Three children were killed and another wounded on Tuesday in southern Somalia when the grenade they were playing with exploded, witnesses and medical sources said. The three were part of a group of young goat herders who had found an unused hand grenade near a small village south-west of the capital, Mogadishu.
South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma called on Tuesday for eleventh-hour talks in Comoros as African Union troops prepared to support federal forces in a bid to take control of the rebel island of Anjouan. ”The federal government first wants the disputed elections dissolved,” she said.
Wild animals killed at least 133 people and seriously injured 50 in Mozambique last year, the Agriculture Ministry said Tuesday. ”This is a very high figure, but lower than the 144 of last year,” departmental official Tomas Zimba said, confirming that the figures were contained in a ministry report.
Eskom has applied for a 53% hike in electricity tariffs, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa announced on Tuesday. It said it had received the application earlier in the day. Eskom is seeking this hike in place of the 14,2% increase it was granted in December last year.
The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) has condemned the Johannesburg Civic Theatre for using wild animals on stage in its production of Verdi’s Aida. NCSPCA spokesperson Christine Kuch said on Tuesday it was ”unethical and unacceptable” that two lions, a tiger and horses were being taken on stage.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has come out in support of a Johannesburg businessman’s attempt to seek an interdict from the Pretoria High Court to stop the disbanding of the Scorpions crime-fighting unit. ”Just call me a concerned citizen,” said businessman Hugh Glenister. ”I believe our constitutional rights are being violated.”
Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride was drunk on the night of his December 2006 accident, a second state witness told the Pretoria Regional Court on Tuesday. He said that the next day a press release was compiled stating that McBride had not been drunk on the night of the accident.
”Peak oil”, the point at which global petroleum production reaches its maximum, could come as early as 2011, a Cape Town conference on oil and gas heard on Tuesday. Chris Skrebowski, editor of the British Energy Institute’s magazine Petroleum Review, told the conference that the peak will come in 2011 or 2012.
Eastern Cape health minister Nomsa Jajula is in hot water after failing to appear on a radio show that cost the government almost R13 000 for the slot, the Dispatch Online reported on Tuesday. The week before, provincial social development minister Sam Kwelita also missed his appointment.
The business sector in South Africa must play an active role in poverty eradication, Business SA said on Tuesday. CEO Jerry Vilakazi said business should commit to working with other social partners to bring about social change. He was addressing the two-day Business, Development and Poverty conference in Sandton.