A Chinese herbalist will go without food for 50 days in full public view to prove he didn’t pull a fast one when he performed a similar feat last year, state media said on Wednesday. Chen Jianmin plans to live in a glass box placed on a stone platform in central Wuhan city from September 8, consuming only water.
Shareholders have given the thumbs-up for a R7,2-billion black economic empowerment deal (BEE) that will see 12,75% of Old Mutual plc’s South African operations going to black investors and staff. "We are pleased that shareholders have shown their strong support for our BEE ownership proposals," said chief executive Jim Sutcliffe.
Thousands of Kenyan families have been left homeless following a government decision to evict them, without compensation, from farms allegedly carved out of the Mau forest in Narok district, south-western Kenya. According to the Kenya Red Cross Society, between 20 000 and 30 000 people lost their homes.
The past few weeks brought a spate of complaints from the left. The Young Communist League, the Communications Workers’ Union and members of the Zimbabwe Solidarity and Consultation Forum were all unhappy with various reports. Piers Pigou, of the Zimbabwe Torture Victims Project, wrote to complain that a report, "Anti-Zim front fractures" (March 24), was "inaccurate and lazy journalism".
You should understand that there’s a serious lack of genuine choice in the films we see in South Africa. This is something that’s hidden in plain sight. Almost all the films you see advertised reflect the product chosen by two distributors. Here are some sites where you can browse through vast numbers of current and past films that you’ve been deprived of without knowing.
A High Court hearing to sanction a scheme of arrangement for British banking group Barclays to acquire a controlling stake in South African banking group Absa has been postponed to Wednesday after three parties opposed the scheme. The hearing was postponed to allow more time for preparation of arguments.
Actis, a leading global private equity investor in emerging markets, and Comafin, a pan-African private equity fund, have jointly sold their 37,6% stake in Protea Hospitality Corporation to a black economic empowerment (BEE) consortium, highlighting their joint commitment to South Africa’s empowerment imperatives.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) on Monday said that nearly 190 000 of its members will strike over wages next week Tuesday. Last week, the wage negotiations between Numsa and the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa deadlocked.
London-listed development company African Platinum (Afplats) has completed the fieldwork on a three-dimensional seismic survey of its Leeuwkop project on the Western Limb of the Bushveld Complex in preparation for a bankable feasibility study, the company announced on Tuesday.
Fourteen months after it was first announced, the sale of the government’s multibillion-rand stake in cellphone giant MTN to a black economic empowerment consortium has still not been sealed. The deal involving prominent businessman Sandile Zungu is still mired in controversy, including allegations of conflict of interest by a former leading executive.
Nominal year-on-year growth of 23,3% in South African house prices was recorded in June this year, compared with a revised growth rate of 24,9% in May, according to the latest Absa house-price index released on Monday. On a month-on-month basis, nominal growth in house prices was 1,1% in June, compared with a revised 1,3% in May this year.
Publicly owned freight transport group Transnet on Monday reported a R6,8-billion attributable profit for the year ending March 31 2005 after posting a R6,3-billion loss last year. The group’s turnover rose by 6% to R46,2-billion from R43,6-billion a year ago. Operating margins increased by 28% to 12,9%.
Australia’s unique slang culture based on "mateship and booze" is under threat from American television shows, an historian said on Monday. The "larrikin" culture, typified by the unofficial national anthem <i>Waltzing Matilda</i>, is fading, said Richard Magoffin, the author of a book on the song.
A Russian astrologer took legal action against Nasa for compensation on Monday, claiming that the United States space agency’s bombardment of the Tempel 1 comet will upset her horoscope and violates her spiritual rights. Nasa fired a projectile the size of a fridge at the comet on Monday.
Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa at the weekend announced that the Bombela Consortium has been appointed as the preferred bidder for the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link. Shilowa said it is "the biggest public-private-partnership project yet tackled in the country and indeed in Africa".
A R1-billion deal that will see 10% of hospital group Network Healthcare Holdings (Netcare) acquired by broad-based empowerment groupings will be put to the group’s shareholders for the vote on September 16, the group said on Friday. If approved, the deal would become effective on October 1, it added.
