Prominent Eastern Cape politicians and officials believe their cellphone conversations are being tapped or intercepted, Dispatch Online reported on Wednesday. It said at least one has made a formal complaint on the matter to the police. So nervous are senior officials that many now use code names to disguise their conversations when discussing political affairs on their cellphones.
Angola has reinforced troops along its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), fearing possible unrest in the area after the winners of landmark elections are announced, a top army official said on Wednesday. ”We do not know what could happen in the DRC after the results are announced,” General Geraldo Sachipendo Nunda said on radio.
Final argument over Botswana Bushmen’s rights to ancestral land will be presented in court later in August, Survival International said on Wednesday. The organisation, which has been helping the Bushmen to fight for their rights to hunt and gather in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, said in a statement that the last evidence was heard in May.
A decision to seize white-owned land if negotiations linger or end in deadlock is paying off with more and more farmers accepting the price offered by the state, a top land official said on Wednesday. ”These farmers have become more supportive because we are cracking the whip,” chief land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya said in an interview.
Iraqi security forces fought Shi’ite militias in several southern cities on Wednesday as the embattled government tried once more to impose its authority on the divided country. Government troops regained control of the holy city of Karbala after killing ten members of a Shi’ite cleric’s private army, arresting 281 more and imposing a strict curfew on the town.
A 50-year-old man is believed to have died from the rare anthrax disease, British health officials said on Wednesday, in the first apparent case in Scotland in nearly 20 years. The man, who lived in the Scottish Borders region, died on July 8 after a short illness and laboratory tests have shown that the disease is likely to have been the cause of death, health officials said.
Negotiations to end a pay strike by workers at Shoprite Checkers will begin in Johannesburg on Friday, the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) said on Wednesday. ”Shoprite requested the CCMA [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration] to intervene and a meeting has been set up for August 18,” said Saccawu negotiator Thoko Mchunu.
Islamists controlling much of southern Somalia said on Wednesday that at least 100 government soldiers had defected to their side, dealing a new blow to the weak transitional administration. The troops, along with seven machine-gun mounted pick-ups known as ”battlewagons” or ”technicals”, crossed into Islamist territory overnight, officials said.
The Law Society of Zimbabwe, an independent and self-regulating professional body of Zimbabwean lawyers, is under increasing attack by the government of Zimbabwe, according to Nicole Fritz, director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre. She said two recent articles made plain the Zimbabwean government’s intention to clamp down on the law society.
The JSE pared its early gains to just a six point increase by midday on Wednesday as traders awaited key United States inflation data and as the market absorbed a weaker FTSE market. Gold shares, however, continued to lead the pack. By 11.52am, the all-share index was up a mere 0,03% after being up 0,40% in early trade.