The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Wednesday claimed it had proof that KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele ordered provincial government departments to cease advertising in the Sunday Tribune. On March 1, IFP KwaZulu-Natal caucus leader Lionel Mtshali released a statement that the provincial government had pulled R200Â 000-worth of advertising.
South Africa coach Jake White has gone with tried and tested combinations for Saturday’s first of two Tests against England. Ten of the 15 players selected in the starting team featured in last weekend’s Super 14 final between the Sharks and Bulls. The one surprise selection is that of winger Ashwin Willemse, who has struggled with numerous injuries.
Two former members of a Serbian paramilitary police unit and 10 co-conspirators were found guilty on Wednesday of the assassination of reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic four years ago. The verdict in the biggest and most controversial trial since the fall of strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 came as little surprise.
Remodelled Wentworth now resembles a major championship test, according to Ernie Els. The world number five, who has a house on the Surrey estate, has masterminded a series of changes to the historic West Course in recent years and is delighted with the result.
South Africa’s Absa Corporate and Business Bank (ACBB), a unit of retail lender Absa, has acquired a 10% stake in black-owned investment firm Sekunjalo, the companies said on Wednesday. Sekunjalo said ACBB had a further option to acquire up to 9,99% of the group’s share capital within 180 days.
Exchange controls are blocking South African investment in Africa’s mining boom while China extends its reach on the continent, a conference heard on Wednesday. Soaring commodity prices in recent years, largely fuelled by China’s insatiable appetite for resources, has spurred a rebound in exploration activity on the continent.
South Africa will beef up security for tourists for the 2010 Soccer World Cup to ensure visitors are shielded from the country’s notoriously high crime rates, the country’s tourism chief said on Wednesday. The continent’s economic powerhouse, which has among the world’s highest incidence of murder and rape, is battling perceptions that it is unsafe.
About 3Â 400 Eritrean families who were displaced nine years ago during a border war with Ethiopia have returned home, the government has said. The 1998 to 2000 border war with Ethiopia killed an estimated 70Â 000 people and displaced 1,1-million Eritreans — about a third of the Red Sea state’s population.
Russia has no intention of cooperating with the United States in its plans for a missile-defence shield in Europe, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Wednesday. ”We are not going to cooperate against ourselves,” he told a news conference. ”We do not like the explanation [given by the US for having the system].”
Fears stoked by the post-9/11 ”war on terror” are increasingly dividing the world, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, while rapping rights abuses from China to Darfur and Russia to the Middle East. The gap between Muslims and non-Muslims notably deepened, fuelled by discriminatory counter-terrorism strategies in Western countries, warned the rights group.