The Sunday Independent (South Africa) back issues from January 2007:
George Glynos is the managing director of Econometrix Treasury Management.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Rand: That's one of the most difficult questions to answer. Domestic interest rate outlook coupled with improving emerging market sentiment and a generally weaker trend in the dollar will initially support the rand. But the main risk to this view is the amount of capital expenditure ...
Magan Mistry is an economist at Nedbank Economic Research Unit.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Rand: The currency is likely to remain volatile. Interest rates: Having had the Reserve Bank hike rates four times since the middle of last year, the bank will probably pause before deciding the next move. Markets: Having seen the markets run wild in recent weeks, ...
Ivan Clark is the deputy chairman of Grindrod and chairman of Grindrod Bank.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Clark retired as Grindrod's chief executive at the end of last year. Rand: Will move back to R8 to the dollar. Interest rates: Will rise another 100 basis points but could be 200 basis points. Markets: Will have one or two corrections but will ...
Neal Froneman is the chief executive sxr Uranium One.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Rand: To strengthen to $6.50 a dollar on the back of the weaker US dollar. Interest rates: To increase by 200 basis points this year. Infrastructure spending: To ...
Peter Vundla is the deputy executive chairman of AMB Capital.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... AMb is an empowerment investment banking group. He is also chairman of Alcatel SA, New Seasons Investments, the Black Business Executive Circle and the Presidential Black Business Working Group. Rand: I see it strengthening throughout the year, with it ...
Nolitha Fakude is the first woman executive director at Sasol.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... She sits on its board and is also responsible for worldwide human resources and strategy functions. She is the past president of the Black Management Forum and was previously a director at Nedbank, where she was responsible for group strategy and corporate affairs. Rand: I am ...
Mustaq Brey is the chief executive of Brimstone Investment Corporation.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Rand: Will be very stable along with interest rates. Market: The market will go up slightly, though not by as much as it did in the past few years. Growth: We will have growth of 4 percent plus and infrastructure spending catch up because ...
Clear strategy, bold leadership must go hand in hand for bosses.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Most companies invest significant senior executive time and resources to develop business strategies. They either follow an internal strategy development process or engage strategy consultants to work with their executive team. Given these investments in strategy development, ...
Penuel Maduna is a partner at law firm Bowman Gilfilan and Sasol's special adviser.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... He served as minister of justice from 1999 to 2004, minister of minerals and energy from 1996 to 1999 and deputy minister of home affairs from 1994 to 1996. Rand: I think it will remain the same. Interest rates: The governor of the SA Reserve Bank is very concerned ...
Sandile Zungu is the executive chairman of Zungu Investments and African Vanguard.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... These black economic empowerment companies have interests that straddle many sectors. He resigned as chairman of Denel, the state arms manufacturer, in June 2005. Rand: I believe the unit will strengthen against major currencies towards end of the year. Interest ...
Elna Moolman is a senior economist Standard Bank.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Rand: The rand will average R7.34 against the dollar and R9.53 to the euro. Interest rates: We expect a 50 basis point hike next month and two rate cuts of 50 basis points each in August and October. Jobs: Job ...
Iqbal Surve is the chief executive of Sekunjalo Investments.(Business Report Weekend)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Rand: This year the rand will remain more or less where it is with a slight weakening as commodity prices come down - more or less within a 10 percent range. Interest rates will go up by 50 basis points. There won't be as much growth in the markets as in previous years. ...
In Poseidon's wake; In Ithaca, it is hard to distinguish between history and mythology. The myths of Homer's Odyssey now live side by side with the myths of Hollywood, writes Andie Miller.(Life)
Jan 07, 2007 ... It took Odysseus 10 years to travel home to Ithaca from the Trojan War. These days, as Pico Iyer points out, it would probably take him as many hours. But despite the changes in the world over the past few thousand years, the myths of Homer's Odyssey live on in the people of Ithaca. Now ...
Mhudi still a benchmark blend of art and activism.(Dispatches)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Mhudi, the first full-length English novel written by a black South African, Sol T Plaatje, a century ago, has been released again by Penguin Books under its Modern Classics imprint. This is the story of Mhudi, whose name loosely translates as "the harvester" and her love affair ...
