BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

Fintech can deliver answers for gig workers pushed to the brink

In recent years digital platforms — such as e-hailing and delivery services — have made it possible for workers around the world to participate in the gig economy, providing a degree of formality and stability to their work. But Covid-19 has highlighted the fragile nature of work for people in…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 4 min

LETTER: Teachers smuggling smokes in taxis

In my view, and bearing in mind his past, President Cyril Ramaphosa is a decent and honourable man. In another place and with proper support he could be an acceptable voice of reason on the world stage among leaders who seem to have gone mad. But it is impossible to…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 1 min

NEAL FRONEMAN: Earning the trust of our neighbours is crucial for miners

Developing and maintaining trust, and getting the support of stakeholders, are fundamental bases for companies to be successful and sustainable. And while this is critical in any business anywhere in the world, it is even more important in the mining industry in SA given our demographic profile and social challenges…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 5 min

LETTER: Nigeria must get its act together

My first impression on reading Dianna Games’ article was: No! You don’t say? (“Shoprite exit shows Nigeria is not an easy place for business (”, August 6). Let’s say it as it is — Nigeria is a difficult place to do business. Speaking up may even help. A range of…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 2 min

LETTER: Where’s the integrity councillors?

As unpalatable as it is to acknowledge, the biggest problem for municipalities is that they are afflicted with too many overpaid, underworked councillors. They fight tooth and nail for what is quite a lucrative career, with no qualifications required other than being able to talk the talk. Many people have…

13 Aug 2020 8AM 1 min

DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Lai a danger to a repressive regime

It is tempting to argue that China must be a weak country if it feels compelled to arrest a leading publisher in Hong Kong under a national security law for his advocacy for democracy. But the truth about Jimmy Lai is that he is a man of courage who holds…

13 Aug 2020 7AM 2 min

LETTER: SAB loves to play the victim

How convenient for SA Breweries (SAB) and Heineken to economically blackmail SA with the loss of multibillion-rand investments due to the ban on alcohol sales. As much as I should be loyal to SAB — my late father was a truck driver for the company — it has a reputation…

13 Aug 2020 7AM 1 min

BONANG MOHALE: Trust in SA can begin with sending state-capture miscreants to prison

“True leadership demands complete subjugation of self, absolute honesty, integrity and uprightness of character and fearlessness and above all, a consuming love of one’s people,” said Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe in a speech of the Completats’ Social, at Fort Hare University in 1948. There are at least two laws that are…

13 Aug 2020 7AM 6 min

Japan sympathetic to Hong Kong activists and Agnes Chow

Tokyo — Japan’s foreign minister said on Thursday that the arrests of Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow and media tycoon Jimmy Lai raised questions over freedom of speech and the press in Hong Kong and Tokyo’s concerns over the situation were growing. Chow, released on bail after her arrest…

13 Aug 2020 6AM 2 min

Lebanon judiciary to question former ministers over blast

Beirut — Lebanon’s judiciary will question finance and public works ministers who were in office in late 2013, when the stockpile of ammonium nitrate that caused last week’s devastating explosion was first unloaded at Beirut’s port. Former finance ministers Mohammed Safadi and Ali Hasan Khalil, as well as Ghazi Wazni…

13 Aug 2020 6AM 2 min

Oil price remains steady after IEA lowers 2020 demand forecast

London — Oil prices held steady on Thursday after the International Energy Agency lowered its 2020 oil demand forecast following unprecedented travel restrictions and data showing a decline in US inventories provided some support. Brent crude fell seven US cents, or 0.1%, to $45.36 a barrel by 9.33am GMT, and…

13 Aug 2020 6AM 2 min

World stocks subdued as trade wars and Covid-19 rein in bulls

London — World stocks’ return to record highs looked set to be delayed for another day on Thursday, as a stalemate in US stimulus talks, trade-war angst in both Europe and China, and the Covid-19 pandemic all reined the bulls back. A leap from Japan’s Nikkei in Asia after Wall…

13 Aug 2020 6AM 3 min

Brutal treatment of opposition activists in Belarus now an EU concern

Vilnius/Prague/Moscow — Svetlana Tikhanovskaya had won supporters hungry for change in Belarus and seemed ready to take on an authoritarian leader who has ruled the former Soviet state for 26 years. But as Sunday’s election finished with the declaration of another huge victory for Alexander Lukashenko, the 37-year-old former teacher…

13 Aug 2020 5AM 5 min

The days of a good heart-to-heart with a bartender may be over

Mount Pleasant — While there seems to be a new video every day of maskless youths blithely partying outside (and inside) bars, many people have actually been drinking less during the pandemic. Half of Americans say they aren’t excited at all about heading back to their favourite watering hole —…

13 Aug 2020 5AM 3 min

Why don’t some people play by the rules, even during a pandemic?

London — Lockdowns and social distancing measures introduced around the world to try to curb the Covid-19 pandemic are reshaping lives, legislating activities that were once everyday freedoms and creating new social norms. But there are always some people who don’t play by the rules. Rule-breaking is not a new…

13 Aug 2020 5AM 2 min

Trump campaign launches conflicting attacks on Kamala Harris

Washington — The Trump campaign is painting Kamala Harris as both a radical leftist and as insufficiently liberal to unite the progressive wing of her party behind Joe Biden. In the 24 hours since Biden announced she would be his running mate, Harris was attacked for being “the most liberal…

13 Aug 2020 5AM 2 min

Applications for Ters benefit extension to open next week

The directive allowing for the extended Covid-19 relief scheme has finally been signed and applications are expected to open next week, allowing workers to receive much-needed money. The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), which funds the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief scheme (Ters), said employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi signed the directive…

13 Aug 2020 5AM 2 min

Stamping out Brazil’s domestic slavery an uphill battle

Rio de Janeiro — Whenever Elisa goes out in her small town in northeastern Brazil, she fears seeing the family she once considered her own. After almost three decades of domestic work with no pay and little freedom, Elisa realised she was a slave and plotted to escape the household…

13 Aug 2020 5AM 6 min

How young people are driving Europe’s new coronavirus cases

It isn’t surprising that young adults are trying to return to normal life. Many found themselves living and working in the bedrooms of cramped, rented accommodation. In Britain, people aged 16 to 24 have on average only about 26m2 of liveable room in their homes. Even for those who escaped…

13 Aug 2020 4AM 3 min

Berlin clubbers turn to illegal outdoor raves as pandemic cripples city’s nightlife

Berlin — About 80 people dance to techno music throbbing out of a professional sound system decorated with neon lights in a glade in Berlin’s Grunewald forest. No face masks are in sight, and revellers keep as much or as little distance as they like. This is what an illegal…

13 Aug 2020 3AM 5 min