Turmoil in global financial markets makes it difficult for South Africa to finance its current account deficit, Treasury director general Lesetja Kganyago said on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe’s harassment of diplomats and aid groups shows it will fail to respect the rule of law during the June 27 presidential election run-off, the country’s main opposition party said on Friday.
Zimbabwe’s presidential election run-off should be scrapped to prevent further bloodshed, the ruling-party defector who came third in the first round said on Thursday.
Anti-immigrant violence has spread to Cape Town, where mobs attacked Somalis and Zimbabweans and looted their homes and shops, police said on Friday. Hundreds of African migrants were evacuated overnight from a squatter camp near Cape Town, the hub of South Africa’s prized tourism industry.
A whiff of panic surrounds South Africa’s tourism industry after deadly xenophobic attacks that have prompted travel warnings from Western nations and led some Africans to cancel visits. Tourism is a cornerstone of the economy, contributing 8% of annual GDP and employing about one million people.
A funding crunch could delay South Africa’s plans to have digital broadcasting in place for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the chief executive of state-run telecommunications firm Sentech said on Thursday. World soccer governing body Fifa has demanded that South Africa use a high-definition digital format when it begins broadcasting the World Cup matches.
South Africa plans to boost livestock and crop production by up to 15% in the next two to five years and help tame soaring food inflation, an agriculture official said on Monday. Priscilla Sehoole, chief communication officer at the Department of Agriculture said the government was ”confident” it would achieve its expansion targets.
South African legislators have recommended that Parliament revise laws to give it more oversight over the Reserve Bank, raising concerns of political interference in monetary policy as inflation soars. The Reserve Bank has raised its repo rate by 400 basis points to 11% since June 2006 to try to tame inflation.
South Africa’s Cabinet has approved a Bill that would speed up its land reform programme aimed at transferring 30% of farmland to black ownership by 2014, a government spokesperson said on Thursday. An existing land expropriation act has failed to make significant inroads into land redistribution.
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/ 29 February 2008
Popular Afrikaans singer Jurie Els, now living in New Zealand with his athlete wife Hestrie Cloete, has broken the silence around accusations of sexual abuse levelled against him by another, younger singer, Robbie Klay, media reports said on Friday. Klay has alleged that he was for seven years sexually molested as a child.