After spending 400 000 Singapore dollars (about R1,6-million) to come up with a suitable new name for the revamped downtown Marina Bay, Singapore has decided to stick to, well, Marina Bay, media reports said on Friday. The 400 000 Singapore dollars financed a massive branding exercise.
If a writer called Someone Somebody were to publish a political satire of the African National Congress administration’s performance since 1999, such a publication would quite probably be ridiculed as being a travesty of the truth. It’s easy to imagine the responses from literary critics: <i>Let Them Eat Beetroot</i> exceeds even the most generous liberalities formally accorded to works of satire"…
On Friday July 14 1985, a scraggly new publication was offered for sale on random street corners in Johannesburg. Its appearance was unexpected, particularly by those who had produced it. Sober observers predicted its likely demise before the month’s end. This modest event would long have passed from memory, were it not for one inexplicable fact: the newspaper is still with us, writes Irwin Manoim, joint founder and editor of the <i>Weekly Mail</i>.
Countries of the northern Sahel region are preparing to deal with more locust swarms in the next few weeks, having barely survived a plague of biblical proportions last year. The hoppers are breeding in north-east Algeria, southern Senegal and Guinea, and are moving eastwards. Some of the insects have already been sighted in Sierra Leone and they are also reportedly breeding in Ethiopia.
South Africa’s economy is expected to grow by 4,2% this year amid a domestic spending boom buoyed by low interest and inflation rates, a local think tank said on Thursday. "Bar unforeseen shocks, the South African economy is expected to perform well," said a report by the Stellenbosch-based Bureau for Economic Research.
Predictably, there have been howls of outrage and confusion across the land over reports that South Africa may extend Zimbabwe a line of credit. Should we be joining them? President Thabo Mbeki’s record on Zimbabwe suggests we should. He has repeatedly assured us that he has persuaded Robert Mugabe to move towards a political accommodation with the Movement for Democratic Change.
British lawmakers faced criticism from their own number on Tuesday after only 30 — less than 5% of the total — turned up for an anti-terrorism drill in Parliament. The exercise took place on Tuesday morning, when the chamber and galleries of the House of Commons were cleared after a planned "interruption" from a gallery.
Japanese people hoping their bank accounts carry a bit more cash could see their hopes come true with an automated teller machine that doubles as a slot machine, a regional bank said on Wednesday. Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank will on August 8 introduce slot games that run during the wait as cash machines process transactions.
South Africa’s Competition Tribunal on Wednesday conditionally approved the Media24, Lexshell 496 Investments and the Natal Witness Printing and Publishing Company merger. The transaction is subject to several conditions, including that Media24 must divest of all direct or indirect interests in Lincroft Books.
The South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) on Wednesday said that up to 30 000 Pick ‘n Pay employees are expected to take part in a nationwide strike action from Friday. Saccawu spokesperson Dumisani Dlakile said that wage negotiations with management deadlocked after mediation.
New Zealand recorded 33 new Aids cases in the first six months of this year, more than double the number reported in the first half of 2004.
The average woman in Britain spends more than £31 000 (about R361 000) on shoes during her lifetime and almost £16 000 (R186 000) on belts and other accessories, an insurance group said on Monday. A third of women say they have 25 pairs of shoes in their wardrobe.
Millions of Indians may sleep easier after the Supreme Court banned loud music, firecrackers and the honking of vehicle horns at night. The court ban — issued on Monday and posted on Tuesday — prevents horns from being sounded between 10pm and 6am, and bans firecrackers, loud music and parties between the same hours.
Following its unbundling from the Fidelity Services Group in March this year, Fidelity Supercare Services Group has announced the sale of a 25%-plus-one-share equity stake to Zungu Investments Company (Zico), a 100% black-owned and -managed company led by entrepreneur Sandile Zungu.
South Africa’s largest retail banking group, Absa, is to reward more than 700 long-term customers who have been with the bank for 50 years or longer. The bank says the rewards are part of the bank’s efforts aimed at keeping customers satisfied.
Online retailer Amazon.com has opened a software development centre in Cape Town, a statement issued by the company said on Tuesday. The centre will create innovative web services and help software developers build innovative applications using Amazon technology.
