Two municipal trade unions indicated this week that they have accepted a three-year wage deal put forward by the South African Local Government Bargaining Council. The South African Municipal Workers’ Union announced on Friday that it would accept the deal, while the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union accepted it earlier this week.
Britain says the crisis in former colony Zimbabwe is a result of bad policy and not a bilateral dispute between the two nations as President Robert Mugabe claims, it was reported on Friday. British Embassy in Harare spokesperson Gillian Dare told the Herald newspaper that there was no need for mediation between Zimbabwe and Britain because Zimbabwe suffers from a purely internal crisis.
Shaun de Waal paints a picture of Lewis Nkosi from an interview and a collection of essays by and about the writer.
Josh Cunningham, the guitarist from the Australian folk/blues band The Waifs, was recently in South Africa. Lloyd Gedye caught up with him to chat about the band’s future plans.
Australian jazz and pop sensation Missy Higgins is on tour in South Africa. Lloyd Gedye caught up with her to chat about her meteoric rise to fame
Despite the provocations of its title, Lewis Nkosi’s new novel, <i>Mandela’s Ego</i>, says little about Mandela himself, writes David Attwell
The FBI uncovered a plot to bomb New York’s Holland Tunnel, subways and other tunnels by Muslim extremists, one of whom has been arrested in Beirut, The Daily News reported on Friday. The daily said the terrorists hoped to flood lower Manhattan’s financial district.
South African President Thabo Mbeki led the tributes to Percy Sonn, who was named as the new president of the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday. ”The ICC was the first international sports body to recognise a democratic South Africa through the membership of the United Cricket Board of South Africa in 1991,” said Mbeki.
The South African Chamber of Business says although the announcement of a proposed fuel levy to be implemented in the Western Cape comes as no surprise, the timing of the announcement by the region’s Transport MEC is ”unfortunate.” The figure of the proposed fuel levy has not yet been announced, although sources have suggested figures of between 10 and 50 cents per litre.
While South Africa will urge North Korea to stop its missile testing, it is not convinced that United Nations Security Council action is the best way to solve the crisis, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Friday. He said the issue will be on the agenda for a meeting on Tuesday with his North Korean counterpart.