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/ 28 February 2008
Ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra made an emotional return from exile on Thursday, swearing to stay out of politics despite a widespread belief he would run the country from behind the scenes. Within minutes of arriving, the telecoms billionaire surrendered to police on a corruption charge.
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/ 28 February 2008
Child rape has increased by 42% in Zimbabwe, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Wednesday, linking worsening child abuse and domestic violence to family tensions caused by the nation’s economic meltdown. Unicef launched a new ”Stand Up and Speak Out” campaign to fight what it called the ”staggering statistics on the unspeakable evils of child abuse”.
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/ 28 February 2008
Last week the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reported that the South African Communist Party planned to axe two senior Cape Town members for daring to criticise undemocratic practices at the party’s congress last year and suggesting that it is obsessed with "individuals" (read Zuma) to the detriment of its professed role as the party of the working class.
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/ 28 February 2008
Senator John McCain — who has just about secured his party’s presidential nomination after fellow hopeful and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney dropped out of the race — doesn’t believe his age should be a campaign issue. "I am 71 and I said I would out-campaign my opponents. I have out-campaigned them," he told me in a recent interview.
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/ 28 February 2008
At least three other senior leaders from major Cosatu affiliates face the axe in what is widely seen as a move by the federation’s leaders to purge elements considered supporters of President Thabo Mbeki. This week Cosatu’s central executive committee (CEC) decided to axe Willie Madisha as Cosatu president for “bringing the federation into disrepute”.
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/ 28 February 2008
Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela announced in her recent State of the Province speech that the province will appoint additional 932 maths and science teachers. However, finding the right people for the job is a challenge — and infrastructure remains a problem too.
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/ 28 February 2008
The Johannesburg’ city council’s new provisional general valuation roll is now open for formal objections, executive mayor Amos Masondo said in his state of the city address in Braamfontein on Thursday. The roll contains 784 324 entries — 156 499 of them individual sectional-title units, and was completed in December.
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/ 27 February 2008
South Africa’s early democracy after 1994 reached out too far with a policy of reconciliation at the expense of transformation, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said on Wednesday. ”We focused too much on reconciliation in the first years of our democracy,” said SAHRC chairperson Jody Kollapen.
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/ 27 February 2008
The loudest cheers in a goalless Premier Soccer League match between Platinum Stars and Jomo Cosmos came when Stars communication manager Putco Mafan danced during a water break at a stifling hot Olympia Stadium in Rustenburg on Wednesday. The match was a tedious affair and the 500-strong crowd had little to cheer about.