The prime interest rate is to drop to 11% after the Reserve Bank opted on Thursday to lower the repo rate, at which it lends money to commercial banks, to 7,5%. The decision, which caught the market by surprise, was prompted by an improved inflation outlook says Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni.
While some disgruntled customers would probably like to see South African telecommunications giant Telkom burn in hell, the parastatal this week took exception to the popular website Hellkom and threatened the creator with a R5-million lawsuit for copyright infringement.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=120223">Telkom sues website owner for R5m</a>
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As the African National Congress passed the 10-million vote mark on Friday, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said that the turnout for the third democratic elections had been an impressive 76,9%. At present the ANC has 69,6% of the votes counted so far.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>With just over 88,2% of votes captured by early Friday morning, the African National Congress has nearly garnered 70% of the votes. With the preliminary count updated at 3am, the ruling party was heading the national race with 9,39-million of the votes counted, which translates into 69,67% — continuing to make gains on its apparent two-thirds majority.
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The election in KwaZulu-Natal was a neck-and-neck race between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress on Thursday. The counting of the votes has been slow in the province due to rigorous auditing of the electronic capturing of votes.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The Independent Democrats, contesting its first election on Wednesday, surpassed the long-established New National Party in early poll counts on Thursday morning. By mid-morning, the ID had garnered 123 292 votes or 2,24% of the votes counted, putting them in fourth place. The NNP was in fifth place with 121 928 votes, or 2,21%.
Corpses littered the streets of the Iraqi town of Fallujah on Thursday as United States marines met ferocious resistance in the Sunni Muslim bastion. Meanwhile, Polish and Bulgarian forces were attacked in Karbala and cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s headquarters were destroyed in Sadr City.
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, sought by United States forces, said on Tuesday he left the fortress-like mosque where he has been holed up for days, surrounded by armed supporters. Also, Basra was under Iraqi police control on Tuesday after US-led forces and al-Sadr supporters struck a deal to avoid further deadly clashes.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=33724">On the brink of anarchy</a>