Global brewing giant SABMiller on Tuesday announced a major investment in Latin America through a transaction with the Santo Domingo Group in which SABMiller will obtain a controlling interest in Bavaria South America. The transaction will be effected by way of a merger. Shares in SABMiller climbed 3,3% early on Tuesday.
The recent drowning of eight learners from Ndlela High School, in Mpumalanga, during their visit to Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal, points again to an urgent need to intensify swimming lessons at schools. Every drowning is one life too many; the human and national asset of a life – is tragic.
This month I want you to walk with me through the history of outcomes based education (OBE) as I have experienced it over the past three decades. This journey led to my current understandings of OBE –and to where I left off in my previous three columns in the <i>Teacher</i>
Conserving and recognising a country’s natural and cultural heritage are important elements of nation building. This is especially true in South Africa where there has been an historical bias towards recognising and preserving European-based histories and landmarks, while indigenous cultures and forms of knowledge were systematically undermined.
A curry chef in central England claimed on Saturday to have rustled up the world’s biggest curry — a sizzling 10-tonne chicken tikka masala cooked in a swimming-pool-sized pot. Vast quantities of chicken, vegetables, spices and curry powder were chopped and sliced in advance for the bid to bust the world record.
The famously fun-loving city of Newcastle in north-east England is no stranger to public nudity, but it is mainly carried out in the name of excessive drunkenness rather than art. In contrast, about 1 500 people stripped naked on Sunday at various locations for the latest work by United States artist Spencer Tunick.
Police in India’s eastern state of Orissa rounded up about 200 people watching a porn movie in a cinema hall and made them do 10 sit-ups in public as punishment, a report said on Monday. They were also made to take a public vow never to watch a sleazy movie again, the <i>Hindustan Times</i> daily said.
To see (and hear) Bernie Baatjies and his circle of friends slapping down the pack of cards one by one in a game of klaberjas on a small table in an upmarket restaurant in the strangely rebirthing, formerly deeply Jewish Johannesburg suburb of Norwood, you would not think that you were that far from a mixed sidewalk gang of tsotsis.
French President Jacques Chirac, whose recent comments on British and Finnish cooking provoked a minor diplomatic incident, claimed on Thursday that French cuisine is part of the reason for the longevity of his compatriots. Listing in a television interview France’s strengths, Chirac lauded the merits of the national cuisine.
Standard Bank, which garners the largest chunk of the credit-card market in South Africa, and First National Bank have both managed to increase their share of the market at the expense of the country’s other major banks. According to a new analysis, the overdraft market seems to be a more competitive area of banking.
The Mail & Guardian sent detailed questions to Sandi Majali and Imvume; Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and her former Minerals and Energy Department; the ANC, Kgalema Motlanthe and Mendi Msimang; and the Strategic Fuel Fund Association (SFF), and Riaz Jawoodeen, the former SFF director.
A smiling Eddie Jones is Napoleoning up and down a rugby pitch at this very moment with Jake White’s jewels in the left side pocket of his tracksuit top. And he is squeezing them very, very hard. Jones has good reason to be basking in this savoury glow of satisfaction.
An intense row between parliamentary staff and management has been lent additional heat by the exclusion on "representivity" grounds of several coloured employees from the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Freedom Charter in Kliptown last month.
Suspended Scorpions deputy director Cornwell Tshavhungwa allegedly received a R500Â 000 bribe to subvert an investigation into alleged irregularities around a contract awarded by the Mpumalanga government to Rainbow Kwanda Communications. This has emerged from the 22-page charge sheet presented by the state to Magistrate Andries Lambrecht.
The number of man days lost to strikes this year rose from 200Â 000 at the end of the first quarter to 700Â 000 at the end of June, according to Andrew Levy & Associates. The major strike trigger was wages, which accounted for 99% of the total number of man days lost in the country. But this, according to an employment adviser for Andrew Levy & Associates, was unlikely to become a trend.
Before breathing a sigh of relief at rebel leader John Garang being sworn in as vice-president of Sudan, analysts were pointing to the difficulties that lie ahead. The peace brokered is a narrow one: a bilateral arrangement between the northern government of Omar el Bashir in Khartoum and Garang’s Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement in the south.