| STRAIGHT NO CHASER |
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Capitalism's biggest foes: well-dressed pilferers 2008-04-22 06:00:01 Now is not the time for business executives to be caught fixing prices. Rather, it's time for the captains of industry and commerce to adopt the pose suggested by that old joke: you know it's really cold when you see a lawyer with his hands in his own pockets. [Full Story...] BHP Billiton move marks tyranny of the rand 2008-04-01 06:00:01 BHP Billiton's decision to end its business dealings with Standard Bank because the mining group felt offended by comments made by one of the bank's executives is a violation of freedom of expression, one of the pillars of a democratic society. [Full Story...] MTN's best asset is a hero named Mandla 2008-03-18 06:00:01 On the wall at the corner of Tudhope Avenue and Louis Botha in Berea, Johannesburg, is the inscription: Skrew costomer (sic). [Full Story...] An SA run by Cosatu would serve only Cosatu 2008-03-11 06:00:01 Concern for the poor, or "pro poor", are words that roll off Zwelinzima Vavi's lips like drool off the mouth of a very tired bullmastiff. But as recent events attest, the general secretary of Cosatu doesn't have the interest of the poor at heart. [Full Story...] Race row plays into Zuma's hands 2008-02-26 06:00:01 Poor journalists. My fellow tribesmen didn't see it coming. They walked right into Jacob Zuma's punch. That's why the president of the ANC pretended not to understand what the mass hysteria was all about after his meeting with the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) on Friday. [Full Story...] Zuma camp has room to play with our money 2008-02-19 06:00:01 Most investors appear to have been soothed by the ANC's reassurances that the appointment of left-wing politicians to key leadership positions on the ruling party's national executive committee in December won't necessarily translate into changes in the party's economic policy. [Full Story...] What Zuma must learn: confidence needs clarity 2008-02-05 06:00:01 Confidence is a fickle mistress. And that's why the president of the ANC can't continually hold up his Zumanomics placard when asked about the economic policy direction in which he plans to take South Africa should he become the country's president. [Full Story...] Boundaries between rands and rights 2007-11-13 06:00:01 How to mediate the conflict between the ideals of a democratic state and the outcomes of a capitalist economy is a problem that has exercised some of the best minds across the globe for many years. [Full Story...] A dose of media bile is good for democracy 2007-11-06 06:00:01 The bitter relationship between the ANC and the South African media is just another reminder that we are as normal a country as you can get. Ever since the first newspapers rolled off the presses, relations between politicians, especially those in power, and journalists have been fraught. [Full Story...] Mboweni's debt is our climb up the social ladder 2007-10-23 06:00:01 One sensed a schoolmasterly tone last week when Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni spoke about consumer spending. "I can preach as much as I want; if people don't feel the hit in their pockets, they won't listen,'' he told the Rand Club. [Full Story...] PIC's Molefe could do with a dose of fool sense 2007-07-31 06:00:01 Here's to fools! We should honour and celebrate them because wherever they are - in politics, business, religion or any other sphere of life - they help create Eden. [Full Story...] Time for corporate view to embrace wider picture 2007-07-10 06:00:01 How Limpopo and Northern Cape villagers have forced changes to the country's mining laws is yet another example of why companies should scan the socioeconomic landscape for issues that might well change how they do business. [Full Story...] Ntsebeza should hand back poisoned chalice 2007-06-12 06:00:01 Dumisa Ntsebeza's epitaph is already etched in stone. The newly appointed chairman of Barloworld has been handed a poisoned chalice that will make him a weak and an ineffective chairman of the industrial group, whose businesses include the selling of Hyster lift trucks and Caterpillar equipment. [Full Story...] Pastorini has made recent headlines, but he's not really news 2007-04-24 06:00:01 The Edward Pastorini incident is a reminder of what happens when financial markets succumb to euphoria: greed takes over and that's when swindlers strike. [Full Story...] It takes two to tango if a country is to prosper 2007-04-17 06:00:01 The recent report on how much the country's top political leadership and other public office bearers should be paid is yet another reminder that it takes two hands to make a country prosperous. [Full Story...] BEE firms must kick the piggybacking habit 2007-04-03 06:00:01 Here's why the government should put on a steel toe-capped boot and kick black businessmen hard on their backsides. [Full Story...] The wealth gap widens as the rich use debt as a financial tool 2007-03-27 06:00:01 F Scott Fitzgerald reportedly once said to fellow writer Ernest Hemingway: "The rich are different to you and me", to which Hemingway responded: "Yes, they have more money". [Full Story...] Merit is in the eye of the employer, and it is no laughing matter 2007-03-06 06:00:01 The advertisement placed by Johnnic Communications (Johncom) last year, in which the media company invited applications for the post of group chief executive, drew a few chuckles around town. [Full Story...] Why angelic Manuel deftly avoids thorny issue of taxing lobola 2007-02-27 06:00:01 Angelic Trevor Manuel. Notice how the finance minister last week deftly avoided the issue of lobola and whether it should be taxed. He kicked the thorny question upstairs to the mythical elders. [Full Story...] Tribal spirit lives on in the modern corporate jungle 2007-02-20 06:00:01 During the past two weeks, two firms locked a bunch of journalists out of their annual shareholders meetings. [Full Story...] Our land needs some of Neruda's good men 2007-02-13 06:00:01 Today I was going to write about why South Africa needs a few more good men. (I use the word men to mean