Faced with mounting energy crises, many African nations in recent years have zealously launched projects to produce cheaper biofuels, but few have gained steam. Struggling under the ever-rising cost of fossil fuels while fighting crippling levels of poverty and disease, Africa hopes biofuels will boost its economic fortunes.
The people behind the "special browse" report — about an alleged plot to overthrow the government — must be identified, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Saturday following the announcement of the outcome of a government probe into the origin of the document. "[We] will be very interested to see whether any of them are arrested and convicted," Cosatu said.
If you want to get rich from writing, Don Marquis once suggested, write the sort of thing that’s read by persons who move their lips when they’re reading to themselves. Marquis had rock-steady sights and, once, this remark would have thudded home clean and true. But no longer.
A bemused and bewildered Orlando Pirates were all at sea as record R190-million signing Darren Bent ran riot and virtually assured a 3-0 Tottenham Hotspur victory after 22 minutes of a one-sided Vodacom Challenge final at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday afternoon. The rest of the game on a sun-soaked but somewhat chilly winter afternoon was little more than an exhibition match.
An announcement on the country’s suspended National Lottery is expected within days, according to Department of Trade and Industry insiders, media reports said on Saturday. According to sources, the National Lotteries Board has recommended that the government stick with the initial winning bidder, the Gidani Consortium.
Eleven people were reported by police to have burnt to death in fires that engulfed parts of Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal on Friday. In Mpumalanga, a holidaying Johannesburg couple were burnt beyond recognition after trying to escape an enormous fire that ripped through a tourist lodge on Friday night.
Former members of South Africa’s current intelligence services who were once part of apartheid secret services were behind the ”special browse” report about an alleged plot to overthrow the government, said Director General in the Presidency Frank Chikane on Saturday at a press conference at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
The first new vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) in more than 80 years has entered mid-stage trials in South Africa, where the killer disease is rife, scientists said on Saturday. If the tests are successful, a new shot against M tuberculosis bacteria could be available within eight years.
Oil prices closed at more than a barrel, near an all-time high, on Friday on technical buying and news of faster-than-expected economic growth. ”We’ve got a highly charged market here, and it doesn’t take much of a headline to spark a 5% price move,” said an analyst.
Two news helicopters covering a police chase in Phoenix, Arizona, on live television collided and crashed to the ground on Friday, killing all four people on board in a plunge that viewers saw as a jumble of spinning, broken images. Both helicopters went down in a park in central Phoenix and caught fire.