Black economic empowerment companies (BEE) have improved their share of spending by Old Mutual Properties on outsourced services for buildings in the company’s portfolios to 56% in 2004, according to Richard Murphy, head of the facilities management division.
Following the unveiling of the much-awaited black economic empowerment (BEE) draft charter on information communications technology last week, the charter’s working group on Monday launched roadshows in East London and Port Elizabeth.
"Bring back the death penalty," seems to be a popular slogan ahead of the April vote. So what is wrong with this, especially if there appears to be enough voters who would gladly place their crosses next to the candidate who promises to return the noose if he or she is elected? Nothing?
Time: 11h30 to 12h30 Dr Alan Whitfield: Are we strangling our estuaries? South Africa’s estuaries have been damaged by large-scale water pollution and habitat alterations. Dr Whitfield has some interesting approaches that might turn the tide. Listen to his talk on the importance of freshwater supplies to estuaries and of tidal wave exchange in estuarine […]
The question remains: Why did Jean-Bertrand Aristide, ousted leader of Haiti, end up in the Central African Republic? No one goes there for kicks. The country has no particular political or economic record to write home about. The whole saga is packed tight with humbug.
The Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC) encyclopaedic <i>Human Resource Development Review 2003: Education, Employment and Skills in South Africa</i>, launched last week, contains an excellent section that begins to address the human resources needs in the informal economy, but the "second economy" needs to be seen as part — if unequally — of the "first economy".
Time: 18h30 to 19h30 Sir John Sulston: Trade justice global patent rules and health The World Trade Organisation is amending its rules that all countries must protect patent laws so that each economic system can draw benefits. Oxfam argues that stronger patent rules will increase the costs of HIV/Aids medicines. Delving into the ethics behind […]
Developing countries — the main clients of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank — should have more say in the policy of those institutions. This was an opinion widely expressed on Friday at a meeting in Johannesburg of governors of African central banks and other finance officials.
A group linked to al-Qaeda that has claimed responsibility for the Madrid train massacre said the United States faced attack soon, through a warning sent to a London-based Arabic newspaper. The newspaper, <i>Al-Quds al-Arabi</i>, said on Friday it had received an e-mail warning from The Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32549&t=1">Another bomb found in Madrid</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32550">A new — and bloody — style of attack</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32601">African Union condemns blasts</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32572">Our thoughts are with you: Mbeki</a>
Landmines threaten the lives of two million people in Ethiopia, according to the findings of an international two-year survey to be released on Thursday. The <i>Ethiopian Landmine Impact Survey</i> also reveals that over the past two years 16Â 000 people have been involved in landmine blast incidents, of whom 1Â 295 were killed or injured.
About 40 HIV-positive people on Tuesday began to receive free anti-retrovirals after Minister of Health Muhammad Ali Kamil launched Djibouti’s first distribution of anti-retroviral medication at Peltier hospital, the country’s main medical centre. According to Kamil, one in 20 youths in Djibouti is HIV-positive.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The Democratic Alliance has rejected African Christian Democratic Party complaints about the DA’s election radio adverts that urge voters not to waste their vote on one of the smaller parties, saying the ACDP has missed the point.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32518">ACDP: ‘Greedy’ DA not playing fair</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has taken the New National Party Western Cape premier to task for pledging that he would open a new airport near Atlantis in the Western Cape. "There is no way that Van Schalkwyk can deliver a new airport in Atlantis," Leon said on Thursday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
Lawyers for gold mining company Durban Roodepoort Deep and Associated Intelligence Network are fighting against punitive damages being sought by mining magnates Brett and Roger Kebble. They are asking the Johannesburg High Court to dismiss the Kebble’s claim against them for constitutional punitive damages.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad has landed in the Central African Republic and is expected to be asked by ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide for asylum in South Africa, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32453">SA envoys meet Aristide in Bangui</a>
International financial and risk services group Alexander Forbes on Wednesday announced the expansion of its black economic empowerment (BEE) footprint to Namibia through the sale of 30% of its Namibian business to a newly formed empowerment company.
