Air transport’s contribution to the South African tourism industry has helped tourism become the only sector that has grown in gross domestic product and in employment contribution to the economy, according to Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe. Speaking on Monday, Radebe said that air transport generates about 470Â 000 direct and indirect jobs across Africa.
Israeli author Yizhar Smilansky, whose works on the 1948 War of Independence sparked debate and soul-searching in the Jewish state, died on August 21, his family said. He was 89. Considered one of Israel’s greatest writers, Smilansky was born to a family of Russian immigrants in what is today Rehovot, Israel.
One of Australia’s great Olympic rowers, Mervyn Wood, passed away on the weekend of August 20 and 21 after a long battle with cancer, the Australian Olympic Committee said on Monday. He was 89. Wood represented Australia at four Olympic Games and won three medals.
Springbok coach Jake White said on Monday he was optimistic he would have a full squad of 28 to choose from for Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test against New Zealand in Pretoria. ”We’ll see after training this afternoon, but I’m very hopeful the medical staff will give everyone the all-clear,” White told reporters in Pretoria.
Two boys died near Cofimvaba after picking up hand grenade they found while hunting, Eastern Cape police said on Monday. ”Police explosives experts said it is an M26 hand grenade of South African origin,” said Superintendent Edwin Taleni after the police explosives unit went to the scene on Monday to identify the type of explosive.
Tata Steel KwaZulu-Natal on Monday celebrated the start of construction of its R670-million ferrochrome plant at Richards Bay with a groundbreaking ceremony in the Industrial Development Zone, at Alton North area, in the largest port city in KwaZulu-Natal. A plaque was unveiled by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
Fitch Ratings’ director of the sovereigns department, Veronica Kalema, says South Africa’s net exports will get a boost from the weaker rand, which will have a rebalancing effect on the economy. Fitch also said South Africa’s gross domestic product should not fall as low the 3,7% reached in 2004.
South Africa is trying to help resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme through separate discussions with the Iranian foreign minister and the United States’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motakki met Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in Pretoria on Monday.
While the health ministry attacked Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille for urging Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s dismissal, others backed the call for the minister’s head on Monday. The ministry said in a statement it was disappointed by the level of ignorance demonstrated by De Lille during a radio interview.
Bruno Kirby, a veteran character actor who co-starred in When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers and many other films, has died at age 57, his wife said. Kirby died on June 14 in Los Angeles from complications related to leukemia, according to a statement from his wife, Lynn Sellers.