Swashbuckling miner and financier Brett Kebble has lost control of his empire, and the future looks bleak for the network of empowerment companies he has cobbled together. A Western Areas spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that Kebble was forced by his shareholders and bankers to relinquish control of JCI, the citadel at the heart of his family’s beseiged empire, stepping down as CEO.
The legal noose being used to lasso Jacob Zuma appears to be tightening as the Scorpions’ investigation widens to include Zuma benefactors other than Schabir Shaik — centrally influential businessman Jürgen Kögl, Durban tycoon Vivian Reddy and prominent Mpumulanga businesswoman Nora Fakude-Nkuna.
The recent gross domestic product (GDP) figures may contain overwhelming good news, but they also point to sticky times ahead for labour and business as they continue to fight for a fair share of national income. Statistics South Africa reported that the GDP for the second quarter grew by 4,8%, a figure made more remarkable by the fact that all 10 measured sectors reported positive growth.
Internet shoppers will get a chance to add an unusual item to their wardrobe: the flamboyant swan dress worn by Icelandic singer Björk, which will be auctioned for charity next month. The quirky dress is among more than 150 celebrity fashion items that will be up for grabs on auction site eBay.
South African retail group Massmart on Thursday reported a 16% increase in headline earnings per share to 341 cents for the year ended June 2005, from 293,1 cents for the corresponding period a year ago. A final dividend of 72 cents per share was declared, making a total dividend of 183 cents from 159 cents a year ago.
International ratings agency Fitch Ratings on Thursday upgraded South Africa’s long-term foreign-currency rating to "BBB+" from "BBB" and short-term to "F2" from "F3". The long-term local-currency rating has also been upgraded, to "A" from "A-". The outlook for the ratings is stable.
Banking group Absa foresees nominal house price growth of at least 20% for 2005, but single-digit growth for 2006. "Nominal house price growth of at least 20% seems likely for 2005 as a whole, taking into account growth in prices of about 27% in the first six months of the year," the bank said in a statement.
South Africa’s July 2005 producer price index (PPI) rose by 3,6% year-on-year from a 2,3% increase in June, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday. Nico Kelder, economist at the Efficient Group, commented: "This is a very high increase — higher than we expected."
Can the Brett Kebble era possibly be over? Just about everyone who has ever had anything to do with him doubts it. Kebble might have been knocked off his perch atop JCI — the venerable mining firm that he transformed into a motley collection of empowerment ventures — and he may have lost his corner offices at Randgold and Western Areas, but he will be back before long.
South Africa’s consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) for metro and other areas, which is used by the South African Reserve Bank for its inflation target, rose by 4,2% year-on-year in July after increasing by 3,5% in June, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
As a generation of young Swazi women ended a five-year vow of chastity in a traditional ceremony this week, health officials are debating the impact.
The internet is stamp-collecting heaven. No matter what kind of data or content you’re into, you can be sure that there are others who are equally obsessive about it. Whether it’s pictures of parrots, gerbils or naked celebrities, or perverse combinations of all three of the above, there are folks studiously assembling the data and cataloguing it online for all to enjoy.
"When I was a young girl, one of my grandmother’s neighbours always borrowed stuff from us. One time it was washing powder. The next it would be sugar or vegetables or cooking oil. But, almost every month, she would ask for salt. Salt. Over the years, she became too embarrassed to come herself," writes Zimbabwean journalist Everjoice J Win.
<i>Spin</i> magazine has built a veritable rock-star Frankenstein, composed of Michael Stipe’s skull, Elvis Presley’s pelvis and Madonna’s bellybutton. Madonna’s navel tops the list of the 25 "most incredible" rock-star body parts in <i>Spin</i>’s September issue, now on newsstands.
Banking group Absa has issued 27 new put and call warrants in order to keep up with the fast growth in South Africa’s warrants market. "We have decided to include a few put warrants for the fainthearted who feel that the market has gone too far, too fast and believe that there will be a pullback," said Gizelde Brady, a member of the Absa Corporate Merchant Bank equity derivatives team.
South Africa’s real gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally annualised and adjusted basis rose by 4,8% in the second quarter of 2005 from 3,5% in the first quarter, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday. Mike Schussler, economist at T-Sec, said: "It’s very, very good."
