The growing maturity of mobile and wireless data solutions helps small and medium enterprises (SMEs) enhance their productivity and efficiency, Nashua Mobile MD Mark Taylor noted on Monday. "People can carry all the tools they need to stay in touch with them in their pockets or briefcases," he said.
Nampak, Africa’s largest packaging company, is making positive progress towards the development of its permanent cartons manufacturing facility in Nigeria, with the plant scheduled to open at the end of next year. A temporary installation is
already up and running.
About 350 would-be illegal immigrants stormed part of the metal fence separating the Spanish north African enclave of Melilla from Morocco at dawn on Monday. Local authorities were unable on Monday to explain how the immigrants managed to break through or over the fence, whose height had been raised to six metres, in the latest in a series of assaults on the barrier.
The Pulitzer prize-winning American playwright August Wilson who chronicled black America died on Sunday of liver cancer at a hospital in Seattle, Washington, surrounded by family and friends, his assistant announced. He was 60. Wilson won wide acclaim for his stage plays, which focused on the African-American experience through the 20th century.
Absa has introduced a new home-loan product that makes it possible for almost anyone to own a home of their own. MyHome gives individuals or couples with joint monthly incomes of between R1Â 500 and and R7Â 500 access to an affordable 100% mortgage bond that can also include a five-year fixed-rate option.
As far as I can remember from second and third-hand conversations here and there there’s a very famous bit in the Bible where it say that this fellow Jesus came upon a group of poverty-stricken-looking guys with shabby clothes and ragged beards looking lost and forlorn by the Sea of Galilee.
Play the facts, not the man I was astounded by the anti–democratic stand taken against Jacob Zuma in your editorial “Be afraid, be very afraid” (October 14). Your assertion that Zuma’s actions offer a clear snapshot of what his presidency would be like is totally misplaced. He is on the back foot in a case […]
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
More than 20 officials in the Limpopo department of health are facing a disciplinary inquiry after an audit report alleged that they irregularly received contracts worth millions of rands from the department. Recently, a departmental spokesperson confirmed that the officials, would be hauled before a disciplinary hearing on charges of irregularities and gross misconduct.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
When an 11-year-old boy sneaked his first kiss under a British railway bridge in 1965, he most likely never expected it to be front-page news 40 years later. But then he did choose British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s future wife. Stephen Smerdon woke up on Thursday to find his fledgling love life of four decades ago splashed across newspapers.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
In what must rank as a world record, animal-welfare officers in France have discovered a total of 340 dogs living in a single house near the north-eastern city of Nancy. The dogs were confined to the first floor of the house in the village of Marbache and had been interbreeding for years, officials said.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
A Swedish couple have won the right after a court battle to name their daughter Edradour, after a Scottish whisky brand, media reported on Friday. Initially the tax office, which in Sweden registers the names for newborns, refused the name, saying it was too closely linked to an alcoholic drink.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
South Africa recorded a deficit of R3,243-billion for its trade with non-Southern African Customs Union trading partners in August after a R1,017-billion deficit in July, according to the latest Customs and Excise figures released on Friday. "It’s not a great number at all and there are no massive imports to account for it either," said one economist.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
Japanese carmaker Nissan on Friday unveiled a car of the future which only goes forward — with a cabin able to revolve 360°, eliminating the need to reverse. The three-seater electric concept car, nicknamed Pivo, will be put on display at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show to be held in Chiba, outside Tokyo, from October 22 to November 6, Nissan Motor Company said in a statement.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
South Africa’s retail petrol price for all grades of petrol will increase by 12 cents a litre (c/l) from October 5 after a 29c/l rise on September 7, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. The wholesale price of diesel 0,3% sulphur will rise by five c/l after September’s two c/l increase, while diesel 0,05% sulphur will cost six c/l more after a three c/l addition in September.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
The Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) released its 2004/2005 annual report at a function in Johannesburg yesterday. Covering the period from 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2005.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
"In her ‘Chameleon tales’ Vicki Robinson quotes a Zulu myth to create and substantiate another myth — her own. Robinson is essentially right in that she has produced a tale outlining 30 years of the Inkatha Freedom Party coming to an end. Needless to say, it is a classic mix of factual inconsistencies, half-truths and outright lies," writes Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
Tony Blair’s continuing suzerainty of Downing Street fills decent people with a mixture of fear, disdain and an almost uncontrollable need to belly-laugh. Watching Blair drum out his hypo-crisies and half-truths, all his bogus compassion and credible pomposity, you wonder where he gets it all.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
For more than 150 years, Americans have sent animals to war; legions of strong, furry brutes, bright-eyed, dumb and eternally loyal. But of course the Marines haven’t done <i>all</i> the fighting, and every so often it has been necessary to enlist the instincts and talents of beasts with sensitivities more refined than those of the human animal.