Laughter spikes worthy philosophical matters.(Dispatches)
Jan 07, 2007 ... In English literature, the terrain of philosophical comedy has often been a cramped one. But Michael Frayn's work has managed, over four decades, to command and extend it. In plays from Alphabetical Order to Copenhagen and Democracy, in novels from The Trick of It to Headlong ...
A forensic eye strips the mask from the inner nerd.(Dispatches)
Jan 07, 2007 ... The creator of Peanuts, Charles Schulz, was not, according to Jonathan Franzen, "an artist because he suffered". He suffered, says Franzen in this strange and brilliant memoir, "because he was an artist". "Almost every young person experiences sorrows," he explains. It is not the sorrows ...
Storm the beaches.(Life)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Summer's here and, with it, the ever daunting fashion parade on our beaches. South Africans sweat it out for months, desperately trying to get the type of beach bod that is acceptable. Brown enough, toned enough, firm in all the right places. "I'll have the skinless chicken ...
Vinyl replay; The 45rpm, seven-inch single is making a surprise comeback on Britain's indie scene, writes Lars Brandle.(Life)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Physical singles may be losing the war against digital formats, but the British market has found an unlikely hero to lead the fight: good, old-fashioned, 7-inch vinyl. Fuelled predominantly by independent labels and alternative groups like Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs, the ...
Fresh-faced Grant's silky voice will win you over.(Life)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Peter Grant - New Vintage To start 2007, let us look at a rising star. Fans of Steve Tyrell, Harry Connick jnr, Rod Stewart and Michael Buble may have a new idol in Peter Grant. Grant is the latest in young old-fashioned crooners but is more Matt Monro than Frank ...
Being a big cheese; The Chasteilet, the 'celebrating of the cheese', and other cow spectacles in Switzerland are not to be missed, writes Veruska De Vita.(Life)
Jan 07, 2007 ... In the Justistal area, high up in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland, I find myself sitting with a group of old men. Their faces are ruddy and bristle with five-day-old beards. They smile a lot and laugh, smacking themselves on the knee. I arrived in this remote area on foot, ...
Comic-book fable falls short of the expectations of a lauded novel.(Dispatches)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Although published in 2005, Q&A won the Exclusive Books "Boeke" Prize this year and thus merits a review. It has, since its publication, been sold in 15 countries, and we are told a film is on its way. Q&A is structured around a brilliant idea: the 18-year-old Ram Mohammed ...
Director's personal brief bucks torpid, conveyor-belt culture; Khalo Matabane grew up in a Limpopo village and saw his first film when he was 14. His compassion and razor-sharp intellect flip the mainstream script, writes Lesego Rampolokeng.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Film-maker Khalo Matabane describes himself as a confused being, a veritable bag of contradictions. He is aware of the potential unpopularity of his opinions. But there are no fears expressed. "In biblical times," he says, "that would have been a blessing." In another epoch, ...
The good, the bad and the ugly of Arniston; Crudely ostentatious holiday homes overshadow the simple elegance of the fishermen's cottages, writes Alan Lipman.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... We travelled uneventfully on our pre-Christmas break, from OR Tambo airport to Cape Town. Then, in a sleek hired car, we sped along the N2, past the shameful shack-homes of Khayelitsha, over the silhouetted peaks of Sir Lowry's Pass, across the serene Overberg. We were en route to the ...
Thunder of Chinese munitions drowns out pet-lovers' protests.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... South African law enforcement authorities threatened harsh action, including huge fines, against people setting off fireworks without licences and in residential areas over the New Year weekend. They also promised in various media reports to clamp down on the illegal ...
OZ lexicon can leave you a few roos loose.(Life)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Jonathan Standing If you're heading for a holiday in Australia this summer, the trip wouldn't be complete without a trip to one of the country's famed beaches. But first, get to grips with Oz lingo. Take your togs or cossies, your esky packed with amber fluid ...
