The Sol Plaatje municipality has urged Kimberley motorists to avoid the road running next to one of its biggest tourism attractions, the Big Hole, for fears of a cave-in. The tourist attraction was dug by thousands of diamond prospectors by hand, starting in 1871 and ending in 1914.
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation vaulted to 100Â 580,2% in January to set a new world record, but it is still unlikely to cause sleepless nights to President Robert Mugabe’s government facing elections in about five weeks’ time. The jump in inflation is alarming even in the context of Zimbabwe’s extraordinarily collapsing economy.
As a rookie reporter in the Seventies, I snapped some shots of pollution billowing out of the Modderfontein dynamite factory. A security guard gave me a blast and whipped me off to HQ where my film was confiscated. Invited soon after to a ”watch your step, son” lunch, AECI management told me: ”We’ve developed your pictures — they weren’t very good anyway.”
Keeping prices down had to remain the key objective of monetary policy, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said in his budget speech on Wednesday. ”A policy stance that accommodates higher inflation cannot be consistent with a government that is intent on reducing poverty,” he said.
The Soccer City Stadium is 50% complete and will be finished in May next year, five months ahead of the Fifa deadline, Gauteng Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation minister Barbara Creecy said on Wednesday. An independent state of readiness audit had shown that the province was ”firmly on track” to meet its commitments for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Charges were withdrawn against 43 University of Johannesburg students who appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday for public violence during protests last year. The students were arrested following protests against an increase in tuition fees.
Springbok rugby captain John Smit will remain at the helm of the side until the end of the year, coach Peter de Villiers announced on Wednesday, as political mudslinging continued with the Freedom Front Plus condemning the reaction of African National Congress MPs to former Springbok captains calling for an end to political interference in the sport.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel played his cards close to his chest on Wednesday when questioned about his future during a media conference before his delivery of the national budget in Parliament. "I have said in the past that I serve. I can’t say what will happen," he said.
Landowners who opt to preserve habitats and biodiversity on their land are set to receive an income-tax deduction for their efforts, according to the Budget Review tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday. Meanwhile, 726 trees, almost 37 tonnes of paper, were used for the paperwork and the documents of the national budget.
DRDGold has denied claims made by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) that intolerant racist behaviour was being practised at the company’s Blyvooruitzicht mine. In a statement released by Cosatu on Tuesday, the union federation alleged that Blyvooruitzicht mine management practised racism towards employees.