At least 27 people were feared drowned when a cargo boat on which they were traveling capsized during a heavy storm on Lake Victoria, Tanzanian police said on Thursday. The cargo vessel MV Nyamageni was carrying 27 people and 100 crates of soda and beer from the town of Bukoba to the port of Mwanza when it capsized on Saturday.
"I like to get to where I am going without a fuss. I also enjoy power steering, air conditioning and a radio for news." Cape Town mayor Helen Zille once spent an entire month’s salary on a traffic offence. She speaks to Sukasha Singh about cars.
While the government’s affirmative action and black economic empowerment (BEE) policies help a few people in South Africa, they do so at the expense of the desperate many, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. However, if such policies are implemented without sacrificing merit, it is theoretically possible to achieve a ”win-win” situation for all.
Cricket Australia on Friday opened a state-of-the-art facility that its Test team will use as a base while fine-tuning plans to regain the Ashes from England. The new Centre of Excellence in Brisbane includes a video analysis room, a top-class gymnasium and integrated sports science facilities.
United States computer software titan Microsoft reported on Thursday that third-quarter income rose 16,4% due to demand for its latest products. Net income for the quarter tallied ,89-billion, or 29 cents per share, as compared with ,3-billion for that quarter in 2005, according to Microsoft.
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The state completed its closing arguments in the Jacob Zuma rape trial on Friday, asking the Johannesburg High Court to find him guilty. Prosecutor Charin de Beer told Judge Willem van der Merwe that Zuma’s version of events should not be considered the truth.
Opposition political groups and civil society movements in Zimbabwe have started consultations to form a united front to support a single candidate in the 2008 presidential election, 23 months ahead of the crucial poll — along the lines of Kenya’s National Rainbow Coalition, which brought President Mwai Kibaki to power in 2002.
More people have died in connection with the security guard strike than any other since 1994, prompting one prominent Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) leader to suggest that Cosatu’s South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) should consider calling off industrial action.
”For the strike, neh, we need money, of course. You see, you’re supposed to strike but it’s wrong [for strikers] to fight people like us. What’s your family going to eat? Nothing.” The Mail & Guardian‘s interview with Johannesburg security guard Roger highlights a paradox — many non-strikers appear to support the goals of the countrywide labour action by security guards, citing the dangers of the job and poor pay.
Both the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) — principal providers of scarce funds to the film industry — turned down the Oscar-winning movie Tsotsi several times when approached by its producers, the Mail & Guardian has learned.