The deliberate destruction of the informal economy in Zimbabwe is unparalleled in modern-day Africa, church leaders said in a report released on Tuesday. The report was compiled by 12 leaders from Christian churches who visited a transit camp south-east of Harare earlier this week.
Barclays is looking forward to creating Africa’s ”pre-eminent bank” after the sanctioning of on Thursday of its R33-billion takeover bid for Absa. Judge Mohamed Jajbhay gave the go-ahead for deal on Thursday morning. He first dismissed an application by the human rights group Jubilee SA to postpone the sanctioning of the deal.
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Thousands of supporters of former deputy president Jacob Zuma and protesters from the KwaZulu-Natal Transport Alliance merged outside the Durban City Hall on Wednesday. Shop owners locked their doors as a precaution and there was a large police contingent keeping watch.
The case against former deputy president Jacob Zuma was postponed to October 11 by the Durban Magistrate’s court on Wednesday. He was granted bail of R1 000. Zuma will not have to hand in his passport but will have to inform the prosecution every time he leaves the country.
No-one can afford to be indifferent to the human rights crisis taking place in Zimbabwe, Britain’s High Commissioner to South Africa said on Monday. ”This is a human rights crisis and it has to be a matter of concern to us all,” said Paul Boateng said in Johannesburg.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday the media have treated him in a ”grossly unfair” way and used the Schabir Shaik trial for political reasons. Meanwhile, hundreds of youths, participating in a protest against unemployment on Thursday, called for Zuma to become the country’s next president.
A group of protesters sang, danced and chanted anti-Barclays slogans in Johannesburg on Saturday morning against the British bank’s takeover of Absa. The protesters, from the Jubilee South Africa group, wore anti-privatisation T-shirts and carried banners with slogans such as ”Barclays economic terrorists”.
Former Stander gang member Allan Heyl said on Monday that he symbolises the worst of what is happening in South Africa, and pleaded with the country to ”stop the violence”. Heyl, who was released from Krugersdorp prison last week, told a press conference in Johannesburg that he was a misfit in the past.
Allan Heyl, the last surviving member of the Stander gang of bank robbers who was released from Krugersdorp prison on Wednesday, is free to speak to journalists, the Department of Correctional Services said on Friday. Departmental spokesperson Graham Abrahams said Heyl is now free to deal with the public.
The Johannesburg High Court ruled on Friday that mining company Harmony’s multibillion-rand hostile takeover bid for Gold Fields lapsed on December 18 last year, effectively ending the bid seven months after it started. A Gold Fields spokesperson said the company feels vindicated by the court’s decision.