Every major enterprise in South Africa would learn in the next few years that it had not invested enough for the growth the country, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin warned on Friday evening. ”The public-sector investment alone in the next five years is R420-billion. This has never ever been attempted in South Africa before,” he said.
A senior director in the Zimbabwe government has been arrested at Harare International Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle diamonds, reports said on Saturday. William Nhara, who is also spokesperson for the ruling party for the Harare province, is still in police custody.
Doctors at Zimbabwe’s main state hospitals have called off a two-month strike for better salaries and working conditions after reaching a compromise with government, the health ministry said on Friday. As the strike escalated the health ministry had to call on army medics to step in and augment skeleton-staff numbers at some hospitals.
Springboks Jean de Villiers and Breyton Paulse snatched intercept tries as the Stormers beat the Wellington Hurricanes 30-17 in a Super 14 rugby match on Saturday. De Villiers scored the first and Paulse the last of the Stormers’ four tries as the South African team, previously last on the championship table, took a bonus point from an away win.
Moammar Gadaffi has complained that Western countries have failed to properly compensate Libya for scrapping its nuclear arms programme and as a result countries like Iran and North Korea would not follow his lead. Libya agreed in 2003 to abandon its nuclear arms programme and allow access to international weapons inspectors.
South Africa will use its presidency of the United Nations Security Council in March to push for the organisation to pay for African Union peacekeeping operations. The Security Council has agreed on a so-called hybrid force in Sudan which will comprise African Union peacekeepers supported technically and financially by the UN.
A woman accused of running a prostitution ring threatened to immerse Washington in a sex scandal on Friday by saying she was considering selling 13 years of phone records to raise funds for her legal defence. Lawyers claimed that the records would lead to a client list of 10 000, including some of Washington’s most influential figures.
Carbon dioxide emissions from shipping are double those of aviation and increasing at an alarming rate which will have a serious impact on global warming. Studies suggest that maritime carbon dioxide emissions are not only higher than previously thought, but could rise by as much as 75% in the next 15 to 20 years.
When Ahmad Khidr’s wife, Nadia, was close to her pregnancy’s full term, the Shia grocer drove her to a friend’s house each evening before the curfew began. "We were terrified she would go into labour during the night," said Ahmad (23). "I did not want to risk taking her to a hospital at night."
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has amended its laws so that match referees, rather than umpires, will decide whether games should be terminated if a team refuses to play. The amendment to the law follows last year’s row at the Oval when Pakistan lost to England by forfeit.