of abetting the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest by buying meat raised from Amazonian soya. Greenpeace protestors staged colourful but peaceful demonstrations at several McDonald’s restaurants in Britain and Germany.
Behold, Thabob Mugabeki once again came to that place where he strapped his personal Boeing 737-800 to his bottom and was hurled into welcoming global skies. Soon after the Boeing reached low Earth orbit, Thabob Mugabeki strolled carefully back to his satin-lined boudoir, just aft of the right wing.
While the government has been putting a lot of energy into tackling import parity pricing as part of its broad-based attack on excessive pricing, there is one major industry in the country — sugar — that continues to use import parity as one of its cornerstones. The industry is finally starting to feel the winds of change … or are they just breezes?
Hollywood film stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are holidaying in Namibia, officials and local papers reported on Thursday, with rumours that the pregnant starlet may give birth there. Immigration officials confirmed the couple jetted into the small Atlantic port of Walvis Bay on Monday morning.
Drummer Don Alias, who kept tempo for Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Lou Reed, has died in New York aged 66, his website said on Wednesday. In a nearly 50-year career, Alias showed his versatility on drums and other percussion instruments, accompanying headliners such as Carlos Santana, Al Jarreau and Herbie Hancock.
The African National Congress is the target of some heavy-handed criticism in <i>The Economist’s</i> April 8 South Africa survey. Under an umbrella that spells out the ANC’s difficulties in turning itself into a modern, democratic party, <i>The Economist</i> is forthright: "The ANC still has a top-down authoritarian structure where loyalty to the political cause is prized above almost everything else, including competence."
United States internet search portal Yahoo! has teamed with Canada’s Research In Motion to make its services available on BlackBerry handheld devices, the companies announced on Wednesday. Yahoo! e-mail, searches and content will be available to BlackBerry users as a result of a "strategic global alliance", according to the companies.
A man was sentenced to three years’ probation on Wednesday for releasing an alligator into a Los Angeles lake, sparking a massive hunt for the elusive reptile, prosecutors said. The sentencing of one of two men charged in connection with unleashing the toothy beast came as the alligator, nicknamed Reggie, remained at large in the second largest United States city more than eight months.
The new Hamas-led Palestinian Cabinet said on Wednesday it faced a cash crisis as its foreign minister made unprecedented peace overtures to the United Nations. With Israel refusing to hand over customs duties and the West threatening to cut funding, new Prime Minister Ismail Haniya told the first regular meeting of his ministers that he would struggle to find the money to pay government employees.
A 24-year-old man tried to sell his soul on China’s most popular auction website and managed to get 58 bids before operators pulled his ad, he told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday. "It was just an impulse," the seller, who requested anonymity, said from Shanghai. The man posted the announcement on Taobao last week, asking a starting price of 10 yuan ($1,23).
Global truck giant AB Volvo has acquired a 13% stake in truck manufacturer Nissan Diesel Japan but the transaction will leave the South African operations unchanged, the Swedish firm said in a statement on Wednesday. Following the conclusion of the deal, AB Volvo has become Nissan Diesel’s single largest shareholder with Nissan Motor retaining a 6% share.
The Zimbabwe government on Tuesday said it would discuss the case of former Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam with Addis Ababa only, rejecting calls by the opposition and civic groups to hand him back to his country for trial. Mengistu, who has lived in exile in Zimbabwe since fleeing an armed rebellion that ended his rule in 1991, is wanted in Ethiopia to stand trial.
Continued decline in Zimbabwe’s tobacco production could bring the tobacco industry "to its knees" if unchecked, a Zimbabwe Parliamentary committee has been told. According to the country’s state-owned <i>The Herald</i> newspaper, the tobacco industry painted a gloomy picture on the state of preparedness ahead of this year’s season because of "numerous challenges" faced.
Nintendo said on Wednesday it would launch its "brain-training" software, a megahit in Japan, in the United States and Europe in hopes of winning customers who do not like video games but worry about aging. The software is billed as checking the ages of players’ brains by quizzing them on maths, reading and other simple tasks.
Tiger Brands and Nestle announced on Wednesday that an agreement in principle has been reached for the acquisition by Tiger Brands of the sugar confectionery portfolio of Nestle in South Africa. The sugar confectionery portfolio of Nestle includes such well-known brands as "Jelly Tots" and "Wilson’s".
Whites are two to three times more likely than Africans to graduate from universities in fields such as engineering, commerce and management sciences that are crucial to both the South African economy and the success of the government’s empowerment initiatives, the South African Institute for Race Relations said on Tuesday.
South African-listed food and pharmaceuticals group Tiger Brands has entered into an agreement to acquire Bromor Foods from Cadbury Schweppes for R1,16-billion, it said on Tuesday. Bromor is a non-carbonated soft-drink company and has a turnover of around R850-million per year.
Sudanese authorities have refused to extend the mandate of the Norwegian non-governmental organisation Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which heads the main refugee camp in Darfur, sheltering some 100 000 people, the organisation announced on Monday.
The National Broadcasting Board of Botswana has extended the offer of a broadcast licence to Black Entertainment Satellite Television (BEStv) located in Gaborone, Botswana and owned by Black Earth Communications (BEC) based in Johannesburg.
Andrew Jones, representative for BEStv, said on Monday: "Clearly we are delighted by this offer."
South Africa-based Dimension Data, a global IT solutions and services company, has acquired a 51% stake in ICL East Africa (Iclea), the leading provider of end-to-end IT systems and services in the East African region, for an undisclosed amount.
Didata announced the acquisition on Monday.
While we have made good progress in establishing and consolidating democratic institutions, building legal and judicial respect for the rights of all our people and enacting enabling legislation to give effect to key provisions of the Constitution, we have not yet fulfilled the Constitution’s mandate to give Parliament meaningful control of the national purse strings, writes Eddie Makue.
"Within three days of launching, the new direct life insurer 1LifeDirect had sold 100 policies. Its pitch of cutting out the broker seems to have resonated with the public and the product is well timed in terms of last year’s furore in the life industry, which highlighted the role and cost of a broker," writes Maya Fisher-French.
The International Scallywags’ Network (known as the ISN) has been dealt a relatively severe blow with the death of Slobodan Milosevic of a heart attack days before his sentencing at the International Criminal Court at The Hague in The Netherlands, and the arrest of Charles Taylor as he tried to flee into Cameroon from his luxurious exile retreat in southern Nigeria.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is poised to launch a bid to transform the global politics of oil by seeking a deal with consumer countries which would lock in a price of $50 a barrel. A long-term agreement at that price could allow Venezuela to count its huge deposits of heavy crude as part of its official reserves, which Caracas says would give it more oil than Saudi Arabia.