Former Morning Live co-presenter Michelle Garforth said on Monday that internal politics at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) led to her early departure from the breakfast show. She now plans to produce an African travel and conservation show for the international market.
Angolan police plan to resume a crackdown on suspected diamond and other traffickers that has led to the expulsion of about 120Â 000 Congolese and 35Â 000 West Africans, a senior police official said. ”I am satisfied with the results of the first stage … in the coming weeks, the results will be even better,” a police official said.
Vincor International, one of North America’s largest producers of wine and related products, has acquired the shares of UK-based privately held Western Wines, the largest independent wine importer and distributor in the United Kingdom and the largest importer of South African wines to the UK.
Harmony has made record production despite having downscaled some of its ”marginal shafts”, with production increasing for the seventh year in a row, the company said on Monday. The company said 3,3-million ounces of gold, 11% more than the previous year, were produced during the financial year ended on June 30 2004.
There is no possibility whatsoever that Christmas will be cancelled as a holiday, said African National Congress spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama on Sunday. He was responding to a story in the Sunday Times saying all public holidays in South Africa are up for review and some might be scrapped.
The price of all grades of petrol is to decline by 23 cents a litre (c/l) on August 4 after a 17c/l drop was implemented on July 7, the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) said on Monday. In a statement detailing the monthly fuel price changes, the DME said the price of diesel 0,3% sulphur will fall by 12c/l, while that of diesel 0,05% sulphur will decline by 13c/l.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was in negative territory just before midday on Monday, with a firming in the rand sparking profit taking after the bourse’s strong run last week. Weakness in world markets on concerns about possible terrorist attacks on United States financial institutions, as well as a higher oil price, further dampened sentiment.
The repatriation of one of Africa’s oldest refugee populations from Sudan to Eritrea is expected to be completed by the end of this year, the United Nations refugee agency said. Many of the refugees have lived in eastern Sudan for more than 30 years, having fled fighting and famine during Eritrea’s long independence war.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled on Monday that a news story published by the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> newspaper about former housing minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele was defamatory, but not actionable. The SCA in Bloemfontein dismissed an appeal by Mthembi-Mahanyele against a decision of the Johannesburg High Court in the newspaper’s favour.
Namibia’s health officials are grappling with the magnitude of the HIV/Aids pandemic in the Caprivi Strip, which borders three of the world’s worst-affected countries — Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. The HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women in the Caprivi region stands at 43%.