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Authorities in southern Nigeria on Thursday officially extended a dusk-to-dawn curfew on Port Harcourt, the region’s oil capital, for a further week. ”The curfew is being extended for a further one week,” the state executive council announced. The curfew was put in place last Friday after the military battled local gangs, leaving dozens of people dead.
Business was committed to finding solutions for the country’s skill-shortage problems, South African business leaders told President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday. Briefing the media on Thursday, Safika Holdings deputy chairperson Saki Macozoma said business had assured Mbeki that it was committed to working with the government.
South Africa’s Cabinet has approved R6,1-billion in funding for a national literacy and numeracy campaign. ”Eighty thousand tutors will be engaged to enable 4,7-million adults to achieve basic literacy and numeracy by 2012, at a cost of R6,1-billion,” Themba Maseko, government spokesperson, told reporters on Thursday.
Durban’s proposed King Shaka International Airport moved a step closer to becoming a reality after the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism gave the project the green light on Thursday. The department said that a Record of Decision was signed on Thursday, authorising the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) to develop a trade port at la Mercy.
A presidential bodyguard facing a murder charge was rearrested on Thursday after allegedly breaking his bail conditions. Timothy Sabata Mvula will spend a night in the Kuils River police cells before appearing in the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court on Friday to apply for bail on the new charge.
The man who took revenge on his brother’s murderer by hacking him to death with an axe last year was sent to prison for 12 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday. Judge Andre Erasmus said that Milile Ngiwa (26) had struck Luvo Mzozayana (22) with an axe and ”destroyed his face and brain”.
President Robert Mugabe’s government introduced a Bill to Parliament on Thursday that would give Zimbabweans majority ownership of foreign companies, a move which critics say will deepen an economic crisis. If passed, it would give the government sweeping powers over how foreign companies, including mines, operate in Zimbabwe.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday thumbed her nose at her critics, saying she was there to stay. The media quoted her as telling reporters in East London she would not resign amid accusations that she is an alcoholic who abused her position to get a liver transplant. ”I’m not stepping down,” the minister said.
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South Africa captain John Smit, who has not played since injuring his hamstring against Australia on June 16, will miss Saturday’s World Cup warm-up match against Scotland in Edinburgh. Smit was not among the 22 named by the South African Rugby Union on Thursday, although he travelled with the team on their two-match trip to Ireland and Scotland.