A lack of funds has forced the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to cut by more than half the number of districts in drought-hit Ethiopia it serves, the food agency said on Monday and appealed for ,4-million in aid. WFP said shortages would prevent it from providing food supplements to malnourished mothers and children.
President Thabo Mbeki’s role as a mediator in the Zimbabwean crisis took another knock after disclosures that he ignored the advice of two judges he commissioned to observe that country’s 2002 general elections. Mbeki commissioned judges Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke to observe the controversial Zimbabwean election in 2002.
Inflation targeting is likely to be reviewed, because if South Africa’s policymakers only use interest rates as the tool to fight inflation, the country is in for a nasty generational learning experience as the policy will not be removing the cause of inflation, said Chris Hart, chief economist from Investment Solutions.
Land reform needs to make its beneficiaries and the country better off. Little is gained in the long run if justice turns out to be purely symbolic, leaves people poorer or even aggravates grievances. So it’s worrying that, as the director general of land affairs is reported to have said, at least 50% of government land-reform projects have failed to make their beneficiaries permanently better off.
Most South African schools have enrolled a significant number of foreign learners from neighbouring countries that are experiencing political and economic instability.
PRIMARY EDUCATION IN CRISIS: Why South African schoolchildren underachieve in reading and mathematics by Brahm Fleisch
The advent of winter will bring an array of influenza viruses. The viruses change continually, which means your body cannot build up an automatic immunity against the flu.
Experts say the often chaotic land reform programme has compromised food production: white farmers facing land claims are reluctant to plant crops, while emerging black farmers have insufficient training and support to produce the quantities of food needed by the domestic market.
The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) will probably have to impose much more stringent regulations to combat money laundering and terrorist financing than the customer identification, record keeping and reporting of suspicious transactions it currently requires, says its director, Murray Michell.
Winter is just around the corner and, with it, the school holidays most families dread because they struggle to find somewhere to go to make up for the cold – or even a place to escape it.