The Sunday Independent (South Africa) back issues from March 2008:
Transformation puts Liberty train on track for big gains.(Business Report Weekend)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Liberty's black economic empowerment normalised headline earnings rose 18.3 percent, while cash flow stood at R17 billion and the growth in new business in the life and pensions sectors went up. Stanlib announced a pretax profit of R599 million and said shareholders would receive a cash ...
Liechtenstein's proud tradition of banking secrecy is in the spotlight.(Business Report Weekend)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Patrick Donahue and Joshua Gallu "They have always complained they had to pay so much tax. I always understood that they took some of it abroad," said Voegeli, who runs the Alpen Hotel at the Malbun ski resort. She maintains that there is nothing wrong with saving "a ...
Trial of Porritt and Bennett on hold while the PSCGG duo contest legal aid denial.(Business Report Weekend)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Samantha Enslin-Payne Durban The criminal trial against Gary Porritt and Sue Bennett, who, it is alleged, defrauded investors of tens of millions of rands, is on hold while the two sort out legal representation. They are challenging a decision to deny them ...
Jewish emigration escalates on SA's uncertain future.(Business Report Weekend)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Mark Baskind According to Ofer Dahan, the director of the Israel Centre for South Africa, there has been a sudden increase in the number of Jewish South Africans who have decided that the country no longer holds a viable future for them, and have decided to make Israel ...
Private equity says tax query is moot.(Business Report Weekend)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Tom Robbins Cape Town The treasury's announcement that the taxes in private equity deals would be investigated was seen as an opportunity for the finance ministry to cut through the noise around the sector and reach its own conclusions on the benefits to the economy, ...
Assmang scorns ailing workers.(Business Report Weekend)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Slindile Khanyile Durban Last week, Patrice Motsepe fired Mamelodi Sundowns coach Gordon Igesund after a string of poor results. Perhaps Assmang workers had also expected to hear that heads would roll at their company when the billionaire part-owner arrived this week. ...
France energises business ties with SA.(Business Report Weekend)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Donwald Pressly Cape Town France has put its money where its mouth is: it will provide billions of rands of support for energy projects in South Africa through its development agency to assist in resolving the country's electricity shortages. It has also ...
Melding Persian politeness with English restraint.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Christina Patterson Mimi Khalvati was born in Tehran in 1944. She went to a boarding school on the Isle of Wight and spent a year at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, before going back to live in Tehran. Later, she returned to London to study drama and at the ...
Love stories lose their liveliness by the third generation.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... In June 1935, Lorna is sitting on a bench in St James's Park in London, crying her heart out because of yet another clash with her uncomprehending mother. She is observed by Matt, a wood engraver surrounded by wildfowl which he feeds in order to sketch them for a commission to illustrate a ...
Sock it to 'em; Erin Weinger reports on the tights, socks and open-toed look and how to get it right.(Life)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Ever since our tragic science teacher wore Birkenstocks with sports socks, we've considered the sandals-and-socks combination to be one of fashion's biggest sins. But after watching Anna Sui, John Galliano and Rei Kawakubo send models down their spring catwalks wearing anklets with open ...
Even Snow White's fake tan can't save this one from dorkdom.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... I spent most of Sydney White trying to solve the mystery of Amanda Bynes's tan. It's noticeable even in the trailer, but in the film itself - a feeble college comedy aimed at middle schoolers - the star's skin tone is a dark orange fake-and-bake marvel not found anywhere in or ...
Iconic cult musical does the Timewarp again.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... It's astounding: Rocky fever takes the floor. This show never dates; it simply becomes retro and sets new audiences alight. The Rocky Horror Show, produced by Joe Theron and directed by Maralin van Renen with set and lighting by Marius Boshoff, choreography by Vicky Friedman, ...
Gotcha!(Life)
Mar 02, 2008 ... In August 1996, I committed a sin. But before I recount my misdeed let it be said that when I left the Hornsby library in London sometime during that balmy summer month, I had no intention of committing a crime. With a spring in my step, stimulated by the thought that I would be ...
