A post template

No image available
/ 23 April 2007

Road accidents kill 1,2-million a year

Traffic accidents worldwide claim about 1,2-million lives a year and injure millions more, the World Health Organisation said on Monday. Every day 1 000 people under the age of 25 are killed in traffic accidents, with 90% of these deaths occurring in low to middle-income countries mainly in Africa and Asia, it said.

No image available
/ 23 April 2007

Calls for rerun of ‘sham’ poll in Nigeria

The Nigerian government has accused opposition politicians and election monitors of trying to foment a military coup by demanding a rerun of the weekend’s tarnished presidential election. As a trickle of early results puts the ruling People’s Democratic Party in the lead, opposition parties called for the election to be annulled.

No image available
/ 23 April 2007

A new way to escape jail: A fax from the grocer

The plan to spring Timothy Rouse from jail must have seemed like a long shot. The 19-year-old had been assessed by the United States authorities as highly dangerous. It was therefore the optimist among Rouse’s associates who had the simple idea of faxing the authorities from a grocery store with instructions that "demanded" he be released.

No image available
/ 23 April 2007

Why is car insurance so high?

Vehicle insurance premiums have been soaring by 10% to 20% a year, adding to the cost of owning a car. Apart from the usual suspects — crime and the high cost of spare parts — reckless driving is becoming a major factor. But should cautious drivers be picking up the tab for the lunatics out there?

No image available
/ 23 April 2007

Lottery freeze leaves shops cold

Thousands of small shop owners throughout South Africa are bearing the brunt of the national lottery freeze, with some reporting a dramatic loss of Saturday turnover and earnings. "It is now the second Saturday with no Lotto and my turnover on those two Saturdays has dropped by as much as 50%," says Jan Snyder, who runs Pasty’s, a convenience store in Durbanville.

No image available
/ 23 April 2007

Not an ordinary man

Paul Nkuna takes honey with his coffee. It’s a quirky detail I cannot help noticing, perhaps because of its almost-ordinariness. Usually, honey goes with tea, right?But then Paul Nkuna is almost- ordinary himself. Almost. Starting out as a teacher, he ended up as treasurer of the National Union of Mineworkers, before switching tack to the NUM’s investment company, the Mineworkers’ Investment Company.

No image available
/ 23 April 2007

Silence is not an ethical option

When the cloud of apartheid still hovered over our heads, an atmosphere of fear pervaded the country, pushing its way into the thoughts of every activist — the fear that the car trailing you might pull you into detention, the jolt of adrenalin that woke you when a car stopped outside your house at night, writes Kumi Naidoo.

No image available
/ 23 April 2007

Brown’s emergency school squad

British finance minister Gordon Brown has announced his country’s backing for a global education rapid reaction force designed to provide schooling for millions of African children in war zones or fragile states. In an attempt to replicate the success of the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres in health, Brown has provided £20-million to flood areas where education systems have broken down with “clusters” of skilled personnel.

No image available
/ 23 April 2007

Managing the labyrinth

Polo Radebe, the chief director of the black economic empowerment (BEE) unit in the department of trade and industry, said that the greatest challenge the unit faced was regulating the labyrinth of empowerment legislation, which included eight Acts and 15 industry charters. On February 9, the broad-based BEE codes of good practice passed into law.