Eskom says it cannot guarantee residents in the Cape Peninsula that there will be no blackouts when Koeberg’s Unit One is refuelled early next month, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Thursday. Eskom presented its short to medium term plans to officials from the city of Cape Town on Wednesday.
Soweto’s Dube hostel — plagued in recent weeks by violent protests against poor service delivery — resembles a ghost town. Washing swaying in the wind is the only sign of life, along with the dank smell of urine mingled with that of burnt rubbish.
Agricultural scientists unveiled a cheap kit on Thursday to let African farmers test crops for a deadly poison that makes them unfit to eat and costs the continent millions of dollars in lost exports. Aflatoxin, a toxic chemical produced by a fungus, develops on maize, groundnuts, sorghum and cassava during hot weather and droughts.
The United Nations intends to send a team of investigators to Côte d’Ivoire next week to investigate sexual abuse. A contingent of 734 peacekeepers from Morocco has been confined to barracks on allegations of sexually exploiting under-age girls.
Italian cycling fans believe making doping legal is the best way to save their troubled sport, according to a popular survey on Wednesday. The Astana team pulled out of the Tour de France on Tuesday after Kazakh rider Alexander Vinokourov tested positive in the latest in a string of doping scandals to rock cycling.
Ethiopia has never forgotten its boy prince, captured by the British army and taken to England where he died more than a century ago, a lonely, royal orphan and curiosity who still lies entombed in Windsor Castle. Officials in Addis Ababa have stepped up a push to have the remains of Prince Alemayehu repatriated.
Battered and bruised, the Tour de France begins the 17th stage on Thursday minus its leader. Dane Michael Rasmussen was dramatically dismissed by Rabobank on Wednesday after the Dutch team said he had lied about his training whereabouts in June.
The United States is looking at deepening sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his supporters but will continue to provide humanitarian aid, a senior US official said on Wednesday. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Fraser also urged South Africa to push for concrete results.
In the clearest indications yet that talks brokered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), aimed at resolving the crisis in Zimbabwe, will not meet opposition demands for a new constitution, President Robert Mugabe this week pushed ahead with plans to amend the existing Constitution to allow him to hand-pick his successor.
Nearly 5 000 store owners, managers and business executives have been arrested since the Zimbabwe government began its campaign to slash prices last month, state media reported on Thursday. The Herald newspaper said that at least 23 owners and managers of shops and gasoline stations had been arrested on Wednesday.