Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) secretary general Abdalla Salem el-Badri held talks with Angolan officials on Monday on oil prices and production quotas. Angola, the largest sub-Saharan oil producer in Africa after Nigeria, joined Opec in December.
Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi met municipal labour unions in Pretoria on Monday to discuss the government’s initiative for a single public service, the ministry said. The initiative seeks to create one public-service administration for all three tiers of government.
A Cape Town city councillor on Monday lost a high court bid to keep his Independent Democrats seat as floor-crossing fever hotted up in the city. Cape Town mayor and Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille was scheduled to meet her ID counterpart, Patricia de Lille, on Tuesday afternoon to discuss floor-crossing.
A woman and a small child were killed by a fire at a block of flats in Joubert Park in central Johannesburg on Monday, paramedics said. A Netcare 911 spokesperson said the victims were an adult woman and a baby boy of about two years old. Firefighters found the pair in the corner of a room and carried them outside.
Thirteen years after the country shed its pariah status by scrapping apartheid, 96% of South Africans are now proud of their country, a new opinion poll revealed on Monday. Worryingly, among other figures revealed in the survey, nearly 10% of respondents said that domestic violence could be justified.
Former South African Test batsman Roy Mclean (77) has died in Johannesburg after a long illness, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on August 27. McLean played 40 Test matches, and is best remembered for a match-winning unbeaten 76 against Australia in 1955.
The 45-year-old Johannesburg student pilot of a light aircraft was killed when his plane crashed close to Lanseria International Airport in Johannesburg on Monday evening. He was preparing to land the Piper Cherokee at Lanseria at 6.55pm, but hit power lines and went down on a farm.
Swazi maidens started arriving on Monday at the country’s spiritual capital, Ludzidzini, ahead of this week’s annual reed dance, where bare-breasted virgins dance before Africa’s last absolute monarch. A royal announcement aired on state radio summoned all maidens to register on Tuesday.
Nine homesteads were destroyed and four people injured as runaway veld fires swept through the Harrismith and Van Reenen’s Pass area on Monday, the Emnambithi/Ladysmith municipality said. Some residents had to run for their lives, radio news reported. The fires and poor visibility were worst in the Swinburne and Montrose areas near Van Reenen’s Pass.
State-owned arms manufacturer Denel continued to make losses in the past financial year, but according to chief executive Shaun Liebenberg, the losses have dropped to a mere R500-million from R1,3-billion a year ago. Nevertheless, the group’s auditors cast doubt on the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.