POLITICAL stability, macroeconomic fundamentals and growth and a plan to combat Aids are necessary to attract foreign investment to southern Africa, a business leader said on Friday. “Those countries who compete successfully are those that rank high on this list of criteria,” said Niall FitzGerald, co-chairman of the giant consumer goods company Unilever. FitzGerald was […]
THE Nigerian Red Cross said Monday it is planning to send more aid to tens of thousands of people displaced by unrest in the central and north Nigeria. More than 50_000 people have fled their homes in Nasarawa State, in central Nigeria, since mid-June because of fighting between Tiv and other ethnic groups, according to […]
NIGERIAS hundreds of traditional rulers, royals and other dignitaries are battling a proposal in parliament to limit the use of traffic sirens. A bill currently working its way through the national assembly seeks to regulate the use of the siren by Nigeria’s rich and powerful to force a way through the country’s chronic traffic jams. […]
A SOUTH African bank has seized nearly a million rand (about $122_000) from popular leader Winnie Madikizela-Mandela after she failed to repay a loan, Sunday newspapers reported. Madikizela-Mandela secured a R600_000 loan from First National Bank on the basis of a lucrative “diamond-exporting transaction”, reports by The Sunday Times and City Press said. But the […]
A PORTION of the Kruger millions may have been found in Ermelo, in the southern part of Mpumalanga, by local farm workers, The Citizen newspaper reported on Friday. The Ermelo Town Council are now discussing security measures to protect the farmer and workers at the centre of the drama, the newspaper said. A Zulu family […]
A TEENAGER will appear in court on Monday charged with murder after the death of a Nigerian boy in London, less than a year after the killing of Damilola Taylor. Jude Akapa, 15, is thought to have been attacked as he walked home from his Roman Catholic boy’s school in Blackheath, southeast London, on Wednesday. […]
ZIMBABWE prostitutes are now demanding that their clients pay in US dollars in preference to the local currency, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday. The paper said prostitutes in the city centre were charging tourists $200 a night, as the country suffers its worst economic crisis since it achieved independence from Britain in 1980. […]
A COURT in southwestern Rwanda has sentenced 10 people to death for their role in the 1994 genocide which left up to 800_000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead, legal officials said on Tuesday. The court in Gikongoro commune sentenced eight Rwandans to life in prison, and five others to terms of between six and […]
DIVERS have found the remains of ships, pink granite statues and a black granite stela from the pharaonic port of Herakleion, which had been lost to the sea for centuries, French explorer Franck Goddio announced on Thursday. “These new archeological discoveries, particularly the stela, allow us to identify the city as being that of Herakleion,” […]
On Tuesday, exactly 20 years after the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), South Africa’s minister of health announced the government has no plans to make anti-retroviral drugs available in public hospitals. The country’s share of HIV/Aids cases is now approximately 11,5% of the world total Belinda Beresford The government’s persistent reluctance to provide […]
As one of several indigenous sports, jukskei is becoming popular among black South Africans Marianne Merten The Voortrekkers may have claimed jukskei as their own, but the first hesitant moves are under way to popularise the throwing game of 18th century Cape transport drivers among black South Africans. Although many regard the game as a […]
Soweto residents are calling on authorities to intervene as Eskom continues to cut off their electricity Glenda Daniels The African National Congress stands to lose substantial support in Soweto if it does not intervene in the township’s electricity crisis arguably the most serious crisis the biggest township in the country has faced since democracy. Soweto […]
Stephen Bierley tennis Should Pete Sampras reach his eighth Wimbledon final next month, he would do well to make sure Bill Clinton is nowhere in the vicinity of SW19. When his country’s former president took his seat at Roland Garros on Wednesday Andre Agassi had just won the opening set of his quarterfinal against France’s […]
Barry Streek South Africa holds the world record for the recycling of tin cans, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mohammed Valli Moosa has disclosed. The “Collect-a-Can” programme recycled as much as 63% of the cans used in the country and provides informal employment for an estimated 30 000 people. “The sterling work being done […]
Iscor and its auditors have a struggle on their hands to clarify the embattled steel giant’s debt position Mungo Soggot The auditors for Iscor, the mining and steel producer, this week conceded that the company’s level of debt was unclear from its balance sheet and said that they were seeking to clarify the figures in […]
Fred Esbend The provision of primary health care in the Eastern Cape is hanging in the balance after the provincial MEC for Health, Dr Bevan Gogqana, refused to bail out the western district of Nelson Mandela, which encompasses Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch. A gloomy picture of the state of health services in the area […]
