France on Tuesday won European Union approval to give €99-million to several companies hoping to build a European rival to United States internet search giant Google. The EU executive says this helped fill a funding gap for something that might not otherwise win financial support.
The rise in production cost of grains such as wheat and maize was ”mind boggling”, Grain SA said on Thursday. The latest cost budgets for the production of wheat due to be planted in the coming months indicate that the variable cost component increased on average by 63%,” said Grain SA chairperson Neels Ferreira.
Power failures have had a significant impact on mining production, the Chamber of Mines of South Africa said on Thursday. The chamber said the statistics released by Statistics South Africa on Thursday showed a 10,7% year-on-year drop in the volume of mining for January.
A confession by a gangster that he took part in the raid in which historian David Rattray was murdered was ruled as admissible evidence against him in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday. Sibonele Xolani Mpanza (28) had contested the confession.
Clinical psychologist Dr Lou-Marie Kruger says South Africans drink to self-medicate.
"About half the pupils in my class suffer in some way or another from the effects of alcohol abuse by their parents and people around them."
Soccer players selected for the national team should be directly contracted by the South African Football Association, the African National Congress (ANC) said on Thursday. This would allow coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to work full-time for two years in preparing a winning team for 2010.
The Democratic Alliance has lambasted the Mpumalanga Rugby Union for including a convicted murderer in the Vodacom Pumas rugby team. Gert van Schalkwyk (22) — one of the infamous ”Waterkloof Four” — has been included in the starting line-up for the provincial team.
Municipal workers will down tools if ”attacks” on Nelson Mandela metropole employees do not stop, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Thursday. ”These attacks are aimed at getting rid of workers who stand against any form of crime,” said Samwu general secretary Mthandeki Nhlapo.
Joe Phaahla, the director general of the 2010 Fifa World Cup government unit, is stepping down. He has asked to be relieved of his three-year contract, which expires in August. In a statement on Thursday, the unit said Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile has agreed to this, and Phaahla will leave the unit this month.