Unruly housewives.(Life)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Stay-at-home mom, home executive, domestic goddess - a number of euphemisms have crept into our lexicon to replace the clearly outdated designation of housewife. These trendy phrases imply that this traditional occupation is now a glamorous and almost to be envied activity. ...
Old-time greats.(Life)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Harry Talas - Turn Back The Hands Of Time Three score and ten! That is our official allotted time on earth. But what if we are just getting our second wind? What if our creative juices are erupting as they were 30 or 40 years ago? To answer that, Harry Talas has released his ...
Titicaca; Although most people are familiar with Lake Titicaca due to its unfortunate sounding name, it has more to offer than being the butt of jokes, writes Robin Scher.(Life)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Considered the cradle of the Incan civilisation, Lake Titicaca is the largest lake in South America. Viewed from along its edge on our way to the village that inspired the naming of the famous Brazilian beach Copacabana, Titicaca resembles an ocean more than a lake. The ...
SICK SOCIETY; South Africans are stressed and disappointed to see the rainbow fading over a country once regarded as a miracle. We're gulping tranquillisers, having nightmares and migraines, drinking and raging as robbers kill and the lights go out, writes Sue Grant-Marshall.(Life)
Mar 02, 2008 ... We're not well. The mercury in the thermometer of South African society has shot into the danger zone. We're anxious, cross, road raging and stressing. And as we know, if stress is not treated, it eventually leads to full-blown depression. Doctors, psychologists, ...
Wearing the pants; The tailored look is in, set off by a clean cuff or even a bracelet, writes Emili Vesilind.(Life)
Mar 02, 2008 ... When was the last time you stepped into a pair of proper trousers, ladies? With jeans and dresses dominating our wardrobes these past few years, pants have been getting a bad reputation - and for good reason. Black slacks once were so ubiquitous as office wear that we might as well have ...
Out of focus Afrocentric perspective; Title and premise of this exhibition do a disservice to the many artists whose works are featured.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... There has undoubtedly been heightened interest in art from the rest of the African continent since Africa Remix, the gargantuan contemporary African art exhibition held at the Johannesburg Art Gallery last year. By showing artists who also featured in that landmark exhibition - ...
Gritty survivor of rock's school of hard knocks; He drinks litres of water before going on stage nowadays instead of /taking handfuls of drugs. Joe Cocker, one of the original outlaws of /rock is alive and well and up where he belongs, writes Heather Dugmore.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Would you like to speak to Joe Cocker on the phone for 15 minutes? That's what I get asked this week at the start of the singer's South African tour. Sure. Who wouldn't want to speak to the man they call "one of the truly great rock voices of all time"? Wondering ...
High-living hogs squander aid funds; War-ravaged and poverty-stricken Afghanistan attracts opportunists with an eye to quick profits, writes Heidi Kingstone.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... The explosion at Kabul's luxurious Serena Hotel several weeks ago sent shock waves around the thriving international community in the dusty Afghan capital. In a cold, muddy and impoverished city in which not much functions, the five-star Serena was an oasis of joy - as long as ...
Biko tribute gives a taste of what might have been.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Chris van Wyk's introduction to this volume looks back to his own experience under apartheid and records two encounters with white policemen, 10 years apart. Why, in the first instance, he asks, was his father so readily cowed, while, in the second, Van Wyk himself so combative? Because "I ...
Record number of new plays at Cape festival.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Staff Reporter The award-winning Ikhwezi Theatre Festival celebrates 10 years of development theatre in the Western Cape this year with a record number of 20 exciting new plays that will run until March 20 in the Baxter Sanlam Studio. This year, the festival ...
Tiber bridge adds new note to Rome's axis of music.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Heidi Kingstone Veni Vidi Vici. They came, they saw and they built a bridge over the Tiber, the first since Benito Mussolini held power and the first pedestrian bridge since anyone can remember. Construction of the Ponte della Musica (Bridge of Music) will ...
Bad marriages will good authors make.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... There are some questions to which we don't really want an answer. Does South Africa really need a literature? Does Mauritius? And, do we really need another book about William Shakespeare? Bill Bryson, the author of this short new biography in the Eminent Lives series, doesn't ...
