After successfully campaigning to have an ”immoral” Axe deodorant advert banned from television because it was too risqué, a Christian lobby group has now set its sights on an Elastoplast advertisement. According to ChristianView Network, a new Elastoplast advert promotes adultery and/or infidelity.
The 115-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) still has a relevance and a role to play, South Africa’s permanent representative at the United Nations, Dumisani Kumalo, said on Monday. ”NAM still remains [as] relevant today as it was in 1961 when it was launched in Belgrade,” said Kumalo during a media briefing on the eve of a NAM Ministerial Conference in Durban.
Cape Town municipal workers were on Friday morning mopping up after heavy rains caused flooding across the city. Thursday’s rains, which came amid a dry spell and water restrictions for the city, saw certain roads become virtually impassable.
At any given moment about 25 000 accused have been in prison in South Africa awaiting trial for over three months, and some have been there since 1996. ”Part of the Bill of Rights says that there should be no undue delay in concluding criminal trials. However, the reality is that these unsentenced prisoners often spend 23 hours of the day in a cell, with no rehabilitation, no work and no recreation.”
An estimated half or more of the country’s kilometres of roads, and as much as two-thirds of roads in KwaZulu-Natal, have disappeared, largely due to ineffective administration, said a roads expert on Thursday. While the roads have not physically disappeared, they do not show up on official records.
The government should not adopt a ”one-size-fits-all” approach to upgrading informal settlements across South Africa, a leading housing development NGO has cautioned ahead of Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu presenting a comprehensive housing plan for informal settlements to the Cabinet.
In a direct reference to Africa’s undemocratic leaders, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday urged them to pass the baton to the next generation. ”There is no greater wisdom and no clearer mark of statesmanship than knowing when to pass the torch to a new generation.
Mbeki, Obasanjo arrive in Addis
The African Union’s (AU) executive council has given the go-ahead for a common African position on the controversial issue of human cloning to be drawn up. The South African government proposed to the fifth ordinary session of the council that a common African position be presented to the international convention against the reproductive cloning of human beings.
In a bid to strengthen food security, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) on Monday said it has identified two crops that will be part of a multi-pronged initiative to feed the hungry. The two crops, seen as ”African agriculture successes”, are cassava and Nerica (New rice varieties for Africa).
The African Court for Human and Peoples’ Rights, one of the main organs designed to deal with human rights abuses on the African continent, is struggling to see the light of day. Commentators are suggesting it could only be formed next year, more than 12 months after its intended establishment.