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.
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.
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.
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.
The editor of <i>ZimOnline</i>, an independent Zimbabwe news agency based in South Africa, was shot and seriously wounded this week in Johannesburg, its deputy editor said on Thursday. The attack on Abel Mutsakani occurred Monday night as he arrived at his Johannesburg home, Abel Chapatarongo told the media.
The social networking site MySpace claims to offer a virtual replica of the real world. It provides a forum to meet old friends, catch up on news, listen to music and chat with strangers. But like the real world, it also has its share of undesirables. The site has found more than 29 000 registered sex offenders among its 180-million members.
Angola’s state-run diamond company wants foreign companies as partners to tap what it believes are vast pockets of the precious gems, a company official said on Thursday. Angola, the world’s fifth biggest in terms of value, is exploring only about 40% of the territory believed to have potential for diamond mining.
South Africa’s producer price inflation slowed to 10,4% year-on-year in June, official data showed on Thursday, but a jump in the monthly rate continued to stoke expectations of higher interest rates. Statistics South Africa said June producer price inflation slowed from an annual 11,3% in May but increased by 2,1%.