Rain driven by strong wind lashed the Cape Peninsula on Thursday, flooding more informal settlements on the Cape Flats. Cape Town disaster management spokesperson Johan Minnie said that on Thursday afternoon the city was providing shelter, food and blankets to about 1 200 people.
Hundreds of thousands of Britons hit by the worst flooding in 60 years faced further misery on Thursday as forecasters predicted more rain in the areas most badly affected. Two people were found dead in a cellar in the west of England, raising to at least eight the number of people to have died as a result of record rainfall.
The African Union on Thursday urged Darfur’s disparate rebel factions to attend an upcoming meeting in Tanzania to find a common position and prepare for peace talks with Sudan’s government. ”The meeting will enable all the groups involved in the Darfur crisis to draw up a common position,” the AU’s special envoy for Darfur said.
Several alternative medicines that have been banned in other countries have easily found their way into the South African market, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday. Briefing the media in Cape Town, DA spokesperson on health Mike Waters said the South African government was doing nothing to stop these dangerous products from being sold to people.
The state opposed bail for the alleged hijacker of Judy Sexwale during his appearance in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. Mbuso Simelana (27) of Thembisa was arrested on Monday in connection with the hijacking of Judy, wife of presidential hopeful Tokyo Sexwale.
South African shopkeepers are benefiting from a flood of people crossing the border to stock up on goods no longer available in crisis-hit Zimbabwe, but there could be trouble in store on the inflation front. ”We’ve seen a huge escalation in the number of Zimbabweans,” said Pieter Koekemoer, manager of a shop on the Zimbabwe-South Africa border town of Musina.
South African miners working for De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond company, have voted to go on indefinite strike from next week in a dispute over pay, their union said on Thursday. National Union of Mineworkers chief negotiator Peter Bailey said the vote to strike from next Tuesday was taken on Wednesday night after talks with De Beers reached an impasse.
The International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday rejected accusations it was consorting with rebels in Ethiopia’s restive Ogaden region, and said its expulsion would hurt needy civilians there. The humanitarian agency denounced the decision on Tuesday by authorities in Ethiopia’s Somali regional state giving it seven days’ notice to leave.
Although service-delivery protests are understandable, the violence that goes along with some of the demonstrations is concerning, Tshwane executive mayor Gwen Ramokgopa said on Thursday. She released the city’s annual service-delivery figures, showing that the metro council has had success in meeting and even succeeding many of its targets.
Iraq warned of a humanitarian crisis on Thursday as it appealed to the international community to help countries hosting hundreds of thousands of Iraqis uprooted by war. ”The Iraqi government calls on the international community, in particular neighbouring countries, to support Iraq,” said Mohammed al-Hajj al-Hmud of Iraq’s Foreign Ministry.