human beings collectively.) South Africa needs men who speak up, not when they stand to gain financially from doing so, but when they risk being left out of that lucrative government contract, that juicy black economic empowerment deal, that promotion to the corporate executive floor or the board of directors. [Full Story...] Black directors can't push hard for change 2007-01-30 06:00:01 The push by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) for more black people to be appointed in senior executive positions at Sasol and Barloworld has shone the light on the role of black directors. [Full Story...] Financial services report warns of BEE crunch 2006-11-28 06:00:01 The 2005 annual review of transformation in the financial services sector offers a good look into the challenges that are likely to arise in implementing the codes of good practice on broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE). [Full Story...] Revision of BEE is good sign for those left on fringe 2006-11-07 06:00:01 News that the department of trade and industry will revise the black economic empowerment (BEE) codes to add a clause that will guarantee companies credit for doing a BEE deal, beyond the sale of the shares by black investors, signals a major shift in government thinking. [Full Story...] Opaque trusts are the black hole of BEE's roll-out 2006-10-31 06:00:01 Trusts are the black hole of black economic empowerment (BEE). They have become the most preferred way of ensuring that the benefits of BEE deals are shared with as many black people as possible, but they can be opaque structures where there is very little transparency. [Full Story...] SA needs its true entrepreneurs to find their place in the sun 2006-10-24 06:00:01 Three University of Cape Town computer science honours graduates have teamed up to start a new business, which, if it flies, will leave an indelible mark on this country's economic landscape. [Full Story...] Light from JSE lamp shines on only a part of SA's wealth 2006-10-17 06:00:01 The obsessive focus on what percentage of the total value of shares listed on JSE is owned by black people runs the risk of distorting policy on economic transformation. [Full Story...] Current BEE state of mind is a mockery of Mandela's dream 2006-10-10 06:00:01 When a black man tells the world that white people are not doing enough to make him rich, what message is he sending to future generations of black South Africans? Is it that black people today are not capable of making money for themselves? [Full Story...] Another invisible hand starts to show 2006-01-24 06:00:01 Adam Smith's other invisible hand is slowly showing up. Smith is known as the father of economics because of the fascination with his book, The Wealth of Nations, in which he laid the basis of the functioning of markets. Smith's theory, explained i ... [Full Story...] Good education is vital for upliftment 2006-01-17 06:00:01 Education is a platform for mass socioeconomic upliftment. A failure to access good quality education condemns millions of people and their future generations to the lowest rungs of society and a life of poverty. That is, short of winning the Lotto. [Full Story...] There's history to Afrikaner corporate raids in December 2005-12-13 06:00:01 There must be something about Afrikaans media companies and the end of the year. Last month a consortium led by financial services group PSG launched a bid for one of the companies that is part of the controlling structure of Naspers, a multimedia group with roots in Afrikaans newspaper publishing. [Full Story...] Tata Group weaves ubuntu into capitalism 2005-12-06 06:00:01 The biggest challenge facing developing countries with vibrant private sectors, such as India, Brazil and South Africa, is how to manage the accumulation of wealth with the objective of creating a more equitable society. [Full Story...] Directors' self-interest will undermine BEE codes 2005-11-15 06:00:01 An oversimplistic understanding of the ability of boards of directors to affect company business underlies the thinking behind the government's recently issued black economic empowerment (BEE) codes of good practice. [Full Story...] Thintana and ADR expose policy failure 2005-11-10 00:56:01 The huge profits made by Thintana Communications and Aeroporti di Roma (ADR) on the sales of their shareholdings in Telkom and Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) point to the failure of the government's policy of selling portions of state-owned firms to strategic investors. [Full Story...] Privatisation is not the only answer for state-owned firms 2005-11-08 06:00:01 Reducing the reliance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) on government funding and forcing them to compete with private companies can deliver as much improvement in their performance as selling these firms to private investors, a study by two US academic economists has found. [Full Story...] Keeping eye on the landscape is vital 2005-10-25 06:00:01 When a delegation from the Black Economic Empowerment Commission led by Cyril Ramaphosa met with the heads of the country's major companies under the umbrella of the SA Foundation in 2001, the captains of industry and commerce brushed off the commission's proposals on empowerment. [Full Story...] Thintana and ADR expose policy failure 2005-10-11 06:00:01 The huge profits made by Thintana Communications and Aeroporti di Roma (ADR) on the sales of their shareholdings in Telkom and Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) point to the failure of the government's policy of selling portions of state-owned firms to strategic investors. [Full Story...] KTI-Remgro deal cements a long-standing relationship 2005-10-04 06:00:01 The announcement last week by Remgro that it had bought 37 percent of Kagiso Trust Investments (KTI) signals the coming of age of one of the first companies to ride the post-1994 black economic empowerment wave. [Full Story...] Executives must be free to take risks, says judge 2005-08-16 06:00:01 A US judge has brought a refreshing view to the debate about what directors of companies can and can't be legally held responsible for. [Full Story...] |
