Insurer Old Mutual posted a 12% drop in first-half operating profit, missing forecasts as the weak rand and United States dollar and provisions for its US unit dampened the impact of rising sales. South Africa’s largest insurer said on Friday pretax operating profit, on a European embedded value basis, totalled £782-million, below an average forecast of £850-million.
Sitting at a small clinic in the Talangai area, north of Congo’s capital, Brazzaville, Elise Diamba holds the hands of her malnourished two-year old grandson. "Gérard’s mother stopped breastfeeding him when he was seven months," the 61-year old grandmother says. "He hadn’t even started walking. Since then, his health has not been good."
The challenge for all card-carrying ANC members at their national conference is how to deal with the fact that the ANC has brought South Africa into disrepute as a result of internal squabbles — and how to prevent that from happening in future. Regrettably, South Africa has failed to create an electoral act that allows citizens to elect their own president directly, making him or her accountable to the public as opposed to a party or party faction.
Money is pouring in for the 2010 World Cup as the country anticipates an economic kick from hosting the world’s largest sporting event. With government providing billions of rands to upgrade infrastructure and depressed inner-city areas, there are indications that the private sector is following suit, particularly in Gauteng.
The Federal Reserve, the United States central bank, resisted pressure this week to cut interest rates to ease the turmoil sweeping the world’s credit markets. After its latest meeting, the Fed’s open market committee, headed by Ben Bernanke, left its key interest rate steady at 5,25%, the level that has prevailed since June last year.
At 3.30pm on Tuesday, President Thabo Mbeki did what he has been trying to for a long time. He began the process of firing deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. Summoned to the Union Buildings on Tuesday afternoon in Pretoria, Madlala-Routledge was asked to resign.
Mohammed Jalloh leaps in celebration after scoring a goal on a makeshift pitch along Lumley Beach in Freetown. He’s 23 and loves football. Like his hero, Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas, he is a midfielder. Taking up his position again, Jalloh prepares for the restart. He flexes his muscles as he leans forward on his crutches, his weight on his left leg, the stump where his right leg should be is bandaged and dangling from his shorts.
As more and more people flee Zimbabwe and pour into South Africa’s cities, the social networks that have developed over the years to accommodate Zimbabweans are growing overburdened and, as a result, recent arrivals are increasingly having to brave life on the streets.
President Thabo Mbeki does not have to give reasons for firing his ministers, according to spokesperson Mukoni Ratitshanga. Presumably neither does he have to let the rest of the public in when wearing his ANC hat and getting rid of party officials. For if he was bound to explain himself, he would have to say why a senior minister such as Mosoiua Lekota continues to serve in his cabinet when he failed to declare his directorship of a winery and shares he had in a petroleum distribution company.
More action is needed to protect civilians in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, who continue to suffer serious human rights violations in the ongoing conflict, a United Nations special rapporteur said in a preliminary report. Sima Samar, Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council, said Darfur remained a region where gross violations of human rights have been perpetrated by all parties to the conflict.