The chairperson of the Commission on Gender Equality, Joyce Piliso Seroke, said it was significant to receive a National Order for her contribution to the struggle against gender oppression in the same building on which women once marched to demand their rights. She was one of 24 recipients who received the country’s highest honours.
Two shots were fired at Johannesburg’s busy Bree Street taxi rank on Tuesday, just a day after a taxi driver was shot and killed at the same rank, Gauteng police said. Meanwhile, commuters were left stranded at Dobsonville in Soweto on Tuesday morning as taxis were not operating in the area.
The people of the oil-rich Niger Delta see the rise of one of their own to vice-president (VP) as an opportunity to reduce poverty and violence, although activists say time is tight. Goodluck Jonathan, governor of Bayelsa State in the delta and running mate of president-elect Umaru Yar’Adua, will carry the hopes of many in a region troubled by militancy.
The armed wing of the Palestinian movement Hamas declared a five-month truce with Israel over on Tuesday as it claimed to have fired dozens of rockets into the Jewish state on its Independence Day. Israel vowed to ”confront terrorists” who fired the barrage, which caused no injuries or damage, on the 59th anniversary of the state’s creation.
Shelling and artillery fire shook northern Mogadishu on Tuesday, the seventh day of fighting between allied Somali-Ethiopian forces and Islamist gunmen that has killed hundreds of people. The interim government has said the offensive will continue until it wipes out an insurgency frustrating its attempt to restore central rule.
Sex workers’ advocacy group Sweat said on Tuesday that the legal action it has launched to stop police harassing prostitutes is a last recourse. ”Bringing this legal action is not a step that Sweat has taken lightly,” the organisation said in its first substantive comment since it filed papers in the Cape High Court last week.
Annanias Mathe, the C-Max prison escapee, was brought to the Pretoria Regional Court in a wheelchair for a brief appearance there on Tuesday. Mathe, who was arrested in December after he escaped from C-Max prison the previous month, was still wearing shackles and handcuffs in his wheelchair.
Investors who are seeking a secure investment with a high yield but who feel unsure about the future direction of interest rates would be well advised to consider participation bonds. Once the preserve of retired people only, the modern version of the investment appeals to individuals of all ages, trusts, charities, schools and many others.
Shortages of highly skilled professionals within South Africa’s financial services sector mean that more corporates are using joining bonuses — or "happy hellos", as they are also known — as a way of coaxing the best employees into the fold.
Joining bonuses are becoming a commonly used tool with bigger corporates.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) says that President Thabo Mbeki is quite right to criticise ruling party African National Congress (ANC) councillors for not doing their jobs — but it argues that words must be turned into action. On Tuesday, DA local government spokesperson Willem Doman said: "A year after the local elections it is clear that many councillors are not effective."