Naledi Xhosa won an out-of-court settlement this week when she sued her former employer for unfair dismissal after Xhosa tested positive for HIV and Hepatitis B. Xhosa was immediately dismissed on the grounds that she posed a health risk to the employer’s infant and family. The court case shows how HIV/Aids challenges
the relationship between domestic workers and their employers.
The Road Accident Fund has no plans to force the government to increase the petrol price by 25 cents per litre. RAF board acting chairperson Saths Cooper was responding to a report that the RAF and the Law Society of South Africa would force the government to increase the petrol price by 25c/litre in order to remedy the RAF’s ”terrible financial situation”.
South African Aids activists sang and danced through the streets of Cape Town on Thursday as part of a worldwide campaign to get the United States government to reduce military spending. Some 500 marchers made their way to the US consulate in central Cape Town to deliver a letter addressed to President George Bush calling for less spending on the military and more on fighting diseases such as HIV/Aids.
Any campaign to lower the cost of books should look at their whole pricing structure and not just VAT, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said on Thursday. Asked whether she supported calls for VAT on books to be scrapped, Pandor said she liked to start ”where things begin”, which was the cost of books and the markups added by those who were selling them.
A group of about 20 human rights groups led by Amnesty International is asking South African President Thabo Mbeki and other African leaders to put pressure on Zimbabwe over its human rights record. ”We are urging African states to take a more public stand in resolving the crisis in Zimbabwe,” said Amnesty’s spokesperson in South Africa, Samkelo Mokhine.
Another blow to press freedom in Zim
Listed South African entertainment and media group Johnnic Communications on Thursday announced a 108% improvement in attributable earnings to R187-million for the year ended June 30. Basic headline earnings per share were 13% higher at 170 cents from 151 cents before.
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has told the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) fast food chain to stay out of Tibet over alleged cruelty to animals, an animal rights group said on Thursday. The Dalai Lama has written a letter to KFC parent company Yum! Brands chief executive David Novak imploring him to abandon plans to expand KFC restaurants into Tibet.
The Bush administration’s thinking about the use of torture in the war on terror was on display on Wednesday after the White House released a file of documents on the treatment of detainees. The memos offer a glimpse of the decision-making process at the highest levels of the Pentagon, the department of justice and the White House.
The eight British sailors and marines detained in Iran are expected to be freed on Thursday, the British Foreign Office said after talks on their release were suspended late on Wednesday. British diplomats from the embassy in Tehran have also visited the men, who are being held in the town of Bandar Mahshahr.
An urgent inquiry was launched in Cyprus on Wednesday night after an undercover police operation exposed a group of up to 100 tourists, including Britons, taking part in what was described a mass orgy aboard a cruise ship off the island. The scenes, shown on local TV and described as ”debauched”, were broadcast after being caught on camera in the police sting.