I read with incredulity Ferial Haffajee’s diatribe against the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) (Polokwane Briefing: "The state, revolution and rhetoric", June 30). While engaged in the struggle to discontinue private ownership of the means of production, the SACP also strives to build a coherent and united nation, and end patriarchy.
The road trip from Midrand to Polokwane may only be 284km, but the political round-trip seems far longer for the ANC — and perhaps for the country. The ruling party must move from its policy conference last month to its decision-making conference in December, then back to the halls of government.
Elder statesman Shimon Peres took office as Israel’s ninth president on Sunday at the age of 83, pledging to devote the full seven-year term to realising his lifelong dream of bringing peace to the Middle East, despite the limitations of the largely ceremonial post. He entered Parliament to military fanfares.
The South African government has dismissed as untrue a weekend report on the collapse of Southern African Development Community-led talks on Zimbabwe. ”Nothing is further from the truth,” Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said in a statement issued from India.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is to investigate a number of ways of ”contesting state power in elections” and will convene a policy conference next year to look at the various avenues open to it. A resolution on the ”SACP and state power” was adopted on the final day of the party’s 12th national congress.
A man who drove a restored army tank on a rampage against cellphone towers in Australia’s biggest city believed radio waves had ”harmed his head”, the tank’s owner said on Sunday. The 1967 British tank was spotted by police as it attacked an electricity sub-station in Sydney and was pursued as it went on to flatten seven cellphone towers.
Dental experts have raised doubts over the authenticity of a purported Buddha’s tooth in a Singapore temple, claiming it could not have come from any human being, a newspaper reported. ”There is absolutely no possibility that it is a human tooth,” said a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne’s school of dental science.
A North Korean diplomat confirmed on Sunday that his country had shut down its sole operating nuclear reactor after receiving an initial shipment of oil aid and said that United Nations inspectors would start to verify the closure later in the day. Kim Myong Gil also raised hope for further progress on disarmament.
Scientists say they have cracked a nearly eight-decade-old riddle involving the Möbius strip, a mathematical phenomenon that has also become an icon of art. Since 1930, the Möbius strip has been a classic poser for experts in mechanics. The teaser is to resolve the strip algebraically.
Troops stepped up security across the Somali capital on Saturday after Islamists threatened to disrupt this weekend’s peace conference, saying anyone who takes part ”is sentenced to death”. The threat came from the Shabab, the militant wing of an Islamic group that ruled much of southern Somalia for six months last year.