The war between the Sunday Times and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang continued in this weekend’s edition of the newspaper. It alleged that she had required her liver transplant this year because she was an alcoholic, and that she had been convicted of theft while working in Botswana in 1976.
The Eastern Cape government has rejected a claim by a suspended hospital official that 200 babies have been dying every month at East London’s two largest hospitals. The former deputy manager of the East London Hospital Complex, Dr Nokuzola Ntshona, made the claim in an interview published in the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>.
Peruvian rescue teams scrambled on Friday to find survivors in the disaster zone of a powerful earthquake that killed about 500 people and where an aftershock of 6,0 magnitude struck on Friday, the United States Geological Survey and witnesses said. The main quake of 8,0 magnitude hit on Wednesday.
Despite Airports Company South Africa’s excellent annual results, airline passengers are still going to be hit with increased fees, the Board of Airline Representatives of South Africa said on Friday. Airlines have no choice but to incorporate increased airport tariffs into the price of their tickets.
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) opted on Thursday to increase its key repo rate by 50 basis points to 10%, its monetary policy committee said. The repo is the rate at which the SARB lends to commercial banks, whose prime lending rate will rise — also by 0,5 percentage points — to 13,5%.
The Public Protector is at an "advanced stage" in a reinvestigation of the so-called Oilgate scandal, originally uncovered by the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>. Advocate Lawrence Mushwana says his office is finalising its investigations and a report will be tabled in Parliament soon.
The death toll in massive suicide bombings on Tuesday in northern Iraq has risen to at least 500, CNN reported local officials in Nineveh province as saying on Wednesday. Earlier figures had put the death toll at more than 200. The assault is one of the deadliest global attacks since the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
The people behind the "special browse" report — about an alleged plot to overthrow the government — must be identified, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Saturday following the announcement of the outcome of a government probe into the origin of the document. "[We] will be very interested to see whether any of them are arrested and convicted," Cosatu said.
The editor of <i>ZimOnline</i>, an independent Zimbabwe news agency based in South Africa, was shot and seriously wounded this week in Johannesburg, its deputy editor said on Thursday. The attack on Abel Mutsakani occurred Monday night as he arrived at his Johannesburg home, Abel Chapatarongo told the media.
An airliner carrying 175 people crashed and burst into flames on Tuesday in São Paulo after landing at Brazil’s busiest airport in driving rain. The state governor said all aboard were likely dead. The São Paulo fire department said at least 200 people, including some on the ground, were dead at the scene. There was no immediate news of survivors.