Somali children are at risk from unexploded ordnance around the capital, Mogadishu, where daily fighting has forced 27Â 000 people to flee since June, United Nations agencies said on Friday. Bombing and gun battles in the capital prevent families from working or buying food, the United Nations refugee agency said.
Taxpayers will be able to file their tax returns online by Monday, the South African Revenue Service said on Friday. Commissioner Pravin Gordhan told reporters in Johannesburg that the new electronic filing system would enable taxpayers to have their assessments done easier and faster.
South African Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni told MPs on Friday that there can be no question of linking the Zimbabwean dollar to the rand. He said to the portfolio committee on finance that the matter has not been considered by the Reserve Bank, nor by the Zimbabwean Reserve Bank, nor has it been raised by the Zimbabwean Finance Ministry.
Afrikaans music pioneers NuL, Riku Latti and Thys Nywerheid invaded Jo’burg last week. Lloyd Gedye was there for the ride.
President Thabo Mbeki should be commended for promoting the appointment of women to senior posts in his government, Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary leader Sandra Botha said on Friday. ”As we look forward to celebrating Women’s Day next Thursday, it is heartening to track the progress we have made in advancing gender rights in the last few years,” she said.
South Africa’s leading rugby players have been dealt a heavy blow after the country’s rugby bosses decided that players basing themselves abroad would no longer be eligible for the national rugby team. The decision on Thursday means some of the Springbok superstars will play their last matches for their country at this year’s World Cup in France.
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira named 23 players — including six strikers — for a mini-camp that will give fringe players a chance to show that they have what it takes to represent the national team in 2010. Parreira is hoping he and his staff will be surprised when they put members of the mini-camp squad through their paces on Monday and Tuesday.
At least 50 people are dead and 148 others are missing after a coastal ferry capsized overnight in rough seas off northern Sierra Leone, a port official said on Friday. ”According to the report we received, 50 people perished, two were rescued while 148 others remain unaccounted for,” the official, who asked not to be named, said.
More than 200 HIV/Aids lay counsellors marched on the Gauteng health department offices in Johannesburg on Friday complaining that they had not been paid since April. The community-based counsellors also said they were unhappy with the amount of the monthly R1Â 000 stipend they were supposed to get from the department.
The case against one of the men accused of being behind the African National Congress hoax email saga was postponed in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Muziwendoda Kunene, wearing a white suit, appeared briefly in court where his new lawyer asked for another postponement.