Zimbabwe, widely criticised for mismanaging its economy, was elected on Friday as head of the Commission on Sustainable Development, the main United Nations inter-governmental body on the environment. Despite objections from Western nations, the 53-nation commission voted Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment and Tourism, Francis Nheme, as chairperson to replace oil-producer Qatar.
The month-long school boycott continued in Khutsong township near Carletonville on Friday. Some matric pupils, who had not been taught in the last five weeks, blamed the government for the lost study time. ”The person who decided to move us to the North West is to blame …,” Mamsy Khumalo, a grade 12 pupil at Badirile High School, said.
Lawyers for jailed Briton Simon Mann, the alleged mastermind of a foiled coup in Equatorial Guinea, have launched a bid to stop his extradition from Zimbabwe to the West African state. ”We have filed an appeal in the High Court,” his lawyer, Jonathan Samkange, said on Friday. Harare magistrate Omega Mugumbate on Wednesday granted an application for Mann’s extradition.
Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has described a conflict between him and President Thabo Mbeki in the run-up to the 2004 national elections. Speaking at the 10th anniversary dinner for law firm Eisenberg and Associates, Buthelezi said he and Mbeki had fallen out over the issuing of immigration regulations.
The biggest public-sector strike in a decade seemed ”unavoidable” on Friday as public-sector trade unions stood united in rejecting the government’s wage-increase offer. ”All unions are now in the process of mobilising our membership …,” said a joint statement by the Congress of South African Trade Unions and independent public-sector unions.
The Department of Home Affairs is owed R16,923-million in penalties and administrative fines, Auditor General (AG) Terence Nombembe said in a performance audit report released on Friday. The audit — a follow-up to that undertaken in 2000 — found that R8,548-million had been outstanding for more than three years and was subject to prescription under the Prescription Act.
In an unprecedented poll by a show of hands, the Pan African Parliament (PAP) voted overwhelmingly on Friday to send a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. Suzanne Vos, a member of the South African delegation to PAP, proposed a motion asking for a debate on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) has ambitious plans to build a bridge across the massive Congo river, connecting the capitals of the two Congos. Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, are visible to one another in the distance on either side of the Stanley Pool.
Lives could be affected if Gauteng’s new R600-million centralised 10111 call system did not work properly when it was implemented, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday. This comes amid the chaos surrounding the recent implementation of the new electronic national traffic information system, said DA Gauteng safety spokesperson John Moodey.
Firefighters on both United States coasts battled huge blazes early on Friday, including one that burned homes and forced residents and visitors on Santa Catalina Island to flee the resort off the southern California coast. Dozens of fire engines arrived through the night aboard giant military hovercraft.