Editorials
HOUNDING MBOWENI FOR DOING HIS JOB

Love him or loathe him, the Reserve Bank's ubiquitous governor, Tito Mboweni, is back for another five years. That means there will be continuity in monetary policy, and it entrenches the credibility and independence of the Bank. As the storm in...

NOT DUCKING, BUT A CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Bulelani Ngcuka's departure as head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was always going to be controversial. But it need not remain so, so long as President Thabo Mbeki appoints a credible successor. As Ngcuka himself points out in an i...

GAPS IN INTERNET OPEN DOORS TO PRIVATE LIVES

Few would argue against the benefits of modern technology. But the dark side of such progress is becoming apparent, too. Among the most serious issues are those of security of information and personal privacy. Consider the proliferation of cellp...

Jamie Carr's Column
A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO PANTING UNDER PRESSURE
By Jamie Carr
I have always liked to think of myself as one who tweaks the nose of terror. Admittedly this has been a theoretical construct rather than anything tested under fire, and until last weekend the worst I had experienced was the walk down to the mi...

Letters from Readers
TIME TO GROW UP, MINERS
Ken Owen, Claremont, Cape Town.
Like French farmers, SA mining executives are fighting to preserve an obsolete way of life at the expense of the rest of us. The rand has exposed their weakness but the clamour for a weak currency is a disguised plea for a subsi...

RAND ALWAYS BLAMED
Philip van Zijl, Craighall Park, Johannesburg.
In your article "The tiger's touch" and the accompanying leader (Cover Story and Editorials July 23) you expand on the virtues of Botswana's policies versus those of SA. One of the consequences has been that the pula is ...

TATTY TIGER
Kevan Hyett, Adler-Phoenix Global Risks Consulting , Somerset West.
I refer to your Cover Story in the July 23 edition. Give Botswana credit where due, but certain glaring omissions have been made. As a businessman who was in financial services there, I can report: The manufactur...

FREE, AT A PRICE
Thulani Q Ntuli, Montgomery Park, Johannesburg.
In the few months since my return to SA after living abroad, I have realised that South Africans are paying some of the most inflated prices in the world for cars, communication technology, Internet connectivity, bank charges and the ...

BEST LETTER

Each week, the best reader's letter will win a Motorola cellphone valued at between R4 500 and R5 000. The winner this week is Ken Owen of Claremont in Cape Town. The judge this week was the editor, Caroline Southey. ...

Editor's Note
EDITOR'S NOTE
e-mail: fmeditor@bdfm.co.za
Can politicians be trusted with jobs that require them to serve the country and not the party? That's the issue behind two senior posts that made headlines over the past week - the job of Reserve Bank governor and the post of national prosecutions...