Zambia has introduced new legislation banning smoking in public places which could see offenders face up to two years in jail. Local Government Minister Sylvia Masebo said the new statutory instrument, which has been gazetted, bans smoking in public places with immediate effect.
The Constitutional Court on Thursday dismissed an application by fraud convict Schabir Shaik to have over R33-million of his assets returned. Justice Kate O’Regan concluded that the state had established that benefits ”flowed” to Shaik and his companies as a result of African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s support and intervention.
The recent xenophobic violence cannot be attributed to a single factor and is not necessarily the work of a so-called ”third force”, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday. ”In some cases, there is some evidence of copy-cat activities in which criminals took advantage of the news story to conduct criminal acts,” he said.
On a beach in Bosaso, north-east Somalia, near the tip of the Horn of Africa, dozens of Somali and Ethiopian refugees perch on rocks or squat in the sand, peering across the Gulf of Aden to the promised land. They are waiting for boats to carry them to Yemen and away from a life of miserable poverty, persecution and a war in Somalia.
About 60 people were evacuated from the African National Congress (ANC) headquarters, Luthuli House in Sauer Street in Johannesburg, following a bomb scare that was received on Thursday morning. ”The switchboard received the bomb scare at 8am this morning … everyone in the building was then immediately evacuated,” said ANC spokesperson Steyn Speed.
South Africa’s electricity crisis will remain for years and power cuts will continue well into the future, Eskom said on Thursday. ”We are going to be in this [crisis] for years,” Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga said in Johannesburg. ”The threat of load-shedding is with us for some time.” Eskom has struggled to meet demand for electricity in Africa’s biggest economy.
Michel Fourniret, the ”ogre of Ardennes”, was sentenced on Wednesday to life for the rape and murder of seven girls and young women, driven by his obsession with virginity. His wife, Monique Olivier, who helped him select and lure his victims, and who connived in some of the murders, was also given a life sentence.
Percy Montgomery on Wednesday signed a one-year contract with Western Province. Montgomery, who was the leading points scorer at last year’s Rugby World Cup in France, is hardly likely to play for the Province Currie Cup side due the heavy Springbok schedule over the next four months.
Barely a year passes without a senior minister begging Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, to go. Last year the Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, called on Olmert to step down after the interim report of the Winograd commission on the Lebanese War. On Wednesday it was the turn of Defence Minister Ehud Barak.
Africa is in need of a ”green revolution” to combat a growing food crisis on the continent, former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan said in a speech in London on Wednesday. The Ghanaian diplomat also said that more needed to be done to deal with the impact climate change would have on food supplies in Africa.