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/ 7 December 2007
Rampant inflation — driven by food and fuel prices — is hurting the poor the most, but anticipated interest rate hikes might not adequately deal with the problem, some economists argue. Food prices, which are rising at more than 12% a year already, are expected to continue this trend for the next few months.
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/ 7 December 2007
It doesn’t get madder than this. Swaziland is in the grip of a famine and receiving emergency food aid; 40% of its people are facing acute food shortages. So what has the government decided to export? Biofuel made from one of its staple crops — cassava. Several thousand hectares of farmland have been allocated to ethanol production in the Lavumisa district, the place worst hit by drought.
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/ 6 December 2007
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Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has declined a nomination as African National Congress (ANC) chairperson but has accepted a nomination for deputy president. This emerged on Thursday when the ANC released its long-awaited consolidated list of nominations for its national executive committee.
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/ 6 December 2007
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Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi will not accept a nomination to the national executive committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC), Cosatu said on Thursday. Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the congress was seriously concerned about leaders who embraced ”patronage”.
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/ 6 December 2007
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday defended inviting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to attend a European Union-Africa summit this weekend and vowed to make human rights the first point on the agenda. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is boycotting the Lisbon summit.
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/ 6 December 2007
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The African National Congress (ANC) group that applied unsuccessfully to the Johannesburg High Court to have the party’s imminent conference postponed would appeal the decision, their lawyer said on Thursday. ”We are definitely going to appeal,” said Votani Majola.
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/ 6 December 2007
Four 13th-century copies of the Magna Carta, considered to be one of the most important documents in the history of democracy, go on public display next week for the first time in nearly 800 years. The four, three of which date from 1217 and one from 1225, are held by Oxford University’s Bodleian Library.
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/ 6 December 2007
The so-called ”boot killer”, Daniel van der Walt, was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years’ imprisonment for brutally beating and strangling a frail young prospective employee. Van der Walt, a powerfully built blockman who used to work at a butchery, admitted that he had in February last year murdered petite Marlene Mauer (20).
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/ 6 December 2007
A late start after lunch and an early closure because of fading light left the Dolphins with the upper hand on the first day of their SuperSport Series cricket match against the Highveld Lions at the Sahara Stadium, at Kingsmead in Durban, on Thursday. Heavy rain made play impossible before lunch.
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/ 6 December 2007
Opposition parties have lamented the increases in crime detailed in the latest statistics for April to September, which were released on Thursday. It was deplorable and made a mockery of Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula’s assurances that the crime rate was under control, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Diane Kohler-Barnard said.