South Africa risks becoming a magnet for paedophiles when it hosts the 2010 Soccer World Cup as rising child-sex tourism blights Africa’s top travel spots, activists said on Tuesday. Every year thousands of children in mostly poor countries fall prey to sex tourists. Activists say South Africa must take steps to guard against child-sex tourism ahead of the Cup.
President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday decorated his top military commanders and hailed the Zimbabwean army for standing by him despite a deep economic crisis which many critics blame on his government. Addressing a rally to mark defence forces’ day, Mugabe said soldiers were playing a big role in government efforts to turn around the economy.
The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) is considering temporarily closing its doors after police broke up student protests at its main campus in Pretoria on Tuesday. Captain Lucas Sithole said 16 students were arrested at a march to protest the suspension of lectures outside the university’s main campus at 11.30am.
Bulls and Springbok number eight Pierre Spies was on Tuesday officially ruled out of this year’s World Cup in France. The 22-year-old was given the bad news on Tuesday after learning last week he may still have an outside chance of making it to France, where the tournament kicks off on September 7.
As senior apartheid-era security officials go to court on Friday, South Africans are divided over whether it will help reveal the truth and reconcile the nation, or reopen the wounds of the nation’s racial divide.
The name change of the Potchefstroom local municipality to Tlokwe local municipality is effective immediately, the North West department of local government and housing said on Tuesday. ”[Provincial minister] Howard Yawa approved the changing of the municipality to Tlokwe last week,” said the provincial minister’s spokesperson.
Kenya’s Aids prevalence rate dropped to 5,1% last year from 5,9% in 2005, mainly due to the increased roll-out of antiretrovirals, the national Aids council said Tuesday. The state-run National Aids Control Council said the growing use of life-prolonging therapy averted about 57 000 deaths in 2006.
As another 30 people were arrested in a protest on Tuesday, this time in Sebokeng in the Vaal triangle, political parties urged the government to speed up service delivery to angry communities. ”Is the [provincial minister] going to finally do something about service delivery or are more communities going to have to riot?” asked Paul Willemburg of the DA.
The prospects of having a little medicinal dram to settle pre-flight butterflies have narrowed with South African Airways’ (SAA) decision to keep their on-flight bar closed until noon. SAA spokesperson Robyn Chalmers said the decision was in line with local and regional trends.
Along the leafy lanes of Moscow’s Bitsevsky Park, Alexander Pichushkin was a familiar figure. The 33-year-old supermarket worker played chess under the trees and even invited his opponents for a drink afterwards. But on Tuesday Pichushkin was in court accused of murdering 49 people and attempting to kill three more.