Class act; Hellen Mirren's portrayal of Queen Elizabeth has astounded everyone, writes William Booth.(Life)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Kicking off his sandals, Stephen Frears looks as comfortable as a naughty tabby stretched across the plump pillows at his five-star hotel. The British director of the very British film The Queen has a spot of advice for a reporter's imminent luncheon with Dame Helen Mirren, the new movie's ...
Messy mess? Why stress?(Life)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Valerie Finholm "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then is an empty desk?" - Albert Einstein Every year, you make the same resolutions. You're going to lose weight and keep the house clean. No more backpacks, coats and shoes strewn ...
Less hysteria and more focus please.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Professor Jonathan Jansen was, in my humble opinion, spot-on in his assessment of matric results (The Sunday Independent, December 31). The ANC government has now been in charge of education for 12 years and it seems little has changed. Jansen ascribes this to a continuation of ...
Steiner's warnings are Jansen's lament for SA.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Judging from his excellent, mind-shaking article titled "We have settled for a dual system that nurtures students' vain hopes" (The Sunday Independent, December 31) one could swear that Professor Jonathan Jansen, the dean of education at the University of Pretoria, had met Dr Rudolf ...
ANC has failed to become a government.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... The ANC is nothing but a transitional government. I say this because of the glaring inability of the party to make the transition from a liberation movement to a good government. Good governance is characterised by the ability to rule justly and fairly, to establish peace and ...
Invaded and oppressed march to freedom in '07.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Alex Spillius's piece, "More bad news than good characterises 2006" (The Sunday Independent, December 31), is a lopsided view from the perspective of the neo-colonialist, war-mongering, occupying invaders of Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan. Desperately seeking an exit strategy ...
Long-term effects of crime will cripple SA.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... The devastating effects of crime on ordinary South Africans are clear to see. We see its effects everywhere, every day. Rape, murder, hijacking and robbery are things we have become afraid of, albeit accustomed to. What we don't always see is crime's long-term effects, which ...
Director and cast deliver a majestic success in The Queen.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... When Diana, Princess of Wales, died as a result of the car crash in Paris, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II retreated to her Balmoral Estate with her family, and silence descended for a week as the British public grew more clamourous for a response. There has long been speculation about what ...
Liberia: the statistics.(Dispatches)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Population: 3,3 million Life expectancy: 41 years. Malnutrition is widespread with 39 percent of children under five suffering from stunted growth. Biggest killers are malaria, cholera, TB and HIV/Aids. There are 30 doctors (300 before the civil war). Unemployment: ...
Mother of death-row nurse despairs at the chasm between truth and expedience.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Paula Slier Sofia, Bulgaria - The last time Zorka Anachkova saw her daughter Kristiana Vulcheva was three years ago through prison bars. Kristiana, 47, is one of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death last month with a Palestinian doctor for deliberately ...
Sheep gay or straight, the bottom line is we live in a polysexual, poly-gendered world.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Johann Hari London - Whatever happens in 2007, we already have the most surreal headline of the year: "Sheep have right to be gay, says Martina Navratilova". But behind this headline and buried beneath the battery of baa-aad jokes it seems to beckon, there is a strange ...
Attack on Shi'ites will cause total collapse; George Bush and Tony Blair's choices have led to disaster in Iraq, culminating in the ill-timed execution of the former dictator and thus further dividing a nation riven by civil war, writes Patrick Cockburn.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Washington - It takes real genius to create a martyr out of Saddam Hussein. Here is a man dyed deep with the blood of his own people, who refused to fight for him during the United States-led invasion three-and-a-half years ago. But his tomb in his home village of Awja is already becoming ...
For the gold pirates, bounty is beautiful.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Craig Timberg Thousands of disgruntled mineworkers laid down their tools one Wednesday night in March 2005 and, in the eight days they were on strike, one of the darkest secrets of South Africa's gold mining industry spilled into the light. Thin, thirsty men ...
There should be no harm in asking.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Should we worry? Are we out of the loop down here at the tip of Africa? The World Cup stadium storm rages about us - but we hear nothing of similar civic concerns in other cities as to the ultimate viability of such monumentally pricey showplaces. Are the city councillors of ...