Vidal justifies injustice I agree with John Vidal (“The hypocrisy of Mugabe’s critics”, July 8) when he labels the West hypocritical. Robert Mugabe escaped censure when he slaughtered 20 000 people in Matabeleland in the 1980s because of the West’s double standards. But does the fact that the World Bank-funded projects requiring the eviction of […]
When Pip the black cabin boy went overboard and was left behind to tread water during a whale hunt in Moby Dick, he witnessed the terrible beauty of God’s ocean, infinitely deep and wide, teeming with submarine insects and predatory leviathans. It was an insight that could only unhinge the limited human mind
Is it an act of racism to despise members of one’s own race? There’s not one of us who hasn’t indulged in racist feelings. But whatever I might have disliked, condemned or pitied in races other than my own, it comes nowhere near the flawless contempt I have felt for some of my fellow whites.
The South African textile industry says cheap imports from China are threatening to wipe out the local industry, where 75 000 jobs have been lost since 2002. "We’re a very distressed industry at the moment. We’re actually on our knees … we’ve been devastated," said the managing director of Gregory Knitting Mills, Selwyn Gershman.
Naspers — that has internet subscriber platforms including a stake in M-Web — hopes the imminent regulatory framework will help introduce real competition in the local market that has thus far resulted in Telkom dominating most spheres of the telecommunications sector.
The stark truth is this: even though the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) may rally millions on to the streets, its national strikes no longer stop the economy. And so it was this week. Life went on; most workers went to work; the shops opened, largely staffed by casual workers who generally do not belong to trade unions.
The HIV/Aids pandemic could explode across Asia – where one in four new infections worldwide occurs – unless authorities do more to fight the disease.
People have this idea that there is such a thing as normal and that everyone more or less is normal. However the closer you look, the more you see that this is merely a pipe dream put out by the authorities who’d rather we didn’t realise that we’re all weirdos, mad, insane, anarchists — and very happy with it. The truth is I doubt any of us are normal. So here are some sites dedicated to proving this theory.
Church’s Chicken, the world’s second largest fried chicken franchise, will soon be spreading its wings over the Western Cape. This follows the acquisition by a Stellenbosch-based company, Inkuku Holdings Ltd, of the American rights to establish a minimum of 50 Church’s Chicken outlets over the next five years.
Sweden’s Volvo, the world’s second biggest truck maker, on Tuesday said that its board had decided to close its Gaborone production plant in Botswana and open a new plant in Durban, South Africa. The company said in a statement that the decision to close the Gaborone plant will affect around 82 people.
South African electricity utility Eskom on Tuesday reported net profit after tax of R5,2-billion for the 15 months ended March 2005, compared with R3,4-billion for the 12 months ended December 2003. Eskom attributed the strong performance to increased demand and improved efficiencies. Costs were also well contained, it said.
Zimbabwe on Monday challenged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to be "man enough" to visit the Southern African country to get firsthand understanding of the current government-driven blitz on illegal structures and meet President Robert Mugabe.
Now that we finally have a dog in the family, we find ourselves perforce with a dog’s eye view of the world. Not the usual myth that says "dogs see everything in black and white", which would be a convenient bit of psychic editing to tap into in our increasingly confusing "rainbow" way of viewing our confusing nation.
Afrikaans-speakers are still South Africa’s biggest spenders, accounting for one quarter of total household expenditure at less than 15% of the population. But broadcasters need to carefully tune their targeting if they are to take advantage. Ida Jooste reports.
Here in South Africa, and for a long time, female nipples were obscured by little stars. Most erotica (and/or "tasteless" material) was simply banned, and political censorship under apartheid was mixed up with puritanical repression. That said, I thought a nice quick and dirty crash course through the realms of obscenity and censorship could be a fun and sleazy ride.
Swedish motor-manufacturer Volvo, the world’s second largest truck maker said on Tuesday that its board had decided to close its Gaborone production plant in Botswana and open a new plant in Durban, South Africa. The company said in a statement that the formal decision to close the Gaborone plant would affect around 82 people.