The way affirmative action is being implemented in South Africa is to be discussed between President Thabo Mbeki and the main opposition party in Parliament, the Democratic Alliance (DA). Anchen Dreyer, who speaks for the DA on labour issues, said on Monday that when the president answered a parliamentary question last month, he agreed to meet them for such discussions.
Refugee camps should be set up near the border to house and feed Zimbabweans fleeing their country, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. ”If government takes its humanitarian duties seriously, [the Department of] Home Affairs will immediately begin to investigate setting up refugee camps,” the DA’s Mark Lowe said.
Africa’s top banking group by assets, Standard Bank, has received approval to merge its Stanbic Nigeria unit with IBTC Chartered Bank, the firm said on Monday. Standard Bank said it had increased its offer price to 16 naira per share from 11,74 naira per IBTC share, valuing the offer at -million.
Nora Bannerman checks the pristine white uniforms made for American pharmacist Walgreens in her factory in the humid heart of Accra. Her Sleek Garments company exports shirts, pants and uniforms under the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
An Ethiopian court sentenced 35 opposition members to life in prison on Monday, rebuffing a prosecution request that they be executed for trying to overthrow the government, treason and inciting violence. The remaining eight defendants were ordered to serve terms of between 18 months and 18 years.
Hiring security firms to guard certain police stations was proof that the police had failed to combat crime, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) KwaZulu-Natal leader Lionel Mtshali said on Monday. Mtshali said: ”Presumably, the idea is to free fully-trained police officers to perform their core function of preventing and combating crime”.
Children in Gaza and Zimbabwe desperately need help to ensure they have food, clean water and schooling, a senior United Nations official said on Monday. Dan Toole, director of emergency programmes for Unicef, said a shortage of donor cash was having a dramatic effect in the territories.
Most Germans don’t believe money can buy happiness, according to a survey released on Monday, which found that only 13% of German men care deeply about becoming rich. The figure for women is even lower, with only 6% saying they regard wealth as an important goal, according to the poll.
Fishermen in Zanzibar have caught a coelacanth, an ancient fish once thought to have become extinct when it disappeared from fossil records 80-million years ago, an official said on Sunday. Researcher Nariman Jidawi of Zanzibar’s Institute of Marine Science said the fish was caught off the tropical island’s northern tip.
The case of Annanias Mathe, the Mozambican national charged with escaping from Pretoria’s C-Max prison, was postponed yet again in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday. The case was postponed to October 5 in order to centralise all the charges against Mathe.