Posted inBusiness

My work is done

I’ve been speaking to a guy this morning who complained of being put on “short-time”. The factory where he is employed only has enough work to allow employees to work two days a week — meaning they only get two days’ pay per week. I used to work in a factory. And there, the marketing […]

Posted inBusiness

Shut down the aluminium smelters

Friday’s news that South Africa’s gold and platinum mines had been forced to suspend operations because Eskom could no longer guarantee the power supply has emphasised just how bad our electricity crisis has become. We can switch off lights, swimming pool pumps and geysers to our heart’s content but the reality is that we need […]

Posted inBusinessMediaNews/Politics

The paranoid Mr Zuma

Daniel Gross, financial columnist for online magazine Slate, bumped into Jacob Zuma at Davos this week and nominated him as “the world leader with the most aggressive bodyguards“. It seems that Mr Zuma’s paranoia is not limited to the remote possibility of being molested in the Swiss Alps. He also believes the media in his […]

Posted inBusinessNews/Politics

The Budget Game

Trevor Manuel once remarked that “to budget is to choose”. The Budget Game puts participants in the position of being a decision maker, and making choices with a defined set of possible programmes and a defined budget. The intention of the game is for participants to make choices and then motivate them. In addition, it […]