Inner Johannesburg and its surrounding areas suffered an electricity blackout on Monday, Johannesburg City Power said. Spokesperson Kgaladi Ncube said the blackout was traced back to a substation and that there was a problem with one of the transformers. ”Areas in the north and south-east of Johannesburg were affected.”
A photograph stored on a hijacker’s cellphone has led to his arrest, Ekurhuleni metro police said on Monday. Metro spokesperson Vusi Mabanga said a man was robbed of his Volkswagen Golf at gunpoint in Reiger Park on the East Rand on Friday. On Saturday, the victim and his friend searched for the stolen vehicle.
The National Democratic Convention’s (Nadeco) national executive committee has come out in support of a Pietermaritzburg High Court ruling last week that the party’s members should choose their leaders. The court ordered two camps within Nadeco to hold an inaugural federal congress to choose the party’s office bearers.
Indian music legend Bismillah Khan, who enthralled generations with his shehnai, an Indian wind instrument, died on August 21 of a heart attack, hospital officials said. He was 90. Khan, a recipient of India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, or Jewel India, had been ailing for months.
Veteran art director Ed Thrasher, who worked on hundreds of albums with such artists as Frank Sinatra and received 12 Grammy Award nominations, has died. He was 74. He joined Warner Brothers Records in 1964 where he did the photography for many of the albums as well as print ads and posters.
Joseph Hill, lead vocalist and songwriter for the traditional ”roots” reggae group Culture, died on August 19. He was 57. Hill abruptly fell ill and died in Berlin while the group were in the middle of a European tour, according to his daughter Andrea. She did not know the cause of death.
Photographer Joe Rosenthal, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his immortal picture of six World War II fighting men raising an American flag over battle-scarred Iwo Jima, died on August 20. He was 94. Rosenthal died of natural causes at a retirement home in the San Francisco suburb of Novato, said his daughter, Anne Rosenthal.
Three people died, two were missing and about 300 were injured in Budapest late on Sunday when a violent storm struck a fireworks display over the river Danube, attended by more than a million people. "According to the current information, there are three dead and two missing," government spokesperson Emese Danks said on Monday.
Oil prices rose back near a barrel on Monday, rebounding from declines the week before, after Iran insisted ahead of an official response to a package of incentives on its nuclear programme that it will not suspend uranium enrichment. Prices also appeared underpinned by concerns about supply disruptions in Nigeria.
Lack of access to finance, poor business management and a dearth of skills are some of the challenges women face in the construction sector, Minister of Public Works Thoko Didiza said on Monday. Didiza was addressing the start of a two-day conference aimed at levelling the playing field for women in the construction sector.