EMPOWERMENT icon Brimstone looks set to cause a flutter among the corporate fashionistas and perennially fashionable value investors.

This week Brimstone signalled an intention to cast off its investment in fashion retailer Rex Trueform (RexTru).

Brimstone acquired an effective 34.6% stake in RexTru in late 2007.

At last count, the empowerment company’s interest in Rextru was spread as follows: 242 654 Rextru ordinary shares and 2.6 million Rextru N-shares as well as 254 126 ordinary shares and 3.7 million N-shares in Rextru’s pyramid holding African & Overseas Enterprises.

That’s a holding roughly worth R50m, but – more importantly – a holding representing a big chunk of a company which cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be regarded as one of the JSE’s most liquid counters.

Despite the canine connotation of Rex – having been schooled in the classics at Muir College in Uitenhage, I do know Rex is actually latin for “king” – the company is no dog. Rextru, which owns the Queenspark fashion chain, has proved a remarkably resilient (and rewarding) business over the years.

Originally, Rextru was to form part and parcel of Brimstone’s longer-term plans to build a fashion brand house around its clothing manufacturing subsidiary, House of Monatic (HoM).

I suspect that plan is no longer on the table. And Brimstone directors admit as much in commentary that accompanies the company’s recently released year to end-December results.

In reference to the Rextru investment, they noted: “Events and developments within the clothing industry and specifically within Brimstone’s clothing cluster have given cause for Brimstone to review its strategy.”

Brimstone unlikely to be panicked

In this regard Rextru is no longer considered strategic, which means Brimstone is “actively pursuing opportunities to extract maximum value” from the Rextru investment.

For those that need reminding, Brimstone’s clothing cluster was dealt a heavy body blow when subsidiary Fifth Element was liquidated after some unsavoury business practices were uncovered in an internal investigation.

In any event HoM – which thankfully does hold some valuable industrial properties – posted a loss of R30m after factoring in write-offs and expenses.

Still, Brimstone probably won’t be panicked into selling Rextru. Indeed the empowerment company, which has a strong portfolio ranging from healthcare to fishing and assurance to insurance, can afford to sit back and collect the dividends from Rextru.

I reckon, though, Brimstone has done a clever thing in “putting out” its intentions for Rextru. It certainly would not surprise me to hear that Brimstone was inundated with polite calls of enquiry from interested parties – probably ranging from larger fashion retailers to private equity specialists.

I even wonder whether former asset manager Hugh Roberts, who already holds a sizeable position in Rextru, might be tempted to harness a bigger stake?

While there should be no shortage of buyers for Brimstone’s Rextru stake, there is a question around price. When Brimstone struck the deal to buy out Old Mutual’s stake in Rextru and Af&Over, the shares were trading at around 800c and 600c respectively on the JSE.

The shares have crept up, but are still – according to my calculations – trading below tangible net asset value. NAV aside, the earnings multiple on Rextru is well below its larger peers like Foschini, Mr Price and Truworths.

In other words, I don’t think Brimstone will be looking at a 1 000c/share offer for its Rextru shares or 800c/share for its Af&Over shares.

The thing is that there is so much potential tucked away in Rextru, more specifically Queenspark, that it seems quite possible that a larger fashion conglomerate or private equity firm could well be willing to fork out a premium.

One has to consider that Rextru, run for generations as a family-controlled business, has always erred on the side of caution.

Quite striking is the fact that at last count Rextru had over R100m in the bank and a chain of around 50 Queenspark stores.

Perhaps the real potential of the business could come to the fore with a chain of 100 Queenspark stores and only R50m in the bank?

source: – Fin24.com

Popularity: 1% [?]

UITENHAGE-BORN businessman, Butityi Konki, may be in the queue to purchase ailing Port Elizabeth-based First Division soccer side Bay United.

Konki, who is International Boxing Federation lightweight contender Ali Funeka’s business manager, said he would not have a problem being the club’s new owner after United owners, Izingwe Holdings’ decision to get rid of the club.

Izingwe Holdings threw in the towel after United’s failure to return to the Premier Soccer League (PSL) next season.

