It wasn’t just the inhabitants of the United States’s Gulf coast who were stunned by Hurricane Katrina a year ago. It was the whole American nation and the entire watching world. The death, destruction and displacement caused by the worst natural disaster in US history swept away homes, wrecked the unique city of New Orleans and laid siege to the American dream itself.
The Gauteng provincial government has welcomed the ruling of the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday in favour of the Gautrain rapid-rail link. Construction is due to begin in September. The urgent application by the Muckleneuk/Lukasrand Property Owners and Residents Association was dismissed with costs being awarded to the applicant.
Click on image for full-size view.
Zimbabwe’s rights record was under the spotlight on Wednesday with critics blasting a proposed surveillance Bill and the failure to resettle hundreds of thousands whose homes were razed last year. In a further blow, the economically ravaged country’s once-vibrant tobacco sector hit a new low on the last day of the auction season with sales expected to plummet 31%.
Pursuing solutions, rather than calling for more police, prisons and harsher sentences, are needed when addressing the current crime wave, according to a report released on Wednesday. The document — Building the Peace: A Kairos on Violent Crime — was drawn up by religious, political, business, academic and media leaders, and made public at a launch in Cape Town.
Teachers affiliated with the Congress of South African Trade Union on Wednesday discussed keeping the tripartite alliance strong and class issues around access to quality education. Speakers at the national congress of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union in Midrand included union president Willie Madisha and Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota.
Jonny Wilkinson, who has not played for England since clinching the 2003 World Cup with a last-minute drop goal, has changed his distinctive kicking style in a bid to stay injury-free this season. The 27-year-old Newcastle player insists he has identified what was causing him to break down during every attempted comeback and reckons it will no longer be a problem.
The Lion King will come to the South African stage in 2007 as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations. Co-producers Lebo M and Pieter Toerien said on Wednesday the Disney Production will be performed in the Teatro, a 1 900-seat theatre, the largest in South Africa, currently being built at Montecasino in Johannesburg.
The scramble for Africa has taken on new meaning with different terrorist groups wanting to get their hands on Africa’s resources for funding, and on its people for warfare, a conference on terrorism in Johannesburg heard on Wednesday. Somewhere between -million and -million worth of uncut gems are smuggled out of Sierra Leone each year.
The Zimbabwean government’s clean-up operation, Murambatsvina, has left the informal sector in misery and disarray, the Solidarity Peace Trust said on Wednesday. The informal sector, in which 90% of Zimbabweans eke out a living, has been criminalised by the very government that should protect their rights, trust chairperson Archbishop Pius Ncube said.