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LETTER: Blushing Batohi unfit for office

It is appropriate that the national director of public prosecutions, Shamila Batohi, had the good grace to blush when questioned during her “Woman’s Day webinar” about her year of passivity in the face of the damning De Kock report of June 2019. In the report, two current senior prosecutors were…

10 Aug 2020 2PM 1 min

Lebanon ministers quit as public anger grows over explosion

Beirut — Lebanon’s cabinet faced rising pressure on Monday to step down after a devastating explosion that has stirred public outrage and prompted resignations of several ministers, with the justice minister the latest to go and the finance minister set to quit. The August 4 port warehouse detonation of more…

10 Aug 2020 1PM 4 min

Iata wants travellers to spend less time in airports in future

Technology will play a big role in successfully restarting air travel while restoring confidence in the safety of aviation, according to global industry body the International Air Transport Association (Iata). It said the recovery of air travel will be vital to enabling the global economy to bounce back from the…

10 Aug 2020 1PM 3 min

Western Cape turns heat up on government to lift booze ban

Pressure is mounting on the government to lift the ban on the sale of alcohol and to allow for more economic activity to prevent huge job losses. The DA-led Western Cape provincial government took a firm stance at the weekend, stating that domestic alcohol sales should be allowed immediately, “with…

10 Aug 2020 1PM 4 min

Media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested as Chinese crackdown on Hong Kong hots up

Hong Kong — Right before China retook control of Hong Kong in 1997, tycoon Jimmy Lai started Apple Daily in part to promote democracy in the city. For 25 years the newspaper survived advertising boycotts and political pressure but never backed off its tough coverage of the Chinese government and…

10 Aug 2020 12PM 5 min

ROGER BAXTER: Tough choices required to get SA on road to growth

The economic recovery strategy published in July by Business For SA (B4SA), aimed at achieving high levels of inclusive economic growth to recover from the Covid-19 crisis and the economic crisis that preceded it, must form the basis for any recovery plan. SA’s pre-Covid economy was marked by declining international…

10 Aug 2020 12PM 7 min

Apple Daily vows to continue publication despite tycoon Jimmy Lai’s arrest in Hong Kong

Hong Kong — Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai became the highest-profile person to have been arrested under a new national security law on Monday, over suspected collusion with foreign forces as about 200 police officers searched the offices of his Apple Daily newspaper. Mainland-born Lai, who was smuggled into…

10 Aug 2020 12PM 5 min

Kenya’s tourism sector now game for bigger local market

At a time when hundreds of thousands of tourists would be making their way to Kenya to witness the famed wildebeest migration in the Maasai Mara, the national reserve is quiet in 2020 as Covid-19 puts a stop to tourist arrivals in East Africa’s largest economy. Despite the removal of…

10 Aug 2020 10AM 3 min

Ethiopian Airlines’ strategy gives it a shot at survival

If any African airline is having a reasonable pandemic, it is Ethiopian Airlines. Contrary to many of its regional and global counterparts, Ethiopian Airlines claims it has dealt with the crisis without reducing salaries or asking the government for a bailout (though reports in April suggested some staff have been…

10 Aug 2020 10AM 7 min

How New York estate agents fuel inequality and segregation

New York — A new book argues that the stratification in quality of life between New York’s rich and poor neighbourhoods is at least partially the result of real estate agents. “Agents’ work in shaping buyers’ choices leads to upselling,” writes author Max Besbris, referring to the phenomenon of homebuyers…

10 Aug 2020 2AM 5 min

NPOs are needed now more than ever, so show them the money

The staggering human impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has seen a groundswell of awareness and discussion over the long-term sustainability of the country’s not-for-profit organisations (NPOs) — the sector most directly involved in relief efforts to SA’s most vulnerable communities. Right now, many NPOs are struggling. The pandemic has created…

10 Aug 2020 2AM 4 min

The sad relics of life before the pandemic as people go back to work

New York — Office workers returning for the first time after their abrupt departures in March are discovering relics of a different life. Tickets for cancelled concerts. Winter clothes. Milk that expired four months ago. Calendars turned to March. Yellowed newspapers proclaiming the worst stock market crash in decades. That’s…

10 Aug 2020 2AM 5 min

Benchmark rates, including in SA. get reformed & renamed

A couple of years ago, on Creative Concern’s website, Klaus Schwab stated that “the trends that are shaping the 21st century embody both promise and peril”. Today, most focus seems to be on the peril, and daily academic research headlines confirm this. On the promise side there have been positive…

9 Aug 2020 1AM 6 min

Transferring a football club and its players falls within the Labour Relations Act

Professional football players and coaches in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) or GladAfrica Championship (GAC) have reason to cry foul if their clubs are sold and they are sidelined because the new owners cannot afford their salaries. They are employees, and unless they gave their prior consent to being left…

9 Aug 2020 1AM 3 min

Denel misses court-imposed deadline to pay salaries

State arms manufacturer Denel has missed a court-imposed deadline to pay all staff their outstanding salaries, pension contributions, insurance and other outstanding payments. Since May, some staff have received as little as 20% of their salary with others getting up to 60% of salaries in June and July. Most medical…

7 Aug 2020 10AM 1 min

SSA to start lifestyle audits in Gauteng amid PPE tender saga

The State Security Agency (SSA) will begin conducting lifestyle audits on members of Gauteng’s cabinet, including premier David Makhura, from next week. While Makhura announced in his state of the province address last year that the provincial executive council would be subjected to these audits, this has not taken place…

7 Aug 2020 9AM 2 min

Covid resurgence slows US job growth in July

Washington — US employment growth slowed considerably in July amid a resurgence in new Covid-19 infections, offering the clearest evidence yet that the economy’s recovery from the recession caused by the pandemic was faltering. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 1.763-million jobs in July after a record 4.791-million in June, the labour…

7 Aug 2020 9AM 2 min

Gauteng’s Covid-19 situation improves, but Makhura says worst could still come

The Gauteng provincial government will battle the Covid-19 pandemic as though the peak of virus could still hit the country’s economic hub, despite the number of active cases steadily declining over the past few weeks. Gauteng premier David Makhura said in a media briefing on Friday that it is good…

7 Aug 2020 8AM 3 min

Tito Mboweni grants municipalities more time to submit financial statements

Finance minister Tito Mboweni has granted SA’s beleaguered municipalities and local government entities an exemption from legally prescribed deadlines to submit their financials for auditing, as a result of the national state of disaster and the coronavirus lockdown. The exemption from certain requirements of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA),…

7 Aug 2020 8AM 2 min

Devastated Beirut unlikely to be rebuilt as costs put at $15bn

Beirut — Beirut residents began trying to rebuild their shattered lives on Friday after the biggest blast in the Lebanese capital’s history tore into the city, killing at least 154 and leaving the heavily indebted nation with another huge reconstruction bill. The search for those missing since Tuesday’s blast intensified…

7 Aug 2020 7AM 4 min