The recent wave of so-called xenophobic violence had been deliberately unleashed ahead of next year’s general election, National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Director General Manala Manzini said on Thursday. At least 42 people have been killed and 16Â 000 displaced since the outbreak of the attacks on foreigners in Alexandra on May 12.
South African inflation was facing stubborn and persistent external shocks that were helping to drive prices higher, central bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Thursday. But it would be foolish to change the 3% to 6% inflation target range, he said in a speech at a monetary policy conference in Johannesburg.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has accused Helen Zille, the leader of the Democratic Alliance and mayor of Cape Town, of fanning the flame of xenophobia by saying that attacks on foreigners were in part due to the fact that foreigners were selling the drug tik to South African children.
Fate has dealt a cruel hand to Mamelodi Sundowns’ budding right back, Papi Mungomeni. The 23-year-old, who has become a regular in the Brazilians’ starting line-up this season, will miss playing in Saturday’s Premier Soccer League (PSL) showpiece, the Nedbank Cup final against First Division Mpumalanga Black Aces at the Johannesburg Stadium.
After four consecutive victories, the championship-leading Ferrari team and their defending world champion, Kimi Raikkonen, are expecting to be the dominant force again in Monaco on Sunday. The Finn, who leads this year’s title race ahead of Ferrari teammate Brazilian Felipe Massa, is convinced the Italian scuderia is in excellent shape.
African National Congress deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, recently sworn in as an MP, will remain on the back benches of Parliament for now and will not join the Cabinet, he said on Thursday. ”I will be on the back benches. I’m going to have to learn how the institution works,” he told reporters at the International Media Forum in Johannesburg.
At least 43 Nigerian soldiers who had just returned from a peacekeeping mission in Darfur have been killed in a road accident in the north of Nigeria, a military spokesperson said on Thursday. The soldiers, including an army captain, were in a convoy of seven vehicles in north-eastern Yobe state on Wednesday when one of them collided with an oncoming petrol tanker.
Blatant racism appears to be on the increase in South Africa, with legislation doing too little to eliminate it, a South African Human Rights Commission report released on Thursday said. The Human Rights Development Report said racist incidents, like a controversial video shot at the University of Free State, reminded the country of the danger of regression.
Tuareg rebels attacked an army camp in north-eastern Mali where 17 rebels and 15 soldiers were killed in one of the bloodiest clashes to date in a revolt by the desert insurgents, the government said on Thursday. A Defence Ministry statement said an ”armed band” assaulted the camp at Abebara during the night of Tuesday to Wednesday in Mali’s remote north-east.
A Bharti Airtel official on Thursday said there were no new developments in its talks with South African telecoms operator MTN Group that could create the world’s sixth-largest mobile operator. Bharti said on May 5 it was in exploratory talks with MTN, and on May 13 said it had not made any bid for the South African firm.