A trumpeter, a combat training specialist and a personnel clerk took on the South African National Defence Force in court last week over the military’s policy on HIV-positive soldiers. The three, together with the South African Security Forces Union, applied to have lifted an effective blanket ban on the employment of people with HIV and the promotion of soldiers who are already HIV-positive.
Franklin Templeton Investments has 40 offshore collective investment schemes registered with the South African Financial Services Board. Michael King, Franklin Templeton director for Africa, says the group offers a range of investment opportunities to South African investors, available through the foreign exchange offshore allowance.
In mid-2004 Sanlam Multi-Manager International restructured its international offering to its South African clients by applying its process to its new global equity and global bond products. Previously SMMI operated on a regional basis, finding the best investment managers in each geographic area to manage its assets.
Carina, Cortina and Cherry — names like these used to go down fine with car buyers but those days are over. Such monikers would almost certainly spell financial ruin for modern car manufacturers who opt for the exotic, mysterious aura which surrounds names like Tiguan, Touareg and Qashqai.
A skills shortage at Eskom could affect its expansion plans, trade union Solidarity said on Tuesday. ”Eskom’s current skills shortages are already causing problems, but if the levels of alienation among Eskom staff are any indication, the company is heading for a crisis,” said the union’s Dirk Hermann.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Tuesday appealed to governments to do more to save Africa from disease. ”We cannot lose Africa,” Tutu told the 193-nation World Health Assembly. ”The cradle of humankind” is threatened by ”disease, conflict and destruction”.
An alleged kingpin in the Fidentia asset management scandal, Steven Goodwin, launched an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday to secure his freedom. He asked the court to set aside and declare unconstitutional a request by the Director General of Justice to United States authorities for his provisional arrest.
The AfriForum group on Tuesday laid wreaths in Pretoria for the victims of the Church Street bomb blast during the apartheid era. ”The fact that the majority of the victims had been civilians means that the incident cannot be regarded as a military operation, but rather as an act of terror,” said AfriForum.
Global price rises and floods last year have caused severe food shortages in north-east Uganda, where nearly 30 people have died and some have been reduced to eating rats. The deaths occurred in the remote Karamoja region, an impoverished area that is notorious for fighting over livestock and scant resources.
Parliament would undermine its own integrity if it failed to pursue the MPs who owed money in the Travelgate saga, the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) said on Tuesday. PSAM was reacting to an announcement that creditors of one of the travel agencies linked were to be asked to stop all civil action.