Biofuel revolution seeds fields of dreams and contradictions.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Leon Marshall As biofuel is taking to the skies, there is a growing international lobby urging that the industry should be brought back firmly to earth. The fear is that, unless properly controlled, this "fuel of the future" could get out of hand and end up doing more ...
Cynical take on reality TV lacks the intelligence to be anything but sadistic.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... The debut vehicle of American professional wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Condemned, is execrable. And in the worst ways. For one thing, Austin is barely in it. For another, it tells us that the senseless carnage we're watching is itself indecent. It tells us this ...
Online encyclopaedia to list all Earth's species.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Steve Connor When it is finished, it will list every form of life known to man: from aardvark to zorilla. This week that unprecedented project - to compile a database of every known species - took its first virtual steps with the publication of the first chapter of the ...
Final solution for just too many jumbos; Elephants have doubled in numbers since 1995 but do we have to cull them, asks Steve Connor.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Why are we asking this now? The South African government has decided to lift its moratorium on the culling of elephants in the country's parks because populations in the country have risen from about 8 000 elephants to nearly 20 000 over the past decade or so. South Africa says, ...
Farewell to Segal, son /of the soil.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Maureen Isaacson Ronald Segal, the South African-born anti-apartheid activist, writer and editor who founded the Penguin African Library, died last week age 75, of cancer. He was the author of 13 books including The Anguish of India, The Americans and The ...
Testament to a shattered community; The ground where Peter de Villiers once played out his young dreams sparks a wish from the coach.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... The broken beer bottles offer a grim, threatening welcome: the rough pieces of splintered wood lying among old, abandoned shoes, speak only of decay. Beside a tree, discarded tiles have been dumped, mostly broken and chipped. Underneath the majestic trees that still line the ...
Secrets of our solar system; A new generation of spacecraft is able to go further than ever before, revolutionising our understanding of Earth's nearestplanetary neighbours. David Whitehouse explores some of the extraordinary places they've shown us.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... The closer we look at the worlds that circle our Sun, the more spectacular and mysterious they become. As growing numbers of space probes have succeeded in travelling to faraway destinations, they have turned distant and mysterious points of light into alien landscapes dotted with ...
Powerful piece of theatre that's lost none of its relevance.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Zakes Mda, the renowned writer, and James Ngcobo, the well-known director, are two powerful theatrical forces who have meshed their creative talent to produce a potent and frightening piece of theatre. Mda's sharp, analytical mind is brought strongly to bear on this work which ...
Walking like a duck /at Dance Umbrella; Chris Thurman muses on the delicate balance choreographers need /to tread between confounding or delighting their audiences.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Attending a double bill of performances by the Via Katlehong dance company at the Market Theatre - the fourth of more than 20 programmes making up this year's FNB Dance Umbrella - I found myself sitting next to a boy of about six years old. "Out of the mouths of babes ...", they say; and I ...
No rest for the 'wicked' behind Diana's death if Dodi's dad has his way.(Dispatches)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Thea Chard More than 10 years after the deaths of Britain's "people's princess" and her lover in a Paris car crash, the few who believe Princess Diana was murdered continue to press their case in a coroner's inquest, now in its fifth month. The probe, ...
Without factual evidence, history is bunk.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Like Dot Cleminshaw (The Sunday Independent, Letters, February 24), I was not at Cassinga. I was too old; perhaps she can give us her excuse. Rather than answering the replies from the people who where there, she embarks on a diatribe on the legality of the South African Defence ...
Saddam boat story is western propaganda.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... I would like to challenge the article by John Lichfield "For sale: Saddam's fabled floating palace" (The Sunday Independent, February 17). It is apparent that you are a western propaganda shill still fixated with a man much demonised and hated by westerners. You ...
No cow sacred when milking militancy dry.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... In 2000, the Human Rights Commission investigated and exposed what it described as subliminal racism in the media. The commission's report showed how the media used pictures and news slants to portray blacks as corrupt. The commission used a white woman to conduct the ...
