Eastern Cape Police have questioned eight people after discovering an investment scam in Grahamstown which used Oprah Winfrey’s name to target hundreds of people. Captain Mali Govender said on Friday people were told: ”You pay R10 and [US talk-show queen] Oprah Winfrey is going to pay you R1 200 a month for 10 years”.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is focusing on the achievement of an umbrella customs union for the 14-member states by 2010, and the matter of monetary regional integration has received "a high level of attention" at its most recent meeting, South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa said on Friday.
The Film and Publications Amendment Bill, which this week received the nod from the South African Cabinet, has crucial long-term implications for the future of the free exchange of ideas in South Africa, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. He said the Bill "is a proposed amendment to the Film and Publications Act — always an arena of controversy in a country with a .. history of censorship".
Iran is ready for unconditional talks over its nuclear programme but rejects the West’s ”language of force” over the issue, one of the Islamic republic’s religious leaders said on Friday. Iran also said that it will soon announce new nuclear successes in its quest for nuclear power that the West fears is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons.
Immigration officers belonging to the Public Servants Association (PSA) will go on strike from the beginning of September, the union said on Friday. ”The strike will adversely affect all South African points of entry and international airports, and the department [of home affairs] should accept full responsibility for the situation … ,” PSA deputy general manager Manie de Clercq said.
A 20-strong alliance of opposition parties denounced on Friday what they called the slow rate of preparations for staging Angola’s first elections since the end of the civil war four years ago. President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, in power since 1979, has pledged to stage the historic ballot before the end of next year.
A multimillion-rand scam has been uncovered in which expired food products have been sold from the shelves of major supermarkets, Dispatch Online reported on Friday. The scheme has been run for years by an East London food distributor, operating out of a back-street warehouse in Quigney, East London.
The authorities in Zimbabwe have closed nearly 70 hotels and restaurants in the last week for operating without licences or being used for illicit sex, a minister said on Friday. ”We ordered the closure of these restaurants and some of these small hotels that were being turned into brothels since they were not registered,” Environment Minister Francis Nhema said.
Childhood allergies are on the rise around the world, including in many developing countries where asthma, eczema and hay fever are emerging as important public health problems, scientists said on Friday. Asthma, in particular, is responsible for millions of children missing school, ending up in hospital or even dying.
The top United States general in the Middle East praised a major security clampdown in Baghdad on Thursday and said Iraq was far from civil war. On a day when three car bombs and two roadside bombs killed four people and wounded 24 in the capital, General John Abizaid told reporters: ”I think there has been great progress on the security front in Baghdad recently.”