AU needs to move fast to consolidate Ethiopia's gains in Somalia.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Helmoed Romer Heitman The new year has opened with a challenge to the African Union: how to make the best of the situation presented by Ethiopia's briskly and neatly executed campaign in Somalia. That campaign has neutralised the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and given ...
Bumper year for music lovers.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... The new Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra's first season starts on February 21, featuring musicians such as Mattia Zappa (cello), Vladimir Milosevic (piano) and Anzel Gerber (cello). In March, Richard Cock will be holding a three-day Bach Festival. ...
Landowner and Vaal River rafters in tussle over 'dangerous' razor-wire barricade.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Eleanor Momberg River rafters and kayakers could face serious injury should they row into razor wire that has been placed on rocks in the Vaal River. But, the landowner who did it, says he took the drastic step after years of problems with people encroaching ...
More Gautrain construction chaos expected.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Mary Corrigall The development of the Gautrain starts in earnest this week, with the prospect of at least four years of noise and disruption - and the news that developers expect to complete the project only after the 2010 World Cup has finished. Towards the ...
Less Keystone Cops and more law enforcement.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... The New Year is upon us, with all the attendant bluster about that most pressing of South African ills - crime. If we ever needed any reminder, provincial SAPS Commissioner Perumal Naidoo, with his Dirty Harry-esque turn of phrase, was quick off the mark last week. Commenting at ...
On a spending bender in gritty, frenzied Saigon; Rosemary McClure discovers a low-end shopper's fantasy in the former Paris of the East.(Life)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Vietnam - Good morning, Saigon: Another shopping day is breaking on the wide, tree-lined boulevards of Ho Cho Minh City's central business district. Proprietors are sweeping sidewalks, saleswomen are rearranging displays, tourists are drifting out of their hotels in search of bargains. ...
Authorities ambivalent on laws controlling fireworks.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Eleanor Momberg Despite the annual outcry over the cruelty to animals by the indiscriminate setting off of fireworks over the festive season - particularly New Year's Eve - it has emerged that there is no uniform fine structure in South Africa for the illegal use of ...
Murders highlight 'lack of responsibility' in SA.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Anna Louw Contract killings have been catapulted into the limelight by recent cases where victims were close to those who allegedly masterminded their demise. The hiring of hitmen to perpetrate what a forensic criminologist, Dr Irma Labuschagne, calls "a ...
A celebrity dinner party no self-respecting dung beetle would attend.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Good morning, my dears, as I try to write this first column of 2007, the sun is, despite the early hour, well and truly up in this particular and glorious section of the Waterberg, hard by Bela Bela (aka Warmbaths). Yes, indeed, the frogs have stopped twanging their harps, or ...
Mugabe's latest money-making dodge takes off; Zimbabwe police round up small-time gold miners in officially sanctioned, claim-jumping racket.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Peta Thornycroft Harare - "It was cruel. I saw about 1 000 people in the open, many handcuffed to each other, exposed day and night to the sun and rain, in a small fenced field next to the police station." That is how a long-time Zimbabwean miner described ...
Withdrawal of Zim citizenship sidelines Ncube; Zimbabwean publisher is confident that his two newspapers can fight on without him.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Peta Thornycroft Journalist and publisher Trevor Ncube doesn't know whether politics or a personal grudge have stripped him of his Zimbabwe citizenship. Ncube, owner of the only two independent newspapers in Zimbabwe, and of the Mail & Guardian in South ...
Security tight for Mbeki's speech in Mpumalanga.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Sibusiso Mboto The ANC is bolstering security including, it is rumoured, the deployment of National Intelligence Agency operatives in Mpumalanga province, in preparation for the "January statement" to be delivered by President Thabo Mbeki in the province next week. ...
South Africa rolls up its diplomatic sleeves at the UN.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Joe Lauria South Africa will run possibly two United Nations security council sanctions committees as the country's delegation in New York gears up for the first full week of work on the UN's most powerful body. Last Monday South Africa officially became part ...