Education drive is needed to stop taxi road deaths.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... The advertisement "Out with the Old ... In with the new!" by the department of transport (February 17) refers. Working in conjunction with the taxi industry, the intention of the department "to deliver an effective, reliable and safe public transport system" through the taxi ...
Pledge and bill attack fundamental freedoms.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Thomas Paine, the 18th-century author on democracy, such as The Rights of Man, wrote in Crisis: "These are the times that try men's souls." Such words take on a particular resonance in South Africa today. Our fundamental freedoms, enshrined in the bill of rights, are under ...
May I blow my top on volcanoes?(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Ben Alberts (The Sunday Independent, Letters, February 24) gives four out of 10 to the University of Cape Town geology students for their reply to his letter that covered topics from atmospheric science to geochronology. He does not provide the students with precise and accurate ...
Cassinga was part of a war against communism.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... I am pleased to see that the South African Defence Force (SADF) Cassinga soldiers have, in a few short weeks in your letters column, gone from mass murderers to parking offenders. Firstly, we had a diatribe from Randolph Vigne, who I later discovered, was the self-styled ...
Classic fM offers a soiree to remember.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... Treat yourself to a relaxed evening of classy cuisine, excellent music and fine wines from the Durbanville Hills Estate at the next Classic fM Soiree to be held at Summer Place in Johannesburg on Friday March 7, starting at 7.30pm for 8pm. Book at Computicket. The Best of ...
Racism is not warm and fuzzy and there's no argument for it.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... In this week of racial paroxysms and shame, we learned one thing. That little has changed beneath the surface of this sunbaked corner of the earth where hatred still mars the sweet facade of reconciliation. In protest against integration at a University of the Free State men's ...
Fundraising headache for ANC in wake of Chancellor House audit.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Patrick Laurence The ruling party has employed ANC-speak, its own version of Newspeak, the fictional language used in George Orwell's novel 1984, to cover its traces in relation to its fundraising company Chancellor House. Faced with a spate of media ...
Time for the taxi industry to light the way ahead.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Colleen Lowe Morna No sooner had the power cuts abated than a huge blackout hit our social landscape. A standard question in opinion surveys that gauge attitudes towards women is how citizens respond to a woman strolling down the streets in a mini-skirt. We ...
Elephants next victims ofload shedding.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... So, as we brace for renewed bouts of "load shedding", the elephants of South Africa face a return to the policy of "culling". For "load shedding", read electricity blackouts caused by the incompetency of state officials. For "culling" read the gunning down of entire herds caused by the ...
Barker fancies United.(Sports)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Paul Martin It is said that when Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns are strong, Bafana Bafana is strong. Right now, with the PSL's famous Big Three struggling for form, current Amazulu and former Bafana Bafana mentor Clive Barker feels that Supersport ...
Bring Nascar to SA ... it's for people with petrol in their veins.(Sports)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Gary Lemke Driving east along Interstate 4, the highway that cuts through Florida, you pass downtown Orlando and barrell along towards Daytona Beach. You wind down the window and take a gulp of the morning's fresh winter breeze. Testosterone fills the air. ...
Cup winner Ramos has [pounds sterling]40m for raid on Spain.(Sports)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Simon Cass Juande Ramos will be handed a [pounds sterling]40-million (about R300m) summer transfer kitty to turn Tottenham's cup heroes into Barclays Premier League title challengers. Tottenham's board are ready to back their manager with hard cash after ...
Messi:taking it easy; At the age of 20, the Barcelona superstar is already one of the best footballers in the world. The forward talks about his club, the Argentina national team, his family and life on and off the pitch.(Sports)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Sergio Levinsky How do you feel about life at Barcelona, the Argentinian national team and football in general? Lionel Messi: I feel really good, happy; I'm enjoying myself because, fortunately things are turning out as I want them to, which is always ...
Grant needs to land Chelsea a trophy or get the boot.(Sports)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Matt Lawton and Neil Ashton Avram Grant is unlikely to survive as Chelsea manager beyond the end of this season if he fails to make amends for last Sunday's Carling Cup final debacle. Amid rumours of serious dressing-room unrest, the Stamford Bridge hierarchy ...
