Posted inBusiness

Fronting = BEE?

The Daily Dispatch, a daily newspaper based in East London, has been running articles about allegations of companies “fronting” to get government contracts. By “fronting”, what is generally meant is falsely claiming to be a majority black-owned company, having black economic empowerment ownership in your company, or having black staff occupying top management positions. This […]

Posted inBusinessMedia

The politics of media development

The term “media development” might remind many people in South Africa of the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA). Well, the term has become a buzzword in international media financing. My aim here is to draw upon a talk I gave in 2007 at the Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership/Konrad-Adenuer-Stiftung conference for media executives […]

Posted inBusinessNews/Politics

‘False face must hide what false heart doth know.’ (Macbeth Act 1 Sc 7)

Johannesburg — The rand was more than 3% weaker against the dollar in late trade on Wednesday after Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s budget speech in Parliament. The rand weakened to a 16-month worst level of R7,9225 a dollar — after closing at R7,6625 on Tuesday — with traders predicting the local currency could break above […]

Posted inBusinessNews/Politics

Budget 2008/09: Can the Polokwane Strawman win the war against poverty?

The boisterous rotating arms that signalled a need for substitution, a 60:40 split in the voting for national office-bearers and the fact that leftist formations had backed the winning ticket all signalled that something has changed during the ANC Polokwane’s conference. Whatever has changed has spurred on many private-sector commentators and lobbyists to begin the […]