Beneath the M1 highway overlooking Newtown, two vibrant little structures became the focus of attention on Wednesday when the City of Johannesburg launched what it calls ”the best seats in town”. Enclosed in bright yellow and purple, pod-like buildings, the ”seats” in question are silver, cone shaped and flush at the press of a button.
The state has taken possession of the Pniel estate near Barkly West in the Northern Cape, the first piece of land to be fully expropriated in terms of the government’s restoration programme. ”Land claims commissioner Tovey Gwanja visited the farm personally on Thursday to symbolically receive the key,” Eddie Nkomazana of the land claims office in Bloemfontein said on Thursday.
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown says he has already been convicted in a trial by media. He made the statement in an affidavit handed in at his bail hearing in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. ”I have been held out to be the villain in the tale, and have already been convicted by it [the media],” he said.
Police were asked to have another look at the charge of reckless driving against Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said. On Thursday, Beeld reported that the NPA had asked police to clear up a few points.
Central bank chief Gideon Gono has compared Zimbabwe’s 1 730% inflation rate to the Aids pandemic and warned it cannot be tackled by the government alone, state media reported on Thursday. ”Inflation has ceased to be just the number one enemy. It is now actually the economic HIV of this country,” Gono said in remarks carried by the Herald newspaper.
Israel on Thursday rejected any contacts with the new Palestinian unity government, denying earlier statements by a senior official that it could work with it under certain conditions. ”The Israeli position remains the same,” government spokesperson Miri Eisin told the media in the first official reaction to the new Palestinian Cabinet line-up unveiled on Thursday.
A lack of information is holding back the potential of cellphone banking to expand access to financial services to the unbanked population. This is one of the key conclusions of the FinScope Mobile Banking Pilot Survey, whose findings were released in Johannesburg on Thursday.
Zimbabwe accused opposition supporters on Thursday of waging a militia-style campaign of violence against the government, amid rising world condemnation of President Robert Mugabe’s latest crackdown on dissent. Police officials said three officers had been badly hurt in a petrol-bomb attack in the capital, Harare, late on Tuesday.
”Angel of Soweto” Jackie Maarohanye appeared briefly in a Soweto court on Thursday, later facing police who want to re-charge her in a kidnapping case from a year ago. Ithuteng Trust school principal Maarohanye and three others appeared in the Protea Magistrate’s Court on charges of kidnapping a Sowetan reporter and driver.
Ethiopia’s foreign minister on Thursday urged Somalis to support African Union peacekeepers deploying to boost a weak government in the face of deadly insurgency. This comes as Ethiopian troops scale down operations. ”I am urging the Somalis to work closely with AU troops to bring lasting peace,” Seyoum Mesfin said.