NO ROOM FOR GRUMPS
By Linda Stafford
If you agree that the greatest restaurants and bars are more about theatre than food and drink, then The Grand Café is where you should be if you are in Plettenberg Bay this season. Not that the food and drink are in any way poor cou...

SNAP DECISION
By Larry Claasen
If you're feeling generous, HP's latest 10-megapixel digital camera will make a welcome gift this festive season. The HP Photosmart R967 is a nice gadget. Though not quite as user-friendly as the old point-'n-shoot cameras you grew up ...

FROM BOOTS TO BIDS
By David Williams
When the luxury Cape Town apartment of an impeached Nigerian politician was sold to the highest bidder for R12,6m in early November, the auctioneer was a familiar face to many. Christian Stewart played centre for Western Province an...

PUTTING DOWN ROOTS
By Sven Lünsche
More than 10m foreigners have entered SA legally over the past 15 years, but many of them don't go back. An analysis of immigration statistics by T-Sec economist Mike Schussler found that 10,1m foreigners had legally entered the co...

SA'S STINKOMETER READING
By Prakash Naidoo
Last week, President Thabo Mbeki lambasted the media for even suggesting that there might be a bad whiff over politicians' involvement as beneficiaries of companies involved in the Gautrain project. But it turns out South Africans are ...

RIGHT MAN, RIGHT PLACE
By Thandeka Gqubule
Have you ever wondered what happened to Nico Czypionka, the rather conservative former Standard Bank chief economist, who was replaced with the more centrist and better-connected Iraj Abedian? He has resurfaced in Botswana as direct...

101 REPO RATE
By Claire Bisseker
What is the repo rate? The repo rate or repurchase rate is the Reserve Bank's official monetary policy instrument and is the interest rate at which it lends money to commercial banks. How does the repo rate affect prime? ...

HOW TO PULL A WOMAN
By Larry Claasen
Do girls find you "sweet" but not dating material? Are you stuck in the "friend zone"? Date doctor Ramon Thomas is in the business of helping single men find Miss Right. For R500 a week, Thomas provides two hours of consulting along with u...

THIS CHANNEL MEANS BUSINESS
By Chris Gilmour
On May 7 next year, CNBC will be replaced on the DStv bouquet by CNBC Africa. The channel will broadcast live coverage from Johannesburg, Cape Town, Abuja, Lagos, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam on Africa's financial markets and news. It is ...

WINNERS & LOSERS

WINNER Calie Pistorius The Human Rights Centre of the University of Pretoria, of which he is VC, won the Unesco prize for human rights education. The award recognises its "outstanding contribution to the cause of human rig...

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

SEPP BLATTER, president of Fifa, expressing concern to SA organising committee head Danny Jordaan about the slow progress in building stadiums for the 2010 World Cup. ...