Zondo's Celtic are limping.(Sports)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Paul Martin Khabo Zondo has laid the blame for Bloemfontein Celtic's fall from early season Absa Premiership log-leaders to strugglers firmly at the door of the medics, with several of his key players suffering recurring injuries that he claims were not properly treated ....
Constitutional watchdog serves party, not people.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Helen Zille Events in the past week have confirmed that Lawrence Mushwana, the public protector, has failed to live up to the name of his office. In the six years since his appointment, he has succeeded only in protecting the ANC from the people. Mushwana's ...
Olympian effort for new gateway to China; Construction of Beijing's new airport jumps all the usual project hurdles and cuts the (red) tape with astonishing speed.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Mark Magnier Beijing - It's a huge building, bigger than the Pentagon and a lot less clunky. It's expected to handle more passengers than any air terminal in the world. It was built fast. Beijing's new international air terminal, which opened on Friday in ...
Kelly keen to carry the Madsen mettle all the way to Beijing.(Sports)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Nazli Thomas South African hockey wouldn't be the same without the contribution of the Madsen family. The Madsens, based in KwaZulu Natal, have been producing Springbok hockey players for generations, starting with grandparents Lionel and Val Madsen, who both ...
A tale about unconditional love; A documentary of three years in the life of a choir of South African children orphaned by Aids has raised R3,75 million. More surprisingly, the film was shot by a student who picked up the craft of film-making as he went along, writes Sally Williams.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... It is astonishing, Paul Taylor admits, that his debut documentary We Are Together, made when he was still a student, is now playing to a critical wave of acclaim on the festival circuit. The film, about a South African orphanage, has raised money to help the orphans, but being a ...
Professor extraordinary heads for new pastures; Kader Asmal has retired from parliament, but has no plans to take life easy, and will continue to apply his considerable energies to many diverse projects.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Chiara Carter Instead of planning a well-deserved holiday to mark his retirement from parliament, Professor Kader Asmal, in between packing up his office in parliament's elegant Good Hope building, is busy planning how to fit into his jam-packed diary a trip to Orania, ...
Toiling masses remind Zuma that he owes them big time.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Sibusiso Ngalwa The honeymoon between Cosatu and the ANC's newly elected leadership is all but over. Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu's leader, warned this week that the powerful labour federation would not rely on "a belief in messiahs" but on its own strength. Vavi, ...
US ultimatum key to Kenya peace.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Fiona Forde Condoleezza Rice has hailed the peace deal brokered in Kenya in recent days as a local solution, but apparently it was an eleventh-hour intervention on the part of the United States secretary of state that helped clinch the agreement. Under the ...
Sarkozy speech 'not much of a departure'.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Peter Fabricius Members of the South African parliament loudly applauded visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy for announcing what France billed as a major shift in its often controversial Africa policy this week. But some commentators cautioned that the ...
Workers 'tricked' to appear in video.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Agiza Hlongwane David Molete, one of the workers who featured in the racist video made by four white students at the University of the Free State, has described how they were offered R10 000 and tricked into taking part. The video, which shows black cleaning ...
Outrage greets lifting of culling ban; Government's new rules have animal-rights groups threatening to call for tourists to boycott South Africa's wildlife parks.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Eleanor Momberg There is no scientific basis to support the South African government's decision to cull elephants, conservation bodies say. Anti-culling groups this week slated the decision by Marthinus van Schalkwyk, environmental affairs and tourism ...
Click on Eskom and get empowered by some bright sparks.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... At Eskom.co.za you will find the load shedding "martix" developed specifically for the City of Johannesburg, as well links to the Regional "Schudules" for the larger municipalities. Directions follow. 1. Where to start. Go to www.eskom.co.za. This will take you to ...
Get ready for longer, but more predictable, blackouts.(News)
Mar 02, 2008 ... BYLINE: Eleanor Momberg Eskom will continue to have a 10 percent shortage of electricity until winter, because of planned maintenance. This means there is a further risk of load shedding should unforeseen problems occur. It also means that calls to customers to cut ...