“Izingwe Holdings regrets to announce that Bay United Football Club will immediately cease conducting business while beginning an extensive process that may lead to the sale of the club,” a statement released by the club said.

“I’m going to speak to my legal advisers in Port Elizabeth about whether to get involved at Bay United or not. I could be interested in the club as many people have called asking me to buy it,” said Konki.

Apart from the club’s failure to return to the PSL, the owners say there were other issues that prompted them to give up on Umlilo.

These included the PSL’s imposition of a R1.3 million liability following the club’s retrenchment of players at the end of the 2008/9 season.

Their unsuccessful attempts to get financial and other forms of sponsorship assistance from the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, the Eastern Cape provincial government and commercial sponsors, also contributed to Izingwe Holdings’ decision. “We will engage with all the creditors of the club, including the players. No final decision will be taken until discussions have been held with all relevant parties.

“We undertake to do our best to resolve this matter in the best interests of all parties,” said club boss Sipho Pityana.

Pityana tried to sell United to Konki after they were relegated from the PSL at the end of last season, but the deal fell through.

Pityana informed Konki last year that he was selling United for R15m, but the Johannesburg-based businessman said he was prepared to part with only R5m. “There was no way that I could pay that kind of money for a team that had just been relegated from the PSL.

“I was only prepared to pay R5m but I got no response after writing to Pityana indicating my interest,” said Konki.

- By MONWABISI JIMLONGO

source: Daily Dispatch

Popularity: 2% [?]

A ONE-OF-A-KIND designer dress and a chance to model it is just one of the great prizes The Herald Spec- Savers Miss Port Elizabeth 2010 finalists can look forward to.

A group of talented local designers has been given the task of designing a dream dress for each of the finalists, to be worn at the gala.

Mum’s has sponsored the 10 designers with R10000 and they have been told to let their imaginations run wild to create the ultimate “red carpet diva” design. The look must be feminine and beautiful, with a subtle underlying sex appeal.

The chosen designers include up-and-coming couturiers Natalie Creed, Megan Holden, Zuhdi Abdol, Ati Qina and Thabo Makhetha, who wowed audiences during the Weekend Post Fashion Challenge last year, and well- known local designers and regular La Femme bridal fair exhibitors Colinda Raath, Lee-Anne Griffiths, Leandra Fourie, Jason Kieck and Johan Wolmarans.

The designer dress prize goes with a host of others for the winner and runners-up, adding up to a total of R546000. The title winner alone will receive prizes worth more than R345029.

This includes an all-expenses- paid cruise on the MSC Sinfonia to Portuguese Island in the Bay of Maputo in southern Mozambique, courtesy of Uniglobe Bay Travel, and the use of a new 1,4 Polo Comfortline, including insurance for the year, from Market Square VW, Uitenhage.

Those interested in winning The Herald Spec-Savers Miss Port Elizabeth 2010 title can go to www.theherald.co.za for how to enter and call 041-5047300 to book a free photographic shoot.

Source: The Weekend Post

Popularity: 2% [?]

A FACE-LIFT is on the cards for a dilapidated primary school in Uitenhage, teachers and parents heard yesterday.

Members of Bhisho’s standing committee on education yesterday visited Jubilee Park Primary School, where they promised the woes of the school’s plank classrooms would be a thing of the past.

Standing committee chairman Mzoleli Mrara and chief whip Christian Martin highlighted government’s commitment to building new classrooms and erecting a boundary fence.

Mrara, who visited the school for the second time since October, said the situation at Jubilee was unacceptable.

Some classrooms had no electricity and there were holes in the roof, making it impossible to work.

“I have noted it’s like night time on days when it is overcast and this is unacceptable,” he said.

“There is no fence at this school, and I know it is difficult to control discipline and the school is vulnerable to thugs,” he said.

He said Jubilee Park Primary would be on the education department’s priority list.

“It is our responsibility to restore dignity to this school and I am committing myself to ensuring new classrooms are built.”

Jubilee Park Primary principal Lorna Basuman said 20 new classrooms were needed, including a science laboratory and a library.