No image available
/ 29 September 2005
Global energy demand is expected to grow 50% over the next 25 years, driven by strong economic growth in India and China, a top ExxonMobil executive said on Thursday. "We expect sustained economic growth, just under three percent a year… rising personal income and standards of living especially in Asia," said Kwa Chong Seng, ExxonMobil Asia Pacific’s chairperson and managing director.
No image available
/ 29 September 2005
An editorial in this newspaper 12 years ago warned that typhoid was "producing images of medieval horror". Twelve years on, Delmas once again makes the same headlines. It is a double shame that a people’s government, now without the money troubles it inherited from the profligate and corrupt former regime should run an administration where "medieval horrors" are still commonplace.
No image available
/ 28 September 2005
Charles Nicholl: Leonardo Da Vinci: The flights of the Mind Jonathan Hyslop: The Notorious Syndicalist Richard Dawkins: The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life Justin Cartwright: The Promise of Happiness Alexander McCall Smith: Heavenly Date and Other Flirtations Edward Said: Freud and the Non-European Stephen Gray: Beatrice Hastings: A Literary Life Ngozi […]
No image available
/ 28 September 2005
Unisa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL) has been named one of South Africa’s top three leading business-school brands in the Markinor/<i>Sunday Times</i> Top Brands survey for 2005, released this week. It achieved third place in the survey.
No image available
/ 28 September 2005
Women aged 15 to 24 in South Africa are substantially more likely to be HIV-positive than their male counterparts, according to a study.
No image available
/ 28 September 2005
Another week of new stories, showing that the world at large is more bizarre and deranged than you and I could ever dream of, Horatio. Think I’m kidding? Let’s start off with the Gary Larson-like effect of animals trapped in a world with humans in charge. For instance, did you hear the one about the stupid dog that fell off a cliff, then was bitten by a snake, and then gored by a wild animal?
No image available
/ 27 September 2005
Almost 50 people have been killed in a village in eastern Chad during an attack by an armed group from neighbouring Sudan and subsequent clashes with Chadian forces, a government spokesperson said on Tuesday. The attack took place in the eastern Wadai region on Monday morning, Hurmaji Musa Dumgor said in a statement.
No image available
/ 27 September 2005
Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest car maker, said on Tuesday that its new compact sports utility vehicle, the Golf Marrakesh, would be built at its plant in Wolfsburg, north Germany. VW management had threatened to relocate production of the SUV to Portugal where unit costs were much cheaper, if the works’ council in Wolfsburg did not agree to new employment conditions.
No image available
/ 27 September 2005
Figures released by Statistics South Africa show that "expanded unemployment" stood at 8,1-million people in South Africa by March this year — compared to 6,4-million in September 2000. Things have become much worse on the unemployment front, the Democratic Alliance said in reaction.
No image available
/ 26 September 2005
Gauteng’s lesbian and gay community took to the streets of Johannesburg on Saturday to celebrate the 16th Annual Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade. South African gay website <i>Mambaonline</i> said the event was "described by many as one of the most successful to date", though the parade was marred by a bottle-throwing incident.
No image available
/ 26 September 2005
Sri Lankan election chief Dayananda Dissanayake will be running November presidential elections but won’t be voting — he doesn’t trust politicians. Dissanayake (64) wants to retire, but a constitutional quirk is forcing him, against his will, to lead a team of 100 000 officials in staging the November 17 vote.
No image available
/ 26 September 2005
A New Zealand politician who promised to run naked through the streets if he lost an election bet attempted to honour his pledge on Sunday, but in the nature of politicians he wasn’t prepared to expose himself fully to the naked truth. Keith Locke from the Green Party instead wore a G-string on his 500m jaunt.
No image available
/ 26 September 2005
Historic Russian admiral Fyodor Ushakov — a hero of Russia’s wars against Turkey and Napoleon Bonaparte — was designated the patron saint of nuclear-armed, long-distance Russian bombers by the Orthodox Church on Monday. "His strong faith helped Saint Fyodor Ushakov in all his battles," the church said.
No image available
/ 26 September 2005
The troubled German department store chain KarstadtQuelle began giving away free flights to New York with the purchase of a special-edition winter coat on Monday in a bid to revive sales. The store is in the midst of a drastic restructuring after narrowly escaping bankruptcy last year.