Gender inequities and labour migration in Southern Africa have been pinpointed as factors contributing to the spread of HIV/Aids in the region by an epidemiologist at the International Aids Conference in Toronto, Canada, on Monday. Chris Beyrer told the opening plenary session that migrant men were 26,3 times more likely to be infected by ”outside concurrent” partners.
A fragile United Nations-ordered truce took hold in Lebanon on Monday after a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, prompting thousands of refugees to rush back to blitzed villages in the south. Heavy fighting, along with Israeli air strikes and Hezbollah rocket fire, ceased after the 7am South African time deadline.
Former joint chief executive of the defunct LeisureNet group Peter Gardener on Monday defended his non-disclosure of a substantial interest in an offshore company that the group entered into multimillion-rand deals with. He has taken the stand in the Cape High Court to rebut multiple charges of fraud, money laundering and contraventions of the Companies Act.
Farmers’ unions on Monday said they want Minister of Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana to clarify remarks that farmers had six months to agree on a selling price before their farms would be seized. Xingwana’s statements seem to be in conflict with land-reform laws that set out procedures for expropriation, said Hans Van der Merwe, executive director of AgriSA.
At least 125 people were killed overnight and up to 20 000 marooned by flood waters in south-west Ethiopia after swollen rivers broke their banks and swept through villages, police said on Monday. ”The death toll has reached 125,” Inspector Daniel Gezhegn, a police spokesperson, said. The floodwaters swept through five villages.
Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana has appointed advocate Edwin Molahlehi, former Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration director, as the chairperson of the Essential Services Committee. The essential services refer to those services the interruption of which endangers life, personal safety or health.
A growing number of HIV-positive people in South Africa are living normal lives in one of the countries worst hit by Aids. But this maturing stage in the epidemic brings new policy dilemmas for officials seeking to track Africa’s expanding Aids crisis and to make long-term plans to treat millions of infected people.
The Supreme Court of Appeal on Monday reserved judgement in an application by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to broadcast the upcoming appeal hearing of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik on television and radio. The public broadcaster seeks to record and broadcast the five-day appeal hearing with live visuals and sound for television and radio.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Monday warned new black farmers to either produce food on farms taken from whites or have the land seized by the government. Speaking at a Heroes’ Day celebration, the long-time Southern African leader also warned that ”economic saboteurs” and illegal money changers will be harshly punished.
A KwaZulu-Natal man was jailed for 18 years for killing a three-year-old girl and eating parts of her body, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Monday. Eric Delani Chala (29) was sentenced by the high court sitting at Ramsgate on the South Coast.