Killing the consumer with absurdity

[Chris Moerdyk: @chrismoerdyk] I keep thinking about that cabinet minister who, a few weeks ago, said that e-tolls wouldn't hurt the poor because the rich would pay for it all. What he didn't realise of course, was that when the rich pay the tolls, they put it on their expense accounts or add it to their truck fleet operating costs and eventually pass it on to the consumer. Including the poor consumer. Read more >>

Dynamic evolution of private label brands

[Michael van Wyk] The dynamic evolution of private label brands and the migration towards these products by an emerging middle class is providing more competition than usual to national brands. Read more >>

Robertson Wine Valley wins international wine tourism award

The 'Best Generic Wine Body' at the 2012 Drinks International Wine Tourism Awards has gone to Robertson Wine Valley (RWV), the generic marketing body that drives the winemaking region of Ashton, Bonnievale, McGregor and Robertson. Read more >>

Seasonal increase in credit records

As at the end of December 2011, credit bureaus had records for 19.34 million credit-active consumers, an increase of 1.3% over the 19.10 million of the previous quarter. Consumers classified in good standing increased by 142 000, to 10.41 million consumers, an increase of 1.4% quarter-on-quarter and 5.2% year-on-year. The number of consumers with impaired records increased by 100 000 to 8.93 million, from 8.83 million in the previous quarter (1.13%). Read more >>

Craige Fleischer to head up Samsung's mobile communications

From 1 April 2012, Craige Fleischer will assume the position of head of Mobile Communications for Samsung Electronics South Africa to drive stronger market alignment and penetration for the business division into both the retail and business sector, through his developed business portfolio and experience. Read more >>

Pioneer issues shares to black investors

Pioneer Food Group said on Monday, 19 March 2012, it had issued 18,091,661 ordinary shares to black investors as part of its broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) deal following the fulfilment of the conditions precedent. Read more >>

DropGifts comes to SA

DropGifts, described as a global leader in friend-to-friend gifting, is due to reach South Africa by the end of the first quarter of 2012. Already a market leader in the UK, France and Germany, the Berlin-based company revolves around the concept of social gifting, by enabling Facebook friends to send gift cards to each other from a range of top retailers. Read more >>

KFC doubles up delivery

KFC Delivery, a new national offering by KFC South Africa has 42 stores delivering in Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Kwazulu-Natal, Limpopo and the North West provinces. The company is expecting to increase its offering to 80 stores by the end of 2012. Read more >>

McDonald's CEO Skinner to step down

NEW YORK, USA: McDonald's Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner will retire in June, after 41 years at the US fast food giant, to be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Don Thompson, the company said. Read more >>

Shock for consumers with new labelling law

Consumers are set to be horrified when they see what harmful substances they have been feeding their children in some fruit juices, when producers list all ingredients on their labels, as required by the new Consumer Protection Act that came into effect this month, and which stipulates accurate product labelling. Read more >>

Executive research on emerging markets now out

A survey conducted in January and February 2012 amongst 1600 business leaders from 10 emerging and developed markets has revealed that 74% of business leaders in South Africa look to other emerging markets for growth lessons and best practice, highlighting the growing influence of developing markets, rather than developed markets, in the global economy. Read more >>

Food contributes to below-expectation Feb CPI

The food index of consumer inflation (CPI) contributed to a lower than expected CPI figure in February. Stats SA figures released on Thursday, 22 March 2012, showed that CPI registered a 6.1% year-on-year (y/y) growth in February from 6.3% y/y in January. Markets expected a 6.3% print. Read more >>

January income from food, beverages industry up 5.1%

The total income generated by the food and beverages industry rose 5.1% to R3.573 billion in January 2012, from a year earlier, according to Statistics SA data. Read more >>

Shoprite launches R8bn in equity, convertible bonds

Shoprite Holdings (SHP) is to launch up to 27.2 million new ordinary shares, representing 5% of its ordinary shares in issue, and is to make a concurrent offering of convertible bonds due 2017 in a nominal amount of approximately R4.5 billion, it said on Thursday, 22 March 2012. Read more >>

