Lisa Johnston finds some of Sue Pam-Grant’s latest works to be darkly humourous
South Africa should be compensating public servants for the quality of the work they do rather than granting an across-the-board increase — as demanded by striking trade unionists — official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille argued on Friday.
Gunmen kidnapped three people, including Asian expatriates, from the residential compound of chemical company Indorama in oil-rich southern Nigeria on Friday, a senior police officer said. ”There was an attack on the Indorama residential compound. Three people were taken,” Rivers State Police Commissioner Felix Ogbaudu said.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is to produce a report by the end of the month on Zimbabwe’s economic and political crises, reports said on Friday. ”By the end of June, we must have a report ready for the relevant authorities,” the state-run Herald quoted SADC secretary general Tomaz Augusto Salamao as saying.
The retail price of all grades of petrol will rise by 23 cents per litre from Wednesday June 6, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. The latest changes bring the retail price for a litre of 95 octane unleaded petrol in Gauteng to R7,24 a litre and to R7 a litre at the coast — the highest to date.
”I’m ecstatic and I can hardly wait for Saturday morning when I touch down at Heathrow,” Allan Donald says with typical fervour as he anticipates becoming a highly paid consultant to England’s bowlers for the next five weeks. Yet it is soon evident that the amiable yet passionate 40-year-old, known by the dramatic nickname of White Lightning, craves the position on a permanent basis.
The trials and tribulations of Marat Safin might have detained Leo Tolstoy for only a couple of chapters, but in tennis terms it has been a long-running story that has brought both rapture and intense frustration over the past decade — the tale of a huge talent, capable of hitting undreamed-of heights, but one that may ultimately be looked back on as wasted.
The reason rugby internationals came to be called ”Tests” is precisely because that is what they were. They were tests of strength. Neighbours would gear up and go and test themselves against another distant band at the game they both loved and enjoyed.
The Zambian government announced on Friday that a much-trumpeted Aids cure that a local businessman claimed to have discovered has been found to be a pesticide used to clean swimming pools. Tetrasil, a drug which is being promoted by a newspaper proprietor, is a pesticide that was used as a disinfectant, said a government specialist in Aids drugs.
The JSE was higher at noon on Friday as miners gained on the back of higher commodity prices, but overall trading was cautious ahead of United States economic data this afternoon, dealers said. At 12pm, the all-share index was up 0,61%. Resources gained 0,38%, the gold- and platinum-mining indices picked up 1,75% and 1,71% respectively.