The South African Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee on Thursday announced a 100-basis-point cut in the repo rate to 11% at the conclusion of its two-day meeting in Pretoria. Many economists hoped for more, given the
significant downward revision to consumer inflation data announced on May 30.
Former Transport Minister Mac Maharaj’s decision to resign from his directorship with FirstRand was the right thing to do, said the Democratic Alliance in a statement on Thursday.
Mac Maharaj has resigned as a director and an employee of South African financial services group FirstRand Group and as a director of seven subsidiary boards on which he serves, FirstRand said on Thursday.
Last week’s Aids conference highlighted, denialism persists. For this reason, it is essential to ensure that the proposed national treatment plan actually takes place. And on the topic of untimely deaths, let’s pay tribute to two great South Africans we recently lost.
Not to skewer the post-census euphoria, but we have to face our linguistic selves in the morning mirror. The language landscape in SA is not pretty, in two troubling ways: we have virtually no idea who speaks what, and policymakers don’t care.
<b>CD of the week:</b>
Macy Gray: <i>The Trouble with Being Myself</i>
Macy Gray makes beautiful music. And this compilation is the soundtrack of a quirky-crazy love affair unfolding, writes Yazeed Kamaldien.
South African London-listed information technology company Dimension Data Holdings has been awarded a five-year, $10-million wide-area delivery order by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to provide support to more than 30 000 federal judges and court staff nationwide.
First National Bank is in the process of installing 2 000 mini-ATMs by the end of this year. When completed, the bank will have doubled the size of its ATM network to 4 000 in just two years.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and its affiliate the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa on Wednesday expressed their opposition to what they see as the liberalisation of the liquid fuels industry through legislation currently before Parliament.
The South African economy has reached its bottom turning point and is now once again on a path towards higher growth, according to Absa senior economist John Loos. Improving domestic growth is expected to come on the back of
a steady decline in interest rates.
Given the expectation of sharply declining inflation in 2003, real house prices are expected to rise for the fourth consecutive year this year. An increase in house prices of more than 18% nominal and 10% real is forecast.
Volkswagen South Africa’s fully built car export programme is now concentrating on the Asia Pacific region as a more attractive option than Europe, the company said on Tuesday.
From collapsing presidential stages to novel ways to dispose of your late lover, from uploading your boss’s face on a porn site to the sport of toe-wrestling, Fraser’s Razor scrapes the bottom of the Internet barrel to bring you the weird and the bizarre.
The $1,09-billion takeover bid of Ashanti Goldfields, Ghana’s premier company, by AngloGold, SA’s largest and the world’s second-largest gold producer, has shown that Africa can transform itself without giving up an inch of its mineral wealth.
South African oil and gas company PetroSA’s Sable oil field, located 95km off the southern coast of South Africa and 150km southwest of Mossel Bay, has started to produce oil, the company announced on Monday.
Tens of thousands of lives are at risk because of a lack of drugs needed to fight a malaria epidemic threatening Ethiopia, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned.
Ghana’s Ashanti Goldfields on Monday confirmed that it had received a proposal from Randgold Resources, 45% held by Randgold & Exploration, to acquire its issued share capital.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare has commended Thailand’s customs officials in the seizure of 65 elephant tusks and one rhino horn at Bangkok International Airport late last week, amidst fears that more elephants will be targeted by illegal ivory traders.
The largest Coca-Cola plant in India is being accused of putting thousands of farmers out of work by draining the water that feeds their wells, and poisoning the land with waste sludge that the company claims is fertiliser.
The South African retail petrol price is unlikely to see a sharp hike on September 3, as a virile rand has negated the effects of a stronger international oil price, which has risen by 7,7% since July 23, while the rand has strengthened by 6% over the same period from R7,6188/$ to today’s best level of 7,1900.
An attempt by the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce’s (Nafcoc) deputy president, Vincent Phaahla, to obtain an urgent High Court interdict to prevent a Nafcoc Federal Council meeting from discussing his disciplinary case on Thursday, has failed.
South Africa’s former ruling party, the New National Party, says the time has come for the Human Sciences Research Council to study the underlying causes of escalating violence against women and children in the country.
In a replay of expectations for the June South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, most South African economists expect a 100 basis points cut, but equally, many are hoping for more when the MPC makes its decision known on August 14.
The Steel, Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) on Thursday said it was pleased to announce that the negotiations with trade unions to finalise wage increases and conditions of employment in the industry, for the two-year period from July 1 2003, to June 30 2005, were concluded at a meeting held earlier in the day.
Warning health labels on liquor products is still a matter of discussion by the liquor industry and the practicalities of introducing these labels was part of this consultation process, says South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Barely two weeks after the gold mining industry escaped what would have been the biggest strike in 16 years, South Africa is in for yet another revolt as wage increases and job losses within the country’s major economic sectors reach crisis point.
Following the Bristow-Bovey plagiarism saga, Kirby observes that something has gone wrong when publishers become hostile in defence of authors who have ignored the rules.
From cricket prodigy of Mdinge in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape to chief wicket-taker at Lord’s, Mecca of world cricket. Makhaya Ntini has now kissed the hallowed English turf, giving thanks for his remarkable achievement of being the first South African to take 10 wickets in the second Test match against England.
Another week, another Aids debacle. This week our annual Aids conference was the site of a searing debate over nevirapine. The MCC has said it would deregister nevirapine, despite the drug getting the thumbs-up from the WHO.
International banks are likely to increase their interest in Africa, creating opportunities for partnerships and minority shareholding arrangements, while domestic banks are likely to merge and focus on regional operations.
Global economic weakness, an ongoing world bear market in equities and the rand’s strength saw a continuation of the downward trend began in 2002 in equity trading volumes on the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE).
Agricultural research and support is to be hampered on Thursday as hundreds of agricultural researchers and members of the trade union Solidarity embark on strike action at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC).