President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday declared that Zimbabwe was undergoing an economic ”revival” as he addressed the opening of the last session of Parliament before key elections next year. ”We have money to reap a good harvest … to ensure we meet our needs and food requirements. What enhances this … is the evident revival of our economy,” Mugabe told Parliament.
The state argued in the Constitutional Court on Tuesday that it has no duty to intervene in the case of 69 South Africans currently being held in Zimbabwe and facing extradition to Equatorial Guinea for an alleged coup plot. On Monday lawyers for the 69 argued the state indeed has such a duty.
‘Mercenaries’ in a ‘lion’s den’
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in an attempt to defuse an unprecedented challenge to his authority was holding more talks with his Prime Minister, Ahmed Qorei, on Tuesday in a bid to persuade him to retract his resignation. Street protests in Gaza forced Arafat to execute an embarrassing U-turn over his choice of security supremo.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was flat in noon trade on Tuesday as a slightly softer rand offset the negative effect of poor performances of heavyweight dual-listed stocks offshore. With no fresh news to drive the market, volumes were light. By 11.58am, the all-share and all-share industrial indices were 0,11% and 0,14% firmer respectively.
A child was burnt to death when about 40 shacks caught fire at George Goch near central Johannesburg on Monday night. Johannesburg Emergency Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgely said another child was treated for minor burns. Emergency services brought the blaze under control.
The empowerment deal between Standard Bank and two leading black entrepreneurs was better than those of Sanlam and Absa earlier this year, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. Sanlam signed an empowerment deal with Patrice Motsepe, the chairperson of mining company ARMGold, valued at about R2-billion earlier.
The animosity between the prosecution and alleged Boeremag coup plotters on Monday again reached boiling point when four of the men accused the chief investigating officer of ”generating false statements”. The State on Friday last week handed up a statement by prisoner Wouter Viljoen, who said he had overheard two of the men presently applying for bail discussing how they would flee the country.
Ten bombs were found in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature at Ulundi last week, the African National Congress in the province said on Monday. ANC spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said the bombs were found hidden in one of the storerooms of the legislature on Thursday.
The price of petrol is expected to drop by 27 cents per litre from August 4, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Tuesday. This price decrease will affect all octane grades. ”Diesel with a 0,3% sulphur content is expected to drop
by 14 cents a litre in the wholesale price, and diesel with a 0,05% sulphur content by 15 cents a litre,” a statement said.
A senior Iraqi defence ministry official has become the latest government figure to be killed in Baghdad. A day after the attack, a suicide truck bomb claimed the lives of 10 Iraqis near a police station. Issam Jassem Qassim, a director general from the defence ministry, was shot dead outside his home in the south of the capital on Sunday night by three gunmen. His bodyguard was also killed.
Nine dead in Baghdad car bomb attack