While most electricity users are being urged to switch off to save energy, Cape Town authorities are keeping street lights switched on day and night in large areas of the city. According to city public lighting manager Charles Kadalie, this is being done in a bid to combat the widespread plundering of copper.
South Africa’s business confidence inched up in July but there was no evidence that the small recovery improved producers’ mood, a survey showed on Wednesday. The South African Chamber of Business’s (Sacob) confidence index crept up to 99,6 in July from June’s 99,1, but the body said domestic economic concerns were still a concern.
Some MPs protested on Wednesday at the Bill to regulate internet gambling. The National Gambling Amendment Bill was introduced to the trade and industry portfolio committee by Fungai Sibanda, the acting director general of the Department of Trade and Industry.
President Robert Mugabe’s government has warned it will arrest white Zimbabwean farmers resisting evictions from new land targeted for black farmers, state media reported on Wednesday. Industry and union officials say about 600 of Zimbabwe’s 4Â 500 white farmers have kept their land after the sometimes violent grabs by Mugabe’s supporters.
Eleven South African officials were suspended from office on Wednesday for allegedly helping 10 ”dangerous” inmates escape jail, officials said. ”The 11 officials of the Department of Correctional Services were suspended on Wednesday morning. They have been handed their letters of suspension,” department spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said.
The JSE was still firm at midday on Wednesday on the back of firmer world markets and a slight pick-up in emerging markets. At midday, the FTSE was up 0,43%, the Hang Seng was up 2,87% and the Nikkei was up 0,64%. At 12pm, the JSE all-share index was 1,93% higher.
South African insurer Liberty Group increased interim headline earnings per share, adjusted for the effects of a black economic empowerment (BEE) deal, by 51,5%, the company said on Wednesday. Liberty, 30% owned by Standard Bank, said BEE normalised headline EPS in the six months to end-June was 583,1 cents.
Pollution intruded on celebrations to mark the one-year countdown to Beijing’s Olympics on Wednesday when Games chief Jacques Rogge said events might have to be rescheduled if air quality is not up to scratch. The International Olympic Committee president said he was happy with preparations but that some competitions might have to be moved.
Tickets for South Africa’s 2010 Soccer World Cup will bear both the apartheid-era names of cities and the new ones, reflecting the nation’s evolution while avoiding confusing visitors. South Africa’s government has been changing the names of some cities since the end of apartheid in 1994 but the new names are often not known abroad.
Six new species, including a bat and two frogs, have been discovered in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in an eastern area off limits to scientists for decades because of violence. The Wildlife Conservation Society said researchers conducted a survey of a forested region just west of Lake Tanganyika.