The bitter rivalry between Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the country’s leading elder statesman has erupted into a public struggle for control over economic policy. Hashemi Rafsanjani set the scene for a power struggle by telling Iranian journalists that Ahmadinejad’s "trial period is over".
The JSE remained modestly firmer in noon trade on Wednesday helped by a positive performance on United States markets overnight. Dealers remained unconvinced by the JSE’s gains, however, and believed more weakness was in store. By 11.52am, the all-share and all-share industrial indices added 0,4% and 0,88% respectively.
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, also the head of Interpol, told delegates at the Interpol Symposium in Kempton Park that security forces from around the world will be deployed in South Africa during the 2010 Fifa World Cup, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Tuesday.
Pupils at an Eastern Cape school are doing a choreographed set of movements to Bok van Blerk’s controversial song De la Rey, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday. A number of songs have been choreographed as part of the school’s 70th anniversary celebrations.
Budget constraints have forced the Western Cape provincial government to reduce the budget at Groote Schuur and Tygerberg hospitals, Business Day newspaper reported on Wednesday. The provincial health department has had to cut 90 beds at the hospitals in order to boost primary healthcare services in townships.
Hundreds of striking Autopax bus drivers were congregating at Johannesburg’s Park Station ahead of a march to Beyers Naude Square on Wednesday morning, their trade union said. The workers are protesting against a lack of transformation at Autopax, saying there are still no black people or women in top management.
Media and entertainment group Primedia reported a 421% leap in headline earnings per share from 14 cents to 73 cents per share for the six months ended December. It said this was due largely to a one-off black economic empowerment (BEE) charge of 49 cents per share expensed in the prior year.
A Cape Town man has invited the media to watch him try to cross a busy city street during afternoon rush hour on Wednesday. Inok Zwane says he wants to highlight the dangers pedestrians face when they cross Buitengracht Street at the spot where two British tourists were killed when they were hit by a car last month.
”It is a dream come true,” is the way Louis de Jager (19) summed up his feelings after returning a final round of 73, one over par, giving him a 36-hole total of 145, one under par, one stroke clear, and the Sanlam South African Amateur Championship Stroke-Play trophy.
Former South African Reserve Bank deputy governor Gill Marcus is to take over as independent chairperson of banking group Absa, it was announced on Wednesday. She will succeed Dr Danie Cronje, who will step down as chairperson on July 1 but remain as a director of Absa Group as well as Absa Bank until the end of July.