She wows with glittering outfits, has a host of friends from various backgrounds, is always perfectly manicured and preened, and makes a killer bobotie. And she’s running for president. Evita Bezuidenhout is one of the many entertainers lining up for the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, which starts on Thursday.
South Africa’s inflation rate, targeted by the central bank, quickened to 6,4% year-on-year in May, official data showed on Wednesday, strengthening the likelihood of an interest-rate rise in August. The annual CPIX measure — consumer prices minus mortgage costs — rose slightly above market expectations, and April’s increase, of 6,3%.
Springbok captain John Smit confirmed on Wednesday that he is to join French club Clermont-Ferrand following the Rugby World Cup. A statement from the South African Rugby Union said that Smit had signed a two-year contract from 2008 to June 2009. Smit (29) has led the Springboks a record 42 times in his 67 caps and will lead South Africa at the Rugby World Cup.
Recent floods in Asia and Britain and heatwaves in southern Europe show the world must be better prepared to cope with the impact of climate change, the United Nations’s top disaster-prevention official said on Wednesday. ”We cannot wait to be taken by surprise,” said Salvano Briceno, director of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
A German man making a routine trip to the police station to reclaim his stolen car ended up being busted for drunken driving twice in the same day, police said on Wednesday. In order to claim the recovered car, the 45-year-old had driven to the station in another vehicle, police in the western city of Marburg said.
Basic commodities had all but disappeared from some shop shelves in Zimbabwe on Wednesday, a day after the authorities ordered a drastic 50% price slash. A snap survey in several supermarkets in Harare showed that bread, milk, flour and cooking oil were no longer on the shelves.
Twenty-eight people were arrested during a protest outside municipal offices in Boipatong, near Vanderbijlpark, on Wednesday, police said. About 50 disgruntled municipal contract workers had been burning tyres and stoning police because they did not want their three-month contracts to end, Captain William Mcera said.
Tony Blair prepared on Wednesday to hand the British premiership to Gordon Brown after 10 years in office, as speculation grew he was to become a Middle East envoy. The formal handover was scheduled to take place at Queen Elizabeth II’s official London residence at Buckingham Palace.
Johannesburg’s first real snowfall in more than 20 years and the freezing temperatures that accompanied it claimed at least one life on Wednesday morning. Motorists were warned to avoid all passes in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday due to snowfalls, the South African Weather Service said.
Hundreds of angry Kashmiri villagers paraded two Indian soldiers naked through the streets after they were ”caught trying to rape” a 17-year-old girl, witnesses and newspaper reports said on Wednesday. Police said they were investigating the incident, which took place late on Tuesday in Kunan, a village north of Srinagar.