Former principal Hamilton Peterson said pupils had suffered over the years.

“In winter water comes into the classrooms.

“The place was even named a health hazard by health department officials and the municipality,” he said.

The committee addressed the Chatty Greenfields community in Booysen Park on plans for the establishment of a mobile classroom.

Mrara said work on a plot for a mobile school would begin next week.

He said 275 children who were idling at home because of a shortage of schools in Chatty Greenfields had been registered as part of a plan to establish a mobile school in the area.

The children, predominantly from grades R to 2, will receive classes at the primary school by next quarter.

Mrara said: “Every child must go to school because we are building the future.”

He pleaded with the community to look after the mobile school and the permanent school that was to be built next year.

source: The Weekend Post

Popularity: 6% [?]

IN just two months, Goodyear South Africa has managed to save 5,6 million litres of water – the amount 180 houses would use in a month – through an intensive, ongoing recycling initiative.

While water restrictions do not yet apply to industry, the tyre firm is trying to save where it can, in light of the Eastern Cape’s critical water shortage.

Utilities manager Douglas North said last week that the Uitenhage plant had adopted a three-fold approach to saving water. It recycled waste water from its boiler house, collected and reused water run-off, and ensured steam condensate from various production processes did not go to waste.

The recovered water was either redirected through a newly-installed, separate plumbing system to the plants’ toilets or used as makeup water for cooling machinery. The firm had also installed numerous water meters to monitor water usage – and further reduce consumption where it could.

North said: “Goodyear’s biggest water user is our boiler house. It uses an electro-boiler – where the water itself is the element and therefore must be very pure. We make use of a reverse osmosis filter plant to purify city water, but it has a high backwash cleaning cycle. For each litre of water it cleans up, about half a litre is wasted. This water used to go into the sewer system. Now, it is directed to our toilets or process water that is used to cool machinery.”

He said the recycled water was being closely monitored by water treatment experts to ensure it was sufficiently clean and not corrosive to the firm’s piping system.

“The water recovered from the reverse osmosis process has a high dissolved solid content. This is reduced by blending it with recycled water.”

Goodyear Risk Control manager Rene van der Merwe said the plant also utilised a pit designed to catch storm water run-off along with any other water resulting from leaks, for example, in the plant.

“The water is passed through filters and then redirected to a storage tank and collected as required.”

The company’s water saving initiative was primarily driven by the severe water shortage in the Eastern Cape. However, it also formed part of a larger Goodyear philosophy termed the “3-R principle” – reduce, reuse and recycle

“From an environmental point of view, Goodyear We evaluate all potential waste by the 3-R principle to minimise our impact on the environment,” Van der Merwe said.

In addition to its water-saving initiative, the plant was recently recognised for its eco-friendly waste management – resulting in an 85% reduction of non-recyclable waste – with its on-site waste management supplier achieving ISO 14001 certification, one of the highest global standards for environmental management systems.

source:  The Weekend Post

Popularity: 10% [?]

by Reports by Katlego Moeng

PAUL Verryn is a member of the dying breed of activist priests. A church minister since he was 21, Verryn says all he ever wanted was to fight for – and with – the poor.

In an interview just before his suspension by the Methodist Church, this social activist spoke of his history and inspiration.

“My first social conscientising was at a very young age with our helper, Julie Nkadimeng. She always shared stories of how apartheid affected her family.

“What I took from her was that it was a system that alienated black people. She took a bet with me that I would forget what she taught me and I vowed to never forget.”

The embattled 58-year-old Pretoria- born clergyman admits that he “can be rude and my tongue can be cutting”.

He is no stranger to being at odds with the powers that be.

Read more »

Popularity: 7% [?]

Popularity: 36% [?]

Image 1 of 3 JOAN HOMAN (nee Booysen) 20 years after the ordeal.

THE only girl who escaped from notorious paedophile Gert van Rooyen almost 20 years ago says the second she looked into his eyes she saw “pure evil”. Two months away from the 20th anniversary of her escape, Joan Homan (nee Booysen) told about the day she was abducted and drugged by Van Rooyen and his lover and accomplice, Francina Johanna Hermina (Joey) Haarhoff.

