In a clear signal of its commitment to growing its business in Africa, the Coca-Cola Company is relocating its Africa group office from Windsor in the United Kingdom to Johannesburg, South Africa, beginning in January 2007, the company announced on Friday. The final move will be completed in June 2007.
South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki cannot demand a new positive image of Africa while continuing to condone the flagrant abuse of office and squandering of public money that typifies so much of the continent, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.
Kwaito artist Sgonondo released his new album, Amadragon, on Friday. The only problem is that he’s sitting in jail. The rapper, who hails from Zola township in Soweto, is serving a jail term at a Johannesburg prison and awaiting his parole from prison authorities.
The JSE lost 118 points by midday with resources leading the pack downhill, although some support was seen coming for bank and retail counters. By 12.07pm, the all-share index was down 0,55%, with banks the only shining light, up marginally by 0,07%. Financials were down 0,20% while resources lost 0,92%.
Accusations of racism turned a weekend at a Wild Coast resort into an angry tussle between the female manager and a guest, Dispatch Online reported on Friday. Now the guest and her party of 14 friends — all Indians — have been banned from the hotel for life.
Greek health and fire authorities on Friday braced for a three-day heatwave expected to set in over the weekend, with temperatures scheduled to hit 42 degrees Celsius over parts of mainland Greece. In Athens, municipal and prefectural officers warned residents to avoid unnecessary travel during daylight hours.
South Africa’s Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang will appear in a live television debate with the shadow health minister Gareth Morgan on Sunday August 20 on SABC TV1. The show will debate the fact that the number of cases of tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa has increased by 400% between 1995 and 2004, and the link between HIV/Aids and TB.
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Security Didymus Mutasa is suing a state prosecutor and a private newspaper for defamation, reports said on Friday. Prosecutor Levyson Chikafu and the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper are each being sued for Z-million (Â 000), the state-controlled Herald reported.
Zimbabwe has slashed fuel prices for private motorists by almost half after gas station owners unilaterally hiked rates in the wake of a serious oil crunch, a state daily reported on Friday. ”Government and the oil industry have with immediate effect fixed the price of diesel at Z (,28) and that of petrol at Z a litre for all users in the country,” the Herald said.
Cuban President Fidel Castro is recovering gradually, Raul Castro said in an interview published on Friday, his first public remarks since his ailing older brother temporarily handed him power last month. Raul Castro (75) thanked the doctors and others who have attended his brother ”with an unsurpassable professionalism and, above all, with much love and dedication”.