Gap expecting more global rivals in SA

[Annaleigh Vallie] Global specialty retailer Gap opens its first standalone store in Sandton, Johannesburg, today and has announced plans for two more stores this year. Read more >>

Craig Jacobs design capsule at Edgars Melrose Arch

From tomorrow, 21 March 2012, Fundudzi by Craig Jacobs will be on sale at Edgars Melrose Arch for one month as part of the SA Fashion Week Designer Capsule. The range, marking the arrival of the autumn/winter season, evokes the edginess of the African street in the typical understated style of the label, which has shown in catwalks across the globe from Stockholm to Luanda and Paris to Maputo. Read more >>

Barloworld Logistics, Manline in JV

Manline, a diversified logistics group providing transport, warehousing, distribution and supply chain services throughout southern Africa and Barloworld Logistics, one of southern Africa's leading logistics and supply chain management experts, announced that they had formed a joint venture, which began operations at the beginning of March 2012. Read more >>

Cannes Lions announces Press, Outdoor, Media and Direct Juries

CANNES, FRANCE: The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the world's leading celebration of creativity in communications, is pleased to announce the members of the 2012 Press, Outdoor, Media and Direct Lions juries. South Africa is represented on all four juries. Well done to Grant Jacobsen, executive creative director, DDB; Rui Alves, executive creative director, Y&R; Richard Procter, joint managing director, Vizeum, and Peter Khoury, executive creative director, MetropolitanRepublic. Read more >>

Portio Research: Huge OTT forecasts 'extremely conservative'

CHIPPENHAM, UK: The 6th edition of Portio Research's market-leading report Mobile Messaging Futures is now available, and features ground-breaking five-year OTT messaging forecasts - that project OTT traffic will surpass 20 trillion messages in 2016. Read more >>

New iPad tops three million

CUPERTINO, US: Apple has announced it has sold three million of its new iPad, since its launch on Friday, March 16. The new iPad features a new Retina display, Apple's new A5X chip with quad-core graphics, a 5 megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing photos and 1080p HD video, and the same all-day 10 hour battery life*. Read more >>

No Pain, No Gain, for SANGONeT's David Barnard

The Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) turns 25 in 2012. To celebrate this achievement, SANGONeT's CEO, David Barnard, will run 750km across three deserts on three continents as part of the annual SANGONeT "No Pain No Gain" campaign. Read more >>

PR-Net wields the sword against poor practice

Now in its 10th year, PR-Net, the peer network for communications professionals, cuts through the media winging about standards in public relations practice with four upcoming sessions that bring some of the land's most seasoned editors and media trainers to the PR industry. Read more >>

Anti-piracy efforts boosted with joint navy exercise

Commanding officers in the South African Navy and the German Navy taskforce on Thursday applauded one another at the end of a series of joint naval exercises on anti-piracy operations near Simons Town Naval Base. Read more >>

Shabangu: Transformation needed in mining

Transformation is still needed in all areas of mining, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu reiterated on Friday. Read more >>

Amendment bills to address labour broking

Cabinet has approved two bills for submission to Parliament that deal with the phenomenon of labour broking and child labour, among others. Read more >>

Molewa outlines progress on Acid Mine Drainage

Government will intensify its efforts to address the threat posed by Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) in the Witwatersrand area, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said on Thursday. Read more >>

Minister launches inquiry into fisheries tenders

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Tina Joemat-Pettersson has announced that her department would set up an inquiry to look into tender practices at the department. The department has been under scrutiny around alleged irregular processes and procedures being followed in the awarding of tenders. Read more >>

Stunningly beautiful Opel GTC

[Henrie Geyser: motoring editor] The sleek and dashing new Opel Astra GTC has made its eagerly-awaited appearance on dealer showrooms in South Africa just months after it was first shown at the Johannesburg and Frankfurt motor shows - and it is every bit as sexy to drive as it is to look at. Read more >>

