Inspectors from South Africa’s Department of Labour carried out "blitzes" in the Free State province this week but the vast majority of workplaces targeted were found to be compliant with the country’s employment equity laws, a spokesperson for Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Tuesday.
South Africa has been asked to use its political influence internationally to help end the conflict in Lebanon, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. He said at a media briefing in Pretoria that President Thabo Mbeki had received a letter from Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora asking the government to intervene politically and help with humanitarian aid.
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila won over 85% of the vote in his stronghold in the east of the country, the first official results to trickle in from the July 30 landmark elections showed on Tuesday. By Tuesday morning, results had been posted in at least three of the country’s 62 regional election centres.
A drive to perform 100Â 000 cataract operations worldwide over the next 100 days was launched by an international NGO, the Christian Blind Mission (CBM), in Cape Town on Tuesday. According to CBM president Prof Allen Foster about 17-million people worldwide are totally blind because of cataracts — a condition reversible in a relatively simple 10- to 15-minute operation.
After 12 years of a new South Africa, in South African newsrooms it’s still a question of ”same old”. In a male-dominated industry, women are still on the receiving end of discrimination. This is the conclusion of a report conducted by the South African National Editors’ Forum and launched on Tuesday in Johannesburg.
A woman who fell through the floor of an old house in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, while having sex had to be pulled out of the basement by rescuers using a firefighter’s ladder, officials said on Tuesday. "A couple from the street entered the courtyard of an old house under renovation, and the woman fell through the floor while apparently having sex," they said.
The conflict in the Middle East is a recipe for creating suicide bombers, Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Tuesday. ”I think God is crying that God’s children can do this to one another,” he said in Cape Town. ”Whatever the provocation, there can never be a justification for targeting civilians.”
Hopes faded on Tuesday for finding survivors from hundreds of people missing after murderous weekend flash floods devastated a town in eastern Ethiopia, officials and residents said. With the death toll from flooding in and around Dire Dawa hovering at 206, they said frantic rescue efforts were continuing but conceded chances were slim.
Ziba Jiyane, leader of the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco), has been suspended by the management committee of his political party. On Tuesday, Nadeco national chairperson Mandla Magubane said: ”They [Jiyane and Nadeco secretary general Jabulani Maphalala] have brought the party in disrepute.”
Nedbank on Tuesday became the first bank to offer bank accounts to thousands of informal traders operating in the Durban city centre in Ethekwini, KwaZulu-Natal. This project is being coordinated together with the Informal Sector Empowerment Cooperative, an organisation that manages over 10 000 traders who operate in the informal retail sector.