A taxi driver was fighting for his life in the Johannesburg hospital on Thursday night after an enraged motorist shot him in the face following a fender bender incident. The minibus taxi was travelling down Louis Botha Avenue towards Johannesburg when it bumped a Volkswagen Citi Golf at the intersection with Arkwright avenue, in Wynberg.
The United States shuttle Endeavour prepared to dock with the International Space Station on Friday after sustaining minor damage to its external fuel tank during lift-off, Nasa said. Altogether, nine pieces of insulation flaked off during the initial minutes of ascent, but only three may have struck the shuttle itself.
The Federal Reserve, the United States central bank, resisted pressure this week to cut interest rates to ease the turmoil sweeping the world’s credit markets. After its latest meeting, the Fed’s open market committee, headed by Ben Bernanke, left its key interest rate steady at 5,25%, the level that has prevailed since June last year.
Money is pouring in for the 2010 World Cup as the country anticipates an economic kick from hosting the world’s largest sporting event. With government providing billions of rands to upgrade infrastructure and depressed inner-city areas, there are indications that the private sector is following suit, particularly in Gauteng.
The challenge for all card-carrying ANC members at their national conference is how to deal with the fact that the ANC has brought South Africa into disrepute as a result of internal squabbles — and how to prevent that from happening in future. Regrettably, South Africa has failed to create an electoral act that allows citizens to elect their own president directly, making him or her accountable to the public as opposed to a party or party faction.
Sitting at a small clinic in the Talangai area, north of Congo’s capital, Brazzaville, Elise Diamba holds the hands of her malnourished two-year old grandson. "Gérard’s mother stopped breastfeeding him when he was seven months," the 61-year old grandmother says. "He hadn’t even started walking. Since then, his health has not been good."
Every day taps open throughout eThekwini Municipality and water from Inanda Dam quenches the thirst of millions of people. Ironically, the communities who once lived next to the Mgeni River, who were displaced by Inanda Dam, are still waiting — 20 years later — for their livelihood and their lives to be restored.
More action is needed to protect civilians in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, who continue to suffer serious human rights violations in the ongoing conflict, a United Nations special rapporteur said in a preliminary report. Sima Samar, Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council, said Darfur remained a region where gross violations of human rights have been perpetrated by all parties to the conflict.
President Thabo Mbeki does not have to give reasons for firing his ministers, according to spokesperson Mukoni Ratitshanga. Presumably neither does he have to let the rest of the public in when wearing his ANC hat and getting rid of party officials. For if he was bound to explain himself, he would have to say why a senior minister such as Mosoiua Lekota continues to serve in his cabinet when he failed to declare his directorship of a winery and shares he had in a petroleum distribution company.
As more and more people flee Zimbabwe and pour into South Africa’s cities, the social networks that have developed over the years to accommodate Zimbabweans are growing overburdened and, as a result, recent arrivals are increasingly having to brave life on the streets.