McBride smash: charges difficult to prove in court; Unexplained failure of Ekurhuleni Metro police to take blood for alcohol-level testing could get their boss off the hook, say law experts.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Eleanor Momberg If Ekurhuleni police chief Robert McBride is charged in connection with the incident in which he rolled his car just before Christmas, the state will have an uphill battle proving that he was driving while under the influence of alcohol, despite several ...
New twist in battle over property grab.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Juggie Naran The controversial multibillion-rand Gautrain project could be derailed if an application in the Johannesburg high court challenging the constitutionality of the Gauteng Transport Infrastructure Act is successful. Zehir Omar, the attorney who is ...
Ekurhuleni boss sings police chief's praises.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Anna Louw The city manager of Ekurhuleni yesterday praised the crime-fighting prowess of the Metro's police chief, Robert McBride, and said he could not understand why people were not congratulating McBride. Patrick Flusk said McBride was driving from ...
Charl topping Q-School class.(Sports)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Although his overnight lead was never under threat in the third round of the Sunshine Tour Qualifying School at Kempton Park Golf Club yesterday, Charl Coetzee was unable to match his previous rounds of 65 and 63. But the Western Cape golfer did well to maintain his wire-to-wire ...
Cricket visas delayed.(Sports)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Bridgetown, Barbados - The Caribbean community will delay the issuing of special tourist visas for visitors travelling to the region for the Cricket World Cup, an official said. The issue of these visas had been earmarked for January 9. But tourism officials said they were concerned that ...
Good grammar or cyberspeak - the ether remains divided.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Yesterday, an official-looking e-mail arrived in my inbox. If it had been a letter, it would have come in a postage-paid window envelope. It came from services@paypal-secure.com. Its subject: "Account Suspension Warning #ID611". What really ex posed the sender's ...
Shadow stalking.(Sports)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Injury Time has a new favourite umpire. Daryl Harper, the Australian who stood in the final Test between South Africa and India at Newlands, is officially a good bloke. He and his wife stopped for a chat with Injury Time in the members' bar in the Western Province Cricket Club stand at ...
Undercover operation snares poachers in rhino horn-smuggling syndicate.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Myrtle Ryan The arrest of two brothers for alleged rhino poaching in a KwaZulu-Natal game reserve has led to several more arrests and what police say is the discovery of a countrywide syndicate implicated in the slaughter of at least 14 of the rare animals. ...
More good news for Yengeni as he reaches cell-by date.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: WILLEM STEENKAMP Disgraced former ANC whip Tony Yengeni will walk out of Malmesbury Prison a free man in just eight days after spending a mere 20 weeks of his four-year sentence behind bars. And amid a new controversy surrounding Yengeni, Dennis Bloem, the ...
Shaik undergoes facial surgery for abscesses.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: NIYANTA SINGH Convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik, who slipped into St Augustine's Hospital in Durban from prison under an alias, has undergone maxillo-facial surgery. He was admitted to the hospital in Glenwood "looking like a punching bag ... all black and ...
Second half blitz sees Wits whip Maritzburg.(Sports)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Jonty Mark Wits University (0) 3 Manenzhe 62, Raselemane 72, Manuel 90 Maritzburg United 0 Phumudzo Manenzhe made a dream debut for Wits University here yesterday as the Students kept pace in an increasingly intriguing ...
New arms deal bribe investigation; Scorpions and British police reportedly join forces after allegations that Modise adviser was paid to favour BAe.(News)
Jan 07, 2007 ... BYLINE: Eleanor Momberg and Santosh Beharie A former adviser to the defence ministry, now in the arms-manufacturing, supply and export business, is being investigated by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for allegedly receiving substantial kickbacks from BAe Systems - the ...
Pakistan go on run-fest in tour opener.(Sports)
Jan 07, 2007 ... Kimberley - Openers Mohammad Hafeez and Imran Farhat both scored centuries as Pakistan piled on the runs on the opening day of their three-day tour match against the Rest of South Africa yesterday. Pakistan finished the day on 401/3, although the Rest of SA only captured one ...