Tumi Makgetla

The same currency will be traded from Kinshasa to Kimberley, if the vision of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is realised. The SADC hopes to create a free trade area by 2008, a customs union by 2010, a common market by 2015 and an economic and monetary union by 2018. As envisaged, the monetary union would resemble the European Union.

The flush <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reader might not mind spending almost R40 in Angola on his or her favourite weekly newspaper, but he or she would get better value in Malawi, where the paper is only R12,96. In South Africa the <i>M&G</i> costs R14,90. Looking at the purchasing power of different currencies can provide a more meaningful understanding of how they compare than the official exchange rate.

A vulture swooping down on a piece of meat cannot know that the juicy morsel might be its last meal. But, when farmers put poisoned meat around their farms to protect their herds from predators, it can result in the deaths of game and wild fowl in the area. Pesticides used to reduce vegetation and protect grazing land might harm wildlife also.

Defining the middle strata in one of the most unequal countries in the world is a tricky but unavoidable challenge that Businessmap Foundation researchers Khehla Shubane and Colin Reddy tackle in their report on black economic empowerment and the black middle class. The authors ultimately understand that the middle class includes people who live a lifestyle that is socially defined as "middle class".

The emergence of a black middle class is not solely the product of equity transactions but also of the skills development, employment equity, enterprise development and preferential-procurement elements of the black economic empowerment codes, argues a paper from the Businessmap Foundation published this month.

Vehicle tracking companies have recovered tens of thousands of vehicles since they started up just more than a decade ago. But not only do these companies find stolen cars, their staff also apprehend and arrest criminal suspects, locate chop shops and help the police break up syndicates.

Vehicle tracking companies have recovered tens of thousands of vehicles since they started up just more than a decade ago. But not only do these companies find stolen cars, their staff also apprehend and arrest criminal suspects, locate chop shops and help the police break up syndicates.

Everybody knows that Trevor Manuel is sitting on a pile of money. As he told us in his recent budget speech, he is expecting that pile to be worth R11-billion this year.
But this is only the budgeted surplus for government departments. If government’s wider interests are added ­– including, among others, social security funds — the budgeted surplus for the year increases by more than 50% .

You would expect the man at the helm of a company responsible for the disappearance of hundreds of millions of rands of other people’s money at least to be a great fraudster. But in the case of the Mineworkers Provident Fund’s missing millions, J Arthur Brown may have just had a good eye for a weak system.

The Codes of Good Practice on Black Economic Empowerment provide a standard framework for measuring empowerment across all sectors of the economy. According to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act of 2003, state organs and public entities must take the codes into consideration "as far as is reasonably possible".

Johannesburg residents are increasingly switching to gas after the recent spate of electricity power outages, said Egoli Gas, the city’s gas supplier. But while gas is promoted as more reliable and environmentally friendly than coal-generated electricity, only a quarter of the population in the greater Johannesburg area has access to the gas network.

Economists take several factors into consideration when trying to judge where currencies are moving. And they often get it wrong. But to give an idea of some of the factors involved in evaluating a currency for risk, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> spoke to some economists and analysts to review some of the top currencies on the market today.

Maintenance backlogs have dragged South Africa’s infrastructure grade down to a D, or "poor", in the first report card of the country’s built environment infrastructure, released by the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) recently.

A growing cacophony of economists — including those commissioned by government — are saying that Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni has significant wiggle room to maintain the rand at competitive levels, which will boost export and manufacturing growth. The critical chorus says a more competitive currency can be achieved through market-friendly interventions.