Speaking at a luncheon in Uitenhage, Homan told the story of her abduction and escape.

The story of Van Rooyen and his six missing victims has baffled police and the public alike for two decades. Despite countless investigations, rumours, forensic testing and the finding of bones, the six girls have never been found.

The disappearances of Tracy-Lee Scott-Crossley, 14, Fiona Harvey, 12, Joan Horn, 12, Odette Boucher, 11, Anne-Mari Wapenaar, 12, and Yolanda Wessels, 13, have all been linked to Van Rooyen after they were abducted in Gauteng between 1988 and ’90.

Homan, then 16 and in Std 9 (Grade 11), was kidnapped for a few hours on January 11, 1990. It was Homan’s abduction and subsequent escape that gave police the evidence they needed to close in on Van Rooyen, who police suspected had been involved in the disappearances for quite some time.

Homan said she did not consider herself a hero, even after providing police with the information they needed to move in on Van Rooyen and Haarhoff.

Using Homan’s information and descriptions of the couple, police placed their Pretoria home under surveillance.

Van Rooyen shot himself and Haarhoff as police were giving chase, also killing all chances of ever finding the six missing girls.

Homan said she had missed her usual bus to school that morning, when a blonde woman approached her on Church Square, Pretoria, where she was waiting for the next available bus to take to school.

“People always warn you not to speak to strangers. I knew I should never speak to strange men but no one ever warns you never to speak to friendly old ladies. She was friendly and very kind. I never suspected a thing,” Homan said.

Haarhoff, in the now infamous blonde wig with which she disguised herself, approached Homan at the bus stop and offered her a job.

“I told her I was still at school, but we started talking. She said she could give me information which I could give to friends. She then asked me where I was going and I told her. She said she was going in that direction and offered me a lift. I did not suspect a thing,” Homan said.

On the way to school, Homan said, Haarhoff told her she needed to stop off at her home. After entering the Malherbe Street, Capital Park, house Haarhoff then said there was no one at home. They would have to wait. She offered Homan a cooldrink inside and she accepted.

“We walked through the house. She told me she worked at a nursery. As we walked past the main bedroom I saw a man behind me. It was Gert van Rooyen. He slapped me and I fell down. When I looked up I was staring into a revolver,” she said.

Haarhoff produced a handful of pills. Van Rooyen forced Homan to drink them at gunpoint.

“When I looked at him all I saw was evil. He had beady eyes. All I thought was that this man is the villain. They told me they would demand a ransom. They then locked me in a cupboard.” Homan said she said a quick prayer and then looked at how she could get out of the cupboard.

“There was a polystyrene cooler box in the cupboard. I used the lid to open the hook on the other side which was keeping both doors closed,” said Joan, who at the time was a big fan of the TV show MacGyver.

She made her way to the lounge and looked outside. Haarhoff was in the garden but there was no sign of Van Rooyen. She phoned her cousin, telling her what had happened and where the house was.

“I ran outside. There was a man driving down the street. I stopped him and told him I had been kidnapped. I got into the car and the man drove away. “I passed out in the car from the pills they gave me,” she said.

That evening the police placed Van Rooyen’s home under surveillance.

Homan said her heart went out to the mothers of the six girls who had never received closure on their daughters’ fate.

Now a manager in Centurion, Homan said she had moved on with her life. Although her children knew what she had live through, they hardly ever talked about it. She is very close to her sisters, Elsenette Cronje, now of Despatch, and Lizelle Booysen, of Durban.

source: The Weekend Post

Popularity: 37% [?]

Thieves mourn the Citi Golf, It was number one on hijackers’ wanted list’.

Even car thieves have been left with lumps in their throat as the last Volkswagen Citi Golf to be produced goes into retirement at a museum at the manufacturer’s plant in the Eastern Cape town of Uitenhage.

I don’t know how many I stole, but the car is a legend 

MULTIMEDIA

• Citi Golf farewell

Volkswagen punted the Citi Golf as South Africa’s best-selling car, but didn’t mention that it occupied poll position on the “wanted” lists of criminal networks.

