Opposition parties in the Johannesburg city council are furious at the ruling African National Congress (ANC) limiting their speaking time to four seconds per councillor. The parties quoted the ANC’s chief whip in the council as saying: ”If a party cannot say what they want to say in eight seconds, it is not worth saying.”
The possibility of declaring fire-ravaged parts of Mpumalanga disaster zones could not be precluded, Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi said on Monday. Earlier in the day, Mufamadi and Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Lindiwe Hendricks conducted a helicopter surveillance of sites destroyed by fires in the province.
Theunis Olivier was of a sober and sane mind when he sodomised and later strangled six-year-old Steven Siebert in Plettenberg Bay, the Cape High Court heard on Monday. In his statement submitted to the court, Olivier said he was normal when he committed the crime.
South Africans are increasingly being targeted by international crime syndicates to be ”money mules”, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre said on Monday. A money mule or e-mule is someone who is tricked into using his or her bank account to launder money.
Oil prices fell on Monday as traders took profits after crude futures settled near an all-time high in the previous session. Light, sweet crude for September delivery lost 46 cents to ,72 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, mid-afternoon in Singapore.
A fundamental change in the design of microprocessors is presenting software developers with a challenge — and a huge financial opportunity. Chip makers are no longer racing to have the fastest microprocessor and have shifted their focus away from building chips with a single, super-fast calculating core.
Fears that teenagers using the social networking website MySpace are exposing themselves to sexual predators by disclosing too many personal details are probably overblown, researchers say. The site had come under fire from parents, teachers and law enforcement.
Gift ideas are needed year-round. And gifts for geeks can be particularly tough to find — especially for the giver who might not be up to date on the latest gadgets. Here’s some help. The gift ideas below — some of them wild and wacky — should be sure-fire hits to just about any tech fan for whom you need to find a quick gift.
Former president FW de Klerk is not being investigated for crimes committed during the apartheid era, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said. ”There is no formal investigation of Mr De Klerk,” Lesufi said. De Klerk last week denied that he had ever condoned apartheid-era murders or other gross violations of human rights.
Another 33 shop managers were arrested in Zimbabwe over the weekend for overcharging or failing to display prices, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Monday. Its website said the managers were expected to appear in court on Monday. A price-monitoring team put the shops under surveillance on Friday.