The new MINI is destined to take its place in the pantheon of the greats James Siddall In the months and years to come I may well God willing get to indulge in all manner of motoring clichs, like booming from Los Angeles to New York in a porno-red Corvette with Springsteen’s Born To Run […]
JOHANNESBURG | Friday WHITE males still dominate South African business, but the situation is slowly changing, according to a report published on Thursday. The report, by Deloitte and Touche Human Capital Corporation, says black women fill just six percent of business positions in South Africa, where blacks make up 78% of the population and whites […]
Paul Kirk When guests at the Penwarn Country Lodge sit down for mid-afternoon tea, they’re joined by the wildlife. A caracal one of Africa’s smallest wild cats can be seen near the hotel door eating his dog pellets, while inside a full-grown otter is fast asleep in a dark spot of the bar. It seems […]
Lots still to play for in Soccer City double-header Ntuthuko Maphumulo The South African soccer season will end this weekend with a great double-header. (Of course, boardroom wrangling could force a further match, a replay between Bloemfontein Celtic and Bush Bucks but more of that later.) The two games to be staged at FNB stadium […]
Cosmas Desmond crossfire The import of luxury cars, such as BMWs, 4x4s and, particularly, Alfa Romeos, should surely be banned by the government, since this country obviously lacks the infrastructure to sustain travel in such cars. There are thousands of square kilometres in South Africa where these vehicles could not travel without damaging their suspension. […]
Shirley Kossick new fiction Anita Brookner habitually limits her fictional cast and her 20th novel, The Bay of Angels (Viking), is no exception. The narrative centres on Zo Cunningham whose widowed mother’s second husband takes her to live outside Nice and buys Zo a flat in London. With her wonderful gift for precise description, Brookner […]
Tim Wood in New York Hedge funds run the world. They command mighty balance sheets that can ruin a currency in hours or shape investment fashions for months. They also unwind spectacularly when things go wrong, but generally they are an investor’s dream with a safety net for the down times. The problem is that […]
TENS of thousands of people who fled fighting in the Central African Republic capital Bangui are sheltering from heavy rain in nearby forests, eating wild fruit to survive, witnesses said on Wednesday. Unconfirmed estimates of the exodus, mainly of women, children and elderly people, range up to 50 000 in the wake of a failed […]
Andy Capostagno rugby The countdown to the first Test match of the season has begun. On Sunday Harry Viljoen will trim his Plettenberg Bay squad of 32 down to 26 and three days later four more players will fall away to leave us with the 22 who will line up against France at Ellis Park […]
Glenda Daniels The Johannesburg High Court this week found in favour of a handyman who worked at the brothel The Ranch, in a civil case brought against the Ministry of Safety and Security. Matthew Palmer claimed R800 000 in damages for brutal assault and unlawful arrest and detention when the police raided The Ranch in […]
Mboniso Sigonyela The much-awaited review of the King committee will be out for public comment before the end of July. It could not have come at a better time as more and more listed companies continue to flout the original recommendations, especially the one against joining the position of chairperson of the board and that […]
Thebe Mabanga TELEVISION The sport-orientated e.tv doccie-soap The Summit this week began a second, 13-week season with swagger and grace as the spotlight fell on dance sport. The previous season focused on boxing and kept 420 000 viewers glued to their screens each week. “In this series, we look at dance sports as a popular […]
BRITISH Royal Engineers have defused a 112.5 kilogram bomb in the northern Sierra Leonean town of Kambia, state radio reported on Thursday. The bomb was discovered by the Sierra Leone army in Kambia, about 80 kilometres north of Freetown, after the town was evacuated by Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels following a disarmament pact. The […]
Sechaba ka’Nkosi A retired public prosecutor from the Johannesburg Magistrate Courts’ traffic division has launched a lone crusade against wheel clamping and fining at shopping malls. Roy Welsh has embarked on a mission to put the two practices on trial, believing that they violate motorists’ constitutional rights to a free and fair trial. He is […]
Glenda Daniels The Department of Labour has slammed employers for using “racist assumptions” as excuses not to hire black people and to test prospective employees for HIV/Aids. In the latest Department of Labour equity report, 31% of employers cited HIV/Aids as a barrier to implementing equity. The equity legislation was formulated by the government to […]
Peta Lee She-Mail Ever dropped a pumpkin from a respectable height and watched it splatter into mushy pieces on concrete? That’s more or less what happens to babies and toddlers who aren’t strapped into car seats during an accident. “They look just like smashed pumpkins,” says Maxine Hall, general manager of Durban’s Amahosp Medical Rescue […]