Hurricane Dean ripped into Mexico’s Gulf coast on Wednesday with screaming winds and torrential rain that killed two people, flooded towns and forced thousands into shelters, but then weakened rapidly. Large trees felled by wind were blocking roads as Dean made landfall in Mexico for the second time.
The government is to establish recording studios to help launch new music stars, the Department of Arts and Culture announced on Wednesday. ”The greatest single constraint on the launching of a musical career for the new artist is access to recording facilities,” said Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan.
The families of four South African men kidnapped in Iraq last year are making an international plea to their captors, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Wednesday. The four men were kidnapped in December when they were flagged down at a roadblock north of Baghdad.
Three police officers and 12 petrol attendants were arrested for fraud in Namakgale on Wednesday, Limpopo police said. Superintendent Mohale Ramatseba said two constables and a sergeant had allegedly connived with petrol attendants at a filling station in Namakgale to defraud the police of money amounting to R100 000.
South African Communist Party (SACP) chairperson Gwede Mantashe has reacted to a statement made on Wednesday by Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha that he had handed over a R500 000 donation to SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande.
South Africa beat Zimbabwe by five wickets in the first one-day international at the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on Wednesday. Zimbabwe posted 206 all out from their regulation 50 overs, but South Africa reached that target with 19 balls to spare and five wickets in hand.
It was a case of beaten but not disgraced for Bafana Bafana as they went down 1-0 to Scotland in an evenly matched and uninspiring friendly soccer international at the half-filled Pittodrie Stadium in Aberdeen on Wednesday night. It was much better than recent performances by South Africa against teams with any sort of pedigree.
Nomfundo Qangule, financial director of Harmony since July 2004, has resigned amid rumours of a massive hole in Harmony’s accounts, Moneyweb reported on Thursday. The ballpark figure mentioned is about R2-billion. The news of Qangule’s departure follows the resignation of Bernard Swanepoel as Harmony CEO on August 6.
The Media magazine introduces a new column called "Legal, Camera, Action!". Every month, entertainment and media law specialist Advocate Anton Alberts will offer legal advice to readers, demystifying the legal aspects in the entertainment and media world.
The economic rescue package for Zimbabwe, touted at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Lusaka last week, is a non-starter, economists and political commentators argued this week. They said that at least -billion would be needed to restore Zimbabwe’s collapsing infrastructure and revive commercial agriculture, the mainstay of the formal economy.