The majority of British people remember Mark Thatcher as one of the only people who ever made his mother, former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, show any personal feelings in public. But now he has been arrested in South Africa over his alleged involvement in a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.
The South African Human Rights Commission will hold an inquiry into alleged human rights violations against the Khomani San community of the Kalahari, the commission announced on Wednesday. The inquiry will be held in the community hall of Andriesvale, in the Askham area of the Northern Cape, from October 26 to 29 with submissions from individuals, organisations and interested parties invited.
Zimbabwe’s High Court has ordered the release from custody of Zanu-PF politician and businessman James Makamba, saying all five charges against him should be dropped. Makamba, who has been in prison awaiting charges for six months, was accused of ”externalising” foreign currency.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was in consolidation mode in noon trade on Wednesday, with the profit taking in resources that began on Tuesday continuing. The rest of the market was fairly mixed. By 12.05pm, the all-share index was 0,49% softer. Resources retreated 1,18% and the gold-mining index lost 1,05%.
South Africa’s CPIX inflation (headline inflation excluding mortgage costs) was up 4,2% year-on-year (y/y) for metro and other areas in July. Absa economist John Loos said: "The July CPIX figure is better than what I had expected." Dawie Roodt, chief economist at the Efficient Group, said: "CPIX was in line with expectations."
South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says the burden of the funding for the African Union — including the Pan African Parliament — will fall on the biggest economy in Africa, South Africa. Asked about funding problems for the Pan African Parliament, she said there is "always a shortage of funds".
Short-term insurer Santam on Wednesday reported a 181% increase in its interim headline earnings per share to 518 cents for the half-year ending June 2004, up from 184 cents in the same period in 2003. The group also declared an interim dividend per share of 95 cents, up 32% from 72 cents in the previous comparative period.
Although blessed with natural wonders, Malawi is struggling to woo visitors and fulfil the poor Southern African country’s ambition of turning tourism into a strong generator of foreign currency. Malawi, which dubs itself the ”Warm Heart of Africa”, boasts a slew of national parks, game reserves, mountains and Lake Malawi — Africa’s third-largest freshwater lake.
The fire that claimed the lives of three Pollsmoor inmates is only part of a cycle of violence that prison staff fear has yet to reach its bloody climax. That climax, they say, may be the stabbing of one of their own colleagues. There have been three fires in the prison’s cavernous admissions centre over the past three days, the first on Sunday and the others — including the fatal one — on Monday afternoon.
A R5-million aid package will be taken to Nyala, West Darfur in Sudan by the Gift of the Givers Foundation on Wednesday, to help ease the region’s humanitarian crisis. The organisation will charter an aircraft to fly the package to the El-Geneina camp near the Chad border, inside Sudan, where there was a huge concentration of internally displaced refugees.