Staff Reporter

Standard Bank has introduced another first in South Africa, a prepaid foreign-exchange travel card known as TravelWallet. It has the advantage of allowing travellers to spend on their entire trip at the exchange rate at which they bought their foreign currency.

"I know I’m starting off yet another column by referring to Zimbabwe, but watching the meltdown occurring there is a bit like watching an armless, legless mutant woman giving birth to a flipper child on a rubbish heap — yes, it’s disgusting, but damn, you gotta look. You just can’t resist looking." Besides taking a look at Zimbabwe’s current political situation, Ian Fraser turns his eye to other interesting things online.

The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry seeks to ensure that all South Africans have equitable access to a safe and reliable water supply. As we eradicate the water supply backlog, we will focus not only on the quality of water from the tap, but also on whether the services are reliable. A recent HSRC survey shows that water supply is cut for many reasons and most often not for non-payment.

"A few months ago I moved house — that was the easy part. I wanted to transfer my landline, but according to Telkom this was not possible as I was moving from one suburb to another and so would have to apply for a new line and number. I realise how naive I was to assume I would have a phone in the week or two promised," writes Tendayi Gwata.

Technology group Altron says it has made strong advances in terms of its black economic empowerment (BEE) and acquisition programmes and that much emphasis has been placed on the group meeting the anticipated requirements of the BEE charter for the information, communications and technology (ICT) sector.

The board of South African steel giant Iscor has approved a proposal that the group’s name be changed to Ispat Iscor Limited. This in is line with the global practice of LNM Group — the world’s second-largest steel maker, which last week gained control of the South African group — to add the word Ispat to the names of its subsidiaries.

South African investment trust Hosken Consolidated Investments Limited, which is suspended from the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa pending the outcome of court action over its plans to delist, on Monday reported diluted headline earnings per share of 2,65 cents.

The commissioner of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) has spelt out four major obstacles to ending conflict on the continent. At a meeting at the AU’s headquarters in Addis Ababa, Said Djinnit said limited resources, lack of support for peacekeeping operations and poor conflict early warning systems all served to hamper efforts to resolve the conflicts ravaging Africa.

At a local conference on The Eradication of Unfair Discrimination through Equality Courts this week, white South Africans rubbed shoulders with black South Africans in a way that would have been impossible in the past. But despite government’s efforts, South Africa remains a polarised society.

The number of South African retail websites has exploded to more than 700 at the end of last year from 215 in 2001, defying a slow-down in growth of online retail sales, according to a survey. The survey also says the market is dominated by the top eight online retailers, who account for about 80% of all online retail sales.

If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, then freedom of expression must be the bigot’s favourite hideout. As I see it, writing and circulating an e-mail suggesting that if you want to create black people you need a wheelbarrow-load full of faeces and another of mud has nothing to do with showcasing the right to freedom of expression, as a case before the Equality Court argued. It is bigotry.

This week’s column is the second part of some reflections on the proposed new legislation: the draft Prohibition of Hate Speech Bill. It is hard to decide which part of the draft Bill is the most revealing of insidious government intentions. In some of its provisions the Bill is disturbingly similar to legislation in Zimbabwe and under which virtually all independent political and social comment has been obliterated by the Robert Mugabe government.

It is not quite a monastic life, but as Jean-Bertrand Aristide waits in South Africa for the call to go home, his background has come to the fore. "I was a priest, which means I could stay in one place for months without feeling the same thing someone else would feel. Staying in one place is not a problem for me." The deposed Haitian president says Africa must continue in its role as custodian of democratic values.

Listed South African entertainment and media group Johnnic Communications on Thursday announced a 108% improvement in attributable earnings to R187-million for the year ended June 30. Basic headline earnings per share were 13% higher at 170 cents from 151 cents before.

Young South African women are being given false job offers to lure them into prostitution in Macau, a former Portuguese colony now under Chinese control, says the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). IOM official Jonathan Martens told a conference in Benoni that women were promised employment, luxury accommodation, and payment of between $10 000 and $20 000.

Expected interest rate hikes by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) could be delayed until next year after May consumer inflation data came out lower than expectations, according to Investec. Investec Asset Management portfolio manager John Stopford said: "Yet again, most of the surprise was in food prices, which remain very well behaved."

Zimbabwe’s first HIV/Aids conference ended last Friday with delegates recommending more coordination among groups fighting the disease.

South African financial services group Old Mutual has confirmed that its US asset management affiliate Pilgrim Baxter & Associates has reached agreements with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (and the Office of the New York State attorney general. The agreement settles all charges brought by these authorities.