Political infighting should not be allowed to affect municipal service delivery, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said on Wednesday. ”Political parties and other organisations who took part in the 2006 local government elections must also take stock of their contribution since the elections,” he told MPs in the National Assembly.
Anti-apartheid activist Winnie Madikizela-Mandela may have been denied entry into Canada this week because of a her previous criminal records, Canadian newspapers reported on Wednesday. The National Post reported that a spokesperson for Citizenship and Immigration Canada had suggesed that the visa application was rejected because of her criminal record.
South Africa’s business confidence eased slightly in May after a set of disappointing economic data that should influence sentiment in coming months, the South African Chamber of Business said on Wednesday. Sacob’s Business Confidence Index pulled back 1,7 index points to 100,2 in May from April’s 101,9.
Fidel Castro appeared alert and upbeat in his first television interview since falling ill last year, but he gave no hint of a possible return to power. The Cuban leader spoke with passion about various subjects for almost 50 minutes in an interview broadcast on state television on Tuesday.
Jay Naidoo, who is currently the chairperson of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and of the J&J Group, has been appointed to the board of directors of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations specialist agency for information and communication technologies based in Geneva.
As millions of Zimbabweans brace for biting food shortages, President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party has started scouting for food donations for its annual end-of-year conference, it was reported on Wednesday. Members of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party in Mashonaland Central province have so far pledged 48 cattle and 44 tonnes of maize, according to the Herald.
Ronald Ambrose Jones was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Michaela Garoenisha Ganchi by the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday. Shouts of relief were heard from the family as Judge Winston Msimeki imposed the life sentence on 27-year-old Jones for the 2005 murder.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu recently entered a thriving virtual world called <i>Second Life</i> to be interviewed by Reuters bureau chief Adam Pasick. Somehow this doesn’t seem as strange as it would have a few years ago. Pasick explained that <i>Second Life</i> has a real economy and real culture, and therefore real news.
South Africa will not be able to halt the spread of HIV/Aids unless it increases wages for government healthcare workers, the head of a leading HIV/Aids advocacy group said on Wednesday. An estimated 12% of South Africa’s 47-million people are infected with HIV, and about 1Â 000 die each day from Aids and related diseases.
Six years after they first met and United States President George Bush reported gazing into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s soul, the two leaders face some tense talks at the Group of Eight (G8) on Thursday. Bush’s strong personal ties with Putin have been at the heart of US-Russian relations since a summit in Slovenia in June 2001.