China announced a food industry clean-up on Wednesday after exports of a contaminated ingredient in pet food drew global attention to insufficient product controls. It will prioritise the inspection of fertiliser and pesticide use in vegetable planting as well as animal medicines and additives in livestock feed.
A Zimbabwe court agreed on Wednesday to extradite a Briton wanted on coup-plot charges in Equatorial Guinea, rejecting defence arguments he would not receive a fair trial. Simon Mann, a former British special forces officer, has been held in Zimbabwe since he was convicted in September 2004 of attempting to purchase weapons without a licence.
The Constitutional Court will decide on Thursday whether to extend the definition of rape to men. At the moment, rape is defined as non-consensual vaginal penetration. The Pretoria director of public prosecutions has asked the court to include non-consensual anal rape in that definition.
Advertisements offering certain work-from-home opportunities are now illegal, said the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on Wednesday. New Department of Trade and Industry regulations make various ”work-from-home ‘opportunities’ illegal. These include opportunities to ‘fill envelopes’ and ‘type labels’,” said the ASA.
The Constitutional Court has reserved judgement in Cosatu’s application for leave to appeal a finding that Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) decisions be subject to appeal and not just to review. The finding was made by the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2006 when it overturned a CCMA decision that Rustenburg Platinum Mines reinstate a security guard.
Nominal house-price growth of 15,5% year-on-year was recorded in April from a revised 15,7% in March, according to the latest Absa house-price index. This brings the average price of a house in the survey to R911Â 800 in April. On a month-on-month basis, nominal price growth declined further to 0,9% in April.
Traffic stations countrywide are open on Wednesday after an upgrade of the new electronic national traffic information system (eNaTIS), the Department of Transport said. ”Today we are open for business throughout the country,” said national spokesperson Collen Msibi.
South African IT firm Dimension Data doubled first-half adjusted earnings per share as more companies adopted internet-based communications, but it forecast slower revenue growth in the second half. Didata said on Wednesday earnings per share before one-off items rose to 1,8 US cents in the six months to the end of March from 0,9 US cents in the year-ago period.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is to request a special debate in Parliament about the poor performance of the courts, spokesperson Sheila Camerer said on Wednesday. ”Effective and efficient courts are essential in the fight against crime,” she said in a statement. Among other things, court sitting hours had steadily decreased over the past three years.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is presiding over a ”government of the living dead” as his ministers await the sack once he leaves office, the opposition leader scoffed on Wednesday. Conservative chief David Cameron said the government was paralysed while it waited for Blair to quit and his successor to be installed, during rowdy, knockabout exchanges with Blair in Parliament.