The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will be asked to explain last year’s blacklisting of political commentators and analysts to an Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) hearing on Wednesday. The Freedom of Expression Institute has complained that the blacklistings constituted a violation of the SABC’s licence conditions.
South Africa midfielder Steven Pienaar has completed his move to Everton after being granted a work permit. The 25-year-old moves from Borussia Dortmund on a season-long loan and has already joined up with his new teammates for their pre-season tour in America.
Two trade unions in a drawn-out wage dispute with Eskom stood back on Tuesday as a third union announced it had signed a deal with the national power utility. Earlier this month, the electricity supplier declared a dispute with the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, the National Union of Mineworkers and Solidarity.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday said Britain and its Western allies had ”redoubled” efforts to topple him, accusing them of sponsoring violence to destabilise his inflation-ravaged nation. Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, also defended a new policy that forces stores to cut and freeze prices.
Snowfall and thunderstorms are expected in the southern and western parts of the country, said the South African Weather Service on Tuesday. A cold front over the Western Cape on Tuesday night is expected to result in heavy rainfalls and thunderstorms in the extreme south-western parts of the province.
Tony Blair said on Tuesday there was a new ”moment of opportunity” in the Middle East but cautioned in his first visit as an international envoy against expecting any peace breakthrough soon. Blair, in his first public remarks since starting his mission on Monday, said he came ”to listen and to learn and to reflect” in talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
It will be the last flight for the South African Airways (SAA) Supa8 competition after the national airline announced at the launch of the coming season’s competition it would not be renewing a five-year sponsorship. Symbolically, perhaps, holders Chiefs were absentees from the seeded draw by virtue of not finishing among the top eight teams in last season’s Premier Soccer League.
Eddie Jones is enjoying his present ”consultation period” with Jake White’s Springboks — but the former Wallaby coach has stressed that he is not in South Africa to coach the national team, he is simply here to ”exchange ideas”. Jones — who coached the Queensland Reds during the 2007 Super 14 — raised a few eyebrows when he turned up at training in full Bok kit.
Veteran Cameroon President Paul Biya’s ruling party routed the opposition in parliamentary elections on the weekend that his main opponents have already denounced as a sham, provisional results showed on Tuesday. Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement secured a crushing majority of 152 of the 180 National Assembly seats.
Since the much-hyped iPhone isn’t expected in South Africa before November this year, cellphone manufacturers are fighting fiercely for the rands of potential South African smartphone buyers. The <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i> looks at three smartphones currently available on the South African market.