[10 Things I Love About]... The Dusi

[Brian Berkman: contributing editor, travel] Paul du Toit is a South African actor known for his roles as Dean on the e.tv's Backstage and Malan Koster in M-Net's Binnelanders. He has been nominated for and won FNB Vita Awards for acting as well as taking home a Fleur du Cap award and Naledi nomination for Best Contribution to a Musical. Here's a piece from him that is all about travel with a difference! Read more >>

The Quartet

[Eugene Yiga] London comes to Cape Town in The Quartet, a new production about four opera singers preparing for a performance at their retirement home. Just because you might not be a senior citizen who loves Verdi, doesn't mean you won't find something to appreciate in this wonderful play. Read more >>

MK Award winners announced

[Duan Wanty] The 6th Annual Mk Awards took place on the 23rd of March 2012 and it was rocking! The best of the best gathered at the State Theatre in Pretoria to honour some of our hottest local talent. Every year the MK Awards gets better and better, and this year was the best by far. We can only imagine the strength of this award ceremony as it keeps growing and delivering more in the years to come. Read more >>

Creating Carnage

[Daniel Dercksen] Kids will be always be kids, but grown-ups might not always behave like adults, as conveyed with verve and humour in Roman Polanski's superb big-screen adaptation of Yasmina Reza's play God of Carnage, which was hailed by the critics and public alike, and enjoyed sell-out runs in Paris, London and on Broadway after its premiere in 2006. Read more >>

Zabalaza Theatre Festival is punk

[Johann Smith] After accepting an award for Best New Theatre at the recent Fleur de Cap, Lara Foot delivered this immortal statement: "I appreciate this acknowledgment. But when I accepted an award in 1991, the crowd was as white as it is tonight." And the usually confident veteran director, started to shake. Read more >>

Life after old age

[Daniel Dercksen] In the endearing and wistful The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, British director John Madden shows us that there is most definitely life after old age and love does indeed conquer all. Read more >>

Nicky Schrire plus 4 at The Mahogany Room

[Andra le Roux-Kemp] The Mahogany Room in Buitenkant Street is hailed for bringing jazz back to the Mother City. Based on the model of the world's greatest jazz clubs, this intimate venue has become so popular since its opening in December last year that it is almost impossible to find a seat if you do not book in advance. I can only join in the laudable chorus about this new venue on the Cape Town scene: it is small, intimate, special and real - a place where jazz lovers feel loved again. Read more >>

Mainstream is dead - Q&A with Christian Tiger School

[Justin Williams] One night downstairs at Mercury I saw a live act performing, which left an impression on me. Not knowing their name and not knowing that it was their first gig, I remember hearing a genre I could not define. It sounded breakbeat and hip hop-like, but with psychedelic and soul influences - it blew me away. Read more >>

Close encounters of the heard kind

[Eugene Yiga] Where were you on the day that the earth stood still? I'm talking about 9/11. After more than a decade, the feelings are still pretty raw, which is what Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close tries to tap into. To some, this movie will be way too close for comfort. To others, it won't be close enough. Read more >>

Superclub times

[Farah Barry] If someone had told me that singer Louise Day would make a Kings of Leon song her own, or that Just Jinjer would pull off an Adele song better than Adele herself, I would have thought that they needed their sanity tested. Yet, this was exactly what was experienced by those lucky enough to be at Trinity on Friday night. Read more >>

Splashy Fen getting ready to rock

The annual Splashy Fen Music Festival will be held in the southern Drakensberg this Easter ( 5 to 9 April, 2012), featuring more than 80 live acts showcasing genres including ska, reggae, folk, anti-folk, acoustic, drum and bass, electronica, jazz, blues, maskandi, Indian classical, and everything in-between. Read more >>

Out & about with His Kind

[Daniel Dercksen] The delectable decadence and devilish drollery of Christopher Isherwood in Christopher and His Kind is one of the many highlights at this year's Out In Africa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which runs from 23 March to 1 April in Cape Town and Joburg. Read more >>