The rich are not quite as rich as they were a year ago, according to the London Sunday Times, which each year publishes a list of Britain's top 1 000 billionaires. However, they aren't exactly poor either, with combined wealth in January of £258 billion (R3.27 trillion at yesterday's exchange rate).
Among the people whose fortunes were derived outside the traditional business arena is the creator of Harry Potter, JK Rowling, at number 101 on the list with a fortune of £499 million.
She is listed as number 18 on the list of people with the fastest growing fortunes, having first appeared on the list in 1997 and notched up an annual average growth rate of £41.6 million from the revenues earned from her novels and the films based on her books.
Motor racing tycoon Bernie Ecclestone is number 24 on the rich list, with a fortune of £1.5 billion. Former South African Clive Calder, who made his money from the Zomba Record label, is at number 28 with wealth worth £1.3 billion. Former Beatle Paul McCartney is at number 120 with net worth of £440 million.
The Mascola family, at number 167, made its fortune in hairdressing, and made a killing in January by selling its hair care products operation to Unilever for £290 million. The family's wealth is estimated at £320 million.
The list includes people who live and work in Britain - but most of the richest are not British born. Topping the list is Indian-born steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, followed by Russian-born oil and industry tycoon Roman Abramovich. Number 4, with his wife Kitty, is Ernesto Bertarelli, who run Swiss biotechnology organisation the Serono group.
In again, out again
Politics isn't a predictable job, as some high-calibre MPs found out last week.
One MP who has not made it back is Pierre-Jean Gerber, the former National Party youth leader who has served ably as an ANC member of the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) for 10 years.
There were times when Gerber sounded like an opposition member, such as when he recently grilled the executive of state-owned SAA.
It looks likely that Koena Arthur Moloto, elected last year as acting finance portfolio committee chairman, will not get back either. He was an obvious choice to fill the post, but was placed low on the ANC election list.
One who is coming back - by the skin of his teeth - is KwaZulu-Natal's Yunus Carrim, who has served as public enterprises committee chairman and justice committee chairman in the last term.
Despite the fact that he was a key SA Communist Party member and an ardent supporter of ANC leader Jacob Zuma - presumably the right political credentials at this point - he found himself listed rather low. "On the cusp," as a friend put it.
Other victims of the election include Ruth Rabinowitz and Suzanne Vos, respectively the Inkatha Freedom Party health and communications spokeswomen in parliament since 1994.
Prominent election victims from the DA include Marius Swart, previously of the joint budget committee; Janet Semple, a welfare spokeswoman; and Mark Lowe, the former deputy mayor of Durban and a long-standing labour spokesman in parliament.
Deputy education minister Andre Gaum and former Scopa chairman Francois Beukman, both once members of the New National Party who then became ANC MPs, found themselves too low on the list to be re-elected.
Only one of nine New National Party MPs elected in 2004 looks set to remain in parliament: Environment Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the former party leader who joined the ANC in 2005.
Homing in on house prices
Auction Alliance has taken a serious dig at the accuracy of the house price trend data produced by property economists.
In fact, Alliance Group chief executive Rael Levitt stated that house market values had fallen more than suggested by the most pessimistic of house price surveys. Levitt believes house prices dropped by as much as 30 percent between the mid-2007 market peak and the first quarter this year.
He based his assertion on data obtained from house auctions conducted by the Alliance Group, but conceded that auctions tended to attract properties that owners were finding difficult to sell, were in a poor state of repair or were distressed sales.
The prices of properties sold at auction therefore tended to be about 10 percent lower than those achieved in the estate agent market.
John Loos, a property analyst at First National Bank, disagreed, stressing the importance of considering all marketing sales - including estate agents, auctions and private sales - when analysing residential property price trends to prevent distortions.
Loos added that the sample size of houses auctioned was not reflective of what was happening in the total market, while more distressed house sales took place via auctions, resulting in more properties being sold at a discount than in the estate agent market.
Loos's warnings about possible distortions if a price trend is calculated from data that discriminates against some selling channels appear well founded.
However, all the house price indices compiled by the major banks are based on mortgage bonds they approved, with some using deeds office residential property transfers, although these are outdated by months when they become available.
The house price indices compiled by banks therefore reflect only, or primarily, what is happening with their mortgage bond books for new loans approved - and largely exclude cash sales and transactions financed by their competitors.
It will therefore be inaccurate and of no value for home owners and prospective sellers to base the value or sale price of their homes only on these indices or auction price data.
- Edited by Peter DeIonno. With contributions by Ethel Hazelhurst, Donwald Pressly and Roy Cokayne