Zimbabwe has threatened legal action against foreign media organisations and their local correspondents — including the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> — saying some of them are "mercenaries" working to topple the regime of President Robert Mugabe.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32476">NNP: Zim govt is ‘desperate'</a>
Shortly before Germany’s Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, flew to Washington for talks with United States President George Bush last month, a journalist asked if he was going to say goodbye to Bush ahead of the US elections in November. Schroeder’s adviser grinned broadly before composing his face into a frown. "I won’t speculate on that," he said.
The cargo plane impounded at Harare’s airport on Sunday was not registered in South Africa, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) confirmed on Tuesday. "Our investigation shows that this aircraft is not registered or even provisionally registered in South Africa," said CAA spokesperson Moses Seate.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32411">Zim plane ownership a mystery</a>
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal is to lay charges of intimidation against the Inkatha Freedom Party and complain to the Independent Electoral Commission following two alleged incidents in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands on Tuesday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
South African Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel says the challenge nations face today is to translate the potential benefits of globalisation into real gains for the poorest in the world. On Monday, Manuel delivered the Oxford University Inaugural Global Economic Governance Lecture in the United Kingdom.
A plan should be devised to cap the level of benefit black empowerment companies receive to avoid an endless round of public and private tenders going to the same people, says South Africa’s small African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP).
South African Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana has warned farmers not to threaten their workers with retrenchment in the wake of the severe drought that has negatively affected the farming sector in most parts of the country. "The law does not allow farmers to retrench workers at their whim," the minister said.
Empowerment group Mvela Resources on Monday announced that it would finalise its recent R1,79-billion private placement within a week. The proceeds of the private placement will be used to fund the R4,139-billion acquisition of a 15% interest in Gold Fields’ South African gold mining assets and business operations.
The Zambian government’s anti-retroviral (ARV) drug programme has managed to provide cheap, life-prolonging Aids treatment, but many HIV-positive Zambian women, denied access by a tradition of subservience and sacrifice, are not benefiting. Traditionally women are taught that they should not be a burden to their family.
Unless social movements — like the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) — can translate their actions, energies and commitment to a changed and better world into viable organisational vehicles that can contend for political power, their energies will dissipate and the potential to become a powerful force will be wasted.
The argument that South Africa should abolish Roman-Dutch law — at the core of much of the justice system of the country — with something more compatible with its African roots often rears its head. South Africa’s common law was polluted by apartheid and the racist rule that preceded 1948, but the Constitution contains the very means of its redemption.
A shower of rain won’t put a damper on Sydney’s back-out-of-the-closet annual gay and lesbian Mardi Gras parade. Neither will it scupper an attempt at a world record for the most people in one place dancing to the Village People’s disco classic <i>YMCA</i>, chief organiser Michael Woodhouse said on Saturday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32294">Gay ‘culture wars’ gather pace</a>
The Cabinet in the Central African Republic (CAR) went into talks on Friday, reportedly to discuss what to do with their difficult guest, ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and took steps to keep him quiet. All journalists with questions relating to Aristide must now first address themselves to the CAR authorities.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32289">US not looking for home for Aristide</a>
United States Secretary of State Colin Powell asked South Africa to give former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide asylum, a senior South African politician said on Friday. South Africa has since joined Caribbean countries in their call for an investigation into Aristide’s departure from Haiti.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32258">Looting continues in Haiti</a>
Festivals have been described as the lifeblood of the arts in this country. They generally have budgets to commission new work. They offer artists real opportunities to generate income. Festivals also provide a barometer of where our artists are at, creatively and thematically. Except for the Mother City of all festivals, which provides more of a barometer of where artists are not, writes Mike van Graan.
Once the cradle of young black leadership, the African National Congress Youth League seems in part to have become a vehicle for elites and a reference point for businesses seeking to engage "political capital".