"To find a peaceful and democratic solution to Zimbabwe’s problems the African Union and the Southern African Development Community need to develop an informed, honest and objective consensus as to its origins and avoid public pronouncements that unwittingly distort the facts," writes Movement for Democratic Change’s secretary for finance and economics, Tendai Biti.
Belgian jazz pianist and composer Francy Boland died on Friday in Geneva, aged 75, a statement from the Jazz Labo society of Fribourg said. Born in Namur on November 6 1929, Boland began learning piano at the age of eight and studied at the Music Conservatory in Liege.
United States actor Barbara Bel Geddes, best known as Ewing family matriarch Miss Ellie in the legendary television soap opera <i>Dallas</i>, has died at the age of 82, funeral directors said on Wednesday. Oscar-nominated Bel Geddes became world famous through her role as the mother of Texas oil barons JR and Bobby Ewing.
Tonino Delli Colli, director of photography for the greats of Italian and United States cinema, has died at the age of 81, his family announced on Thursday. He "gave light to the dreams" of numerous directors, including Roman Polanski’s <i>Bitter Moon</i> and Roberto Benigni’s <i>Life Is Beautiful</i>, his last film for the cinema.
Mo Mowlam, who has died at the age of 55, became one of Britain’s best-loved politicians, endearing herself to the public with a no-nonsense, down-to-earth attitude that reaped dividends in the stormy atmosphere of Northern Ireland. In bringing peace to Northern Ireland, she achieved what many thought impossible.
A granny in Norway who scattered birdfeed in a flowerbed outside her retirement home unknowingly fed them cannabis seeds — and ended up with the wrong kind of pot in her garden, daily <i>Drangedalsposten</i> reported on Thursday. "It was my grandchildren who noticed it," she said.
A 73-year-old former New Zealand soldier is to undergo a sex change and the government has agreed to pick up the 30 000 New Zealand dollar (R136 200) cost of the operation, a report said on Saturday. After the operation, transsexual Vicki Harvey will be able to change the gender on her birth certificate to "female".
A crocodile that fled an abandoned wildlife park for a day at the seaside caused beachgoers to panic at a popular south China resort on Sunday, state media said. The croc surfaced at Beihai city’s Silver beach in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, scaring off many swimmers, Xinhua news agency reported.
A third-division provincial girls’ football team entered the annals of Belgian soccer on Saturday after suffering a crushing 50-1 defeat because of the absence of a single but crucial player: their music-loving goalkeeper. SK Berlaar’s goal was left unguarded after their goalie opted instead to go to a rock festival
Africa’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, Aspen Pharmacare, lifted headline earnings per share by 40% from 103,7 cents to 144,7 cents for the year ended June. In what was described as a record year for earnings, earnings before interest, taxation and amortisation increased by 32% to R831-million.
Iraq’s oil exports were shut down on Monday by a power cut that darkened parts of central and southern Iraq, including the country’s only functioning oil export terminals, oil officials said. Exports through the country’s other main route, the northern export pipeline to Turkey, have long been halted by incessant sabotage.
Business today entails a good deal more than selling your products and services to customers. Increasingly companies and organisations are obliged to show sound business management that includes not only profits and a healthy bottom line, but also concern for their environmental impact.
Trade union Solidarity said on Friday that a lack of cooperation was causing unnecessary delays in the investigation into last September’s explosion at oil and chemicals group Sasol’s Secunda plant. The explosion killed 10 people and injured more than 300 others.
I stopped just short of buying a tame politician in a "canned" hunt recently. The deal came to an end when I refused to fork out R100 000 to a minor government politician in return for seven sets of authentic identity documents and birth certificates.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>"I wish I knew how it would feel to be free. I wish I could break all the chains holding me. I wish I could say all the things that I should say." The Lighthouse Family song, played during former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s video presentation at Congress of South African Trade Unions’s central committee meeting this week, was intended to express ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma’s predicament as he faces a corruption trial.
So, what’s up with starting columns with questions, the kind that, prefaced with a mutated bimbo conjunction, beg Dear Reader to cock his head to one side, hang an index finger from the corner of his mouth, and shrug exasperatedly? What did bad columnists do for introductions before Jerry Seinfeld made it okay to flaunt the banal?