South Africa has condemned the underground nuclear test in North Korea and has called on that country to abandon its nuclear programme, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. ”The South African government is deeply concerned at the reported nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” said foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
Police arrested 22 people during a protest against increased taxi fares in Pietermaritzburg’s Copesville suburb on Monday. Initial reports said that tear gas was used to disperse protesters. However, there were also unconfirmed reports that stun grenades and rubber bullets were used by police to disperse the estimated 1Â 000-strong crowd.
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was formally nominated as United Nations secretary general on Monday, only hours after North Korea defied the world body by announcing a nuclear test. The UN Security Council voted by acclamation, thereby effectively anointing Ban as successor to Secretary General Kofi Annan.
President Thabo Mbeki had struck ”a cheap and cowardly blow” against South African Communist Party leader Blade Nzimande, the Young Communist League told a news conference in Johannesburg on Monday. The league’s secretary general, Buti Manamela, was responding to Mbeki’s speech to the ANC’s national executive committee meeting over the weekend.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is to pay a birthday visit to Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the Department of Health said on Monday. Tshabalala-Msimang is spending her 66th birthday in the private Folateng section of the Johannesburg Hospital after suffering from a lung infection.
Opposition leader Michael Sata’s threat to run a rival system of government after losing last month’s national elections was branded as treasonous on Monday by Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa. ”What Sata is saying is treason. Let him not push his luck too far. I will sort him out,” Mwanawasa said while unveiling a new Cabinet for his second and final term.
South Africa’s Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) — which runs about half of the municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal and holds seats in the African National Congress-led government in that province — has warned against ”the peril of complacence” in face of the danger of South Africa descending into a one-party state.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered an investigation on Monday into a case of food poisoning that left hundreds of policemen ill. It was not clear if the poisoning of at least 350 police was deliberate, but police sources said they arrested four cooks suspected of tampering with food.
Somalia’s powerful Islamists on Monday declared holy war against Horn of Africa rival Ethiopia, which they accused of invading Somalia to help the government briefly seize a town controlled by pro-Islamist fighters. Both sides confirmed the takeover of Buur Hakaba, the first military counter-strike by President Abdullahi Yusuf’s interim government since the Islamists took Mogadishu in June.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni will discuss the proposed quotas on Chinese clothing imports on Monday, Cosatu said. Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the meeting would take place at 6.30pm at an undisclosed venue behind closed doors.