Some criminals said the Citi Golf ranked as one of the vehicles most likely to be taken away from its owner – either through theft or by force.

As the curtain comes down on a made-in-South-Africa motoring legend, convicted car thieves shed some light on why Citi Golfs are in high demand by criminals.

“The demand for the Citi Golf is always there in the townships,” said a 35-year-old convicted car thief and hijacker, who asked not to be named, and who is now serving a 15-year term at Durban’s Westville prison.

“I don’t know how many I stole, but that car is a legend. You can customise and do anything you want with it; I think that is why people like it so much.”

His cellmate, a 37-year-old serving 20 years for the same crimes, said: “I stole many cars . BMW 325s, Jumbos [VW Golf mark 2] and VR6s [Golf mark 3]. But the Citi Golf was always the easiest to sell.”

Both men claim that they never shot their hijacking victims.

The 37-year-old said they would go to various Durban suburbs or to the inner city looking for a specific car to steal, but would hijack a driver only if they couldn’t find one parked.

“Hijacking is a more serious crime than theft,” said the 37-year-old.

When hot, a new Citi Golf would be sold for between R6,000 and R8,000.

“Hot” refers to the period shortly after the car was stolen or hijacked and before its identity was changed, he said.

Once the car “cooled down,” thanks to an expert who removed and re-stamped vehicle identity tags and engine numbers – and in some cases re-sprayed it – its value would increase.

“When it had been completely done, we would sell a new Citi Golf for between R10,000 and R15,000, depending on the condition and skill of the person doing it. If you trust that person, and he has worked on cars before that never had problems with the police, then you could charge a good price,” said the 37-year-old.

New Citi owners were outraged in 2007 when a major insurance company refused to insure Citi Golfs assembled between 2004 and 2006 because of the rate at which they were being stolen.

The move affected about 2000 policyholders though the insurance company, Hollard, has since changed its stance and now provides cover for the car.

But not even the threat of parting with the vehicle unceremoniously would deter those who loved the Citi from buying it.

Bank employee Sibusiso Goba, a confessed VW fan, who bought his VeloCiti in 2005, said: “My philosophy is that I will never deprive myself of something that I love because of another person.”

First introduced as the VW Golf mark 1 in 1978, the car was later given a face-lift and re-introduced as the Citi Golf in 1984.

Volkswagen intended to produce it for only five years – but ended up making it for the next 25.

In 1984, available in yellow, blue and red – thanks to some creative input from fashion designer Jenni Button – it proved a hit.

And for decades South Africans were sold on its stylish looks, reliability and economy. Some have even confessed to having had some hanky-panky in a Citi. More than 600,000 of them were sold in South Africa, despite their lack of safety features. But some have wondered what the fuss is all about.

Jeanne Fochessati, owner of a black Citi Rox, said on the car’s farewell website www.goodbyeciti.co.za : “True what they say – if you’ve never owned one, you’ll never understand.”

source: Time Live

Popularity: 23% [?]

DIE-HARD Citi Golf fans are at war over who will win the bid for the last available VW Citi – rated as a highly collectible piece of history.

The website bidding on the iconic car started on November 3 at just R1, but by yesterday had reached R160100.

The bidorbuy website offering has received about 7000 visits, and managing director Andy Higgs said the bidding had gone much higher than expected.

The Citi’s market price is R113500.

“There are passionate fans out there – and whoever wins it will own a highly collectible piece of history,” Higgs said of the “puzzling” mathematics.

He said the bidding war was between 24 individuals, who are anonymous and can only be identified by the public by their user names. “They can use an automatic bid (to up their offer) depending on their limit.”

What made this particular car so special, said Higgs, was that it was the third-last to roll off the production line. The last two Citis produced, numbered 001 and 002, would be preserved for posterity in the Autostadt museum in Wolfsburg, Germany, and at the AutoPavilion museum in Uitenhage.

This car is one of the 1000 numbered limited-edition models. “The closing date is November 23 at 9pm. We don’t think (the bidding) will get much higher – but we might be surprised,” Higgs said.

source: The Weekend Post

Popularity: 21% [?]