Africa’s biggest trade bloc Comesa (Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa) approved a common external tariff system on Wednesday, clearing a major hurdle for a customs union intended to boost trade in some of the world’s poorest nations.
The government and public-sector unions are to meet again this week on deadlocked wage talks and an impending strike by public servants. The talks were needed to ”refine issues around the agreement on the table” and to hear ”specific demands from unions”, Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Wednesday.
In Braamfontein, Johannesburg, under the M1 North highway, a group of street children huddles together for warmth. Metres away, seemingly oblivious to the morning traffic, a middle-aged homeless man lays down on the ground, adjusting the heap of white dustbin bags blanketed around him.
Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Wednesday he is ”in the dark” about a proposed R12-billion monorail between Soweto and Johannesburg. The first he knew about the project was when he read about it in the media. The Gauteng provincial government did not ”consult, discuss or seek our approval” for the project, he said.
A robber who tried to hold up a bank using a baby doll and a blood pressure pump was in custody on Wednesday after his heist failed, a Pakistani newspaper reported. The 25-year-old burst into the bank in Karachi on Monday brandishing the doll, which he claimed was a bomb, and the pump, which he said was a hand grenade.
There was still no schooling in Khutsong on Wednesday although teachers had agreed on Sunday that teaching would resume in the township, the Khutsong Learners’ Forum (RCL) said. ”Grade 12 learners went to school as they usually do but teaching did not take place,” said RCL president Sibusiso Kula, adding that teachers had also arrived at schools.
The two main opposition candidates in Nigeria’s flawed presidential elections last month have filed petitions seeking the cancellation of the result just before the Wednesday deadline for legal challenges. The election for a new president and federal lawmakers on April 21 were labelled ”not credible” by international observers.
The controversial new electronic traffic information system (eNaTIS) is performing transactions twice as fast as the system it replaced, MPs heard on Wednesday. It is currently operating at an average rate of 619Â 000 transactions a day, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe told members of Parliament’s transport portfolio committee.
The issue surrounding salary discrepancies in the workplace needs to be taken seriously, the Commission on Gender Equality said on Wednesday. The commission was responding to reports indicating that women are still being paid lower salaries than their male colleagues. What struck a cord was a report that the media is among the defaulters.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Wednesday he was doing "quite well" following a recent article about the recurrence of his prostate cancer. "I am deeply touched by the expressions of concern and assurances of prayer for my recovery and I thank all concerned," Tutu said in a statement.