(Gemma Ritchie/M&G)
In local headlines:
The Star
Families of victims who died when Prophet TB Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations building collapses in Lagos, Nigeria, four years ago are still searching for answers.
- Families want government to answer for deaths of firemen
Tears and flowers did little to wipe away the pain of weeping families who want the government to take responsibility for the deaths of three firefighters at the Bank of Lisbon building last week.
Business Day
- State pension fund may invest billions offshore
The pension fund that looks after R2-trillion on behalf of government workers may shift hundreds of billions of rand offshore as it seeks to reduce its dependence on the local market.
- New York topples Brexit-hit London
New York has overtaken London as the world’s most attractive financial centre, a survey said on Wednesday, as Britain’s decision to leave the EU prompts banks to shift jobs out of the city to keep access to Europe’s singe market.
- Financial sector still locks out black asset managers
Black asset management firms still manage only 6% of all savings and investments, and 0.8% of unit trust assets in SA, according to the latest survey on transformation in the asset management industry released on Wednesday.
The Citizen
There was no water in the government building that went up in flames last week and a firefighter says they had to fight the blaze — in which three of his colleagues died — “with their bare hands”.
- We’ll step up land invasions — Juju
EFF leader Julius Malema says his supports will increasingly seize land to pressure government.
Sowetan
- Act of kindness may have killed boys
Phumzile Mbatha cried uncontrollable as she recalled how her two sons died from suspected food poisoning.
- No such thing as state capture
Former president Jacob Zuma told scores of students at Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha on Wednesday that allegations of state capture were a “distortion”.
In global headlines
Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has vehemently defended the imprisonment of the two Reuters journalists, who were given seven-year jail terms after reporting on the massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Rahkine state.
Suu Kyi had remained notably silent over the case, which was widely condemned by international governments and the UN as a miscarriage of justice and a symbol of the major regression of freedom of expression in Myanmar. (The Guardian)
A video of Harvey Weinstein shows him appearing to proposition and repeatedly stroking the arm of a woman who later accused him of rape.
Melissa Thompson, who sued Weinstein in June, said she made the recording, shown by Sky News, while demonstrating video technology for the movie mogul at his New York City office in 2011. (The Guardian)
Officials in the potential path of a still fierce Hurricane Florence had a stern, clear message for people still in coastal towns under evacuation orders: Leave. Now.
“You put your life at risk by staying,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said. “Don’t plan to leave once the winds and rains start.” (CNN)
Pope Francis summoned bishops from around the world to Rome for an unprecedented meeting focused on protecting minors. The order on Wednesday comes as the pope wrestles with a global clerical sexual abuse crisis and explosive accusations of a cover-up that have shaken his papacy and the entire Roman Catholic Church.
The extraordinary meeting marks the first time that presidents of bishops’ conferences worldwide have been summoned for a meeting on a specific topic — more than 100 will be there — and the choice of topic was telling. (The New York Times)
Scientists working in Blombos Cave in South Africa’s southern Cape region have made a discovery that changes our understanding of when our human ancestors started expressing themselves through drawings. They’ve found a 73 000-year-old cross-hatched drawing on a silcrete (stone) flake. (The Conversation)