The explosion resulting from thehas already highlighted questions of free speech in the press versus dubious judgements. Yet it also points to the less noted problem inherent in transactions and actions between companies and individuals that share a close relationship with one another – and specifically where Government and state enterprises are involved.
It’s then a [...]

The Durban High Court today began the process of passing judgement on accused of wanton corruption and involvement with who may be the next South African President, Jacob Zuma.
The question though isn’t really whether Shaik will be found guilty. It’s rather whether he’s taking the fall for Zuma, both out of fear and hope that [...]

Farrel agrees with the DA assertion that there isabout lack of delivery and services in several national townships, despite some ANC politicians and National Intelligence Agency claims to the contrary.
It is a valid criticism of the ANC but it needs to be measured against the fact that they and several large international NGO’s (USAID, SIDA, [...]

Themodel option for small businesses is set to remain now after an outcry and demonstration that their removal would carry unintended harm for the economy. (Get it before Business Day removes the online article)
The Mail & Guardian was wrongly gagged by a court order this week, but seems to also enforce a bit of it’s [...]

So, James Francis has been criticising me here and here for being an “absolutist” and a Sith Lord (just kidding). I don’t normally bother replying to James’ arguments, since they generally strike me as being deeply unserious. But I’m going to reply to this one, because I think there’s an important point to be made [...]

What would it be like as a home user to have affordable ADSL Internet transfer speeds of 100 Mbps? If you live in a nation with a liberalised and competitive telecoms market you’ll probably find out soon enough – the International Telecoms Union reports that work has been finalised on Sadly, South Africans will likely [...]

It seems that South Africa is not alone in experiencing a degree of perceived public animosity and disagreement about the performance of the media in reporting news. Afinds, among other interesting results, that the US public regards the media there as either slow or unwilling to correct mistakes made in reporting – which points to [...]

I’m sure the general response to the above heading is a sarcastic ‘weren’t they dead long ago anyway?’. That’s probably right for all intensive purposes, but it appears that Zanu-PF is now moving to outlaw all private land ownership rights completely per That’s by removing property rights in the Zimbabwean Constitution itself – although that’s [...]

For those of you wondering, I haven’t suddenly ditched Laurence from the site. He’s busy preparing for mid year exams and will likely be away for the next two weeks as well. I understand he will be blogging substantially when he returns.

It’s measly. It looks pathetically small. It also seems totally arbitrary and meaningless in the greater scheme of things.
That would just about sum up the likely spontaneous reaction to the value of 3.4%.
Ah, but there’s an important qualification against that stance. 3.4% itself is a difference between the projected average annual economic growth rate of [...]

French voters have likely rejected the European Constitution ifare to believed. The irony is that British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has long advocated acceptance of the EU Constitution and greater British integration into Europe may in fact be heaving a sigh of relief.
Bagehot has pointed out repeatedly that the Prime Minister publicly staked his [...]