Chad’s President Idriss Déby Itno and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir on Tuesday decided to immediately reopen their common border and respective embassies, a high-ranking Chad official said. The leaders also said they were committed ”to working to reinforce peace between the two countries”, the official added.
Members of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) employed by the Shoprite Group are to embark on a national strike on Thursday after wage talks ended in a deadlock on Monday. The union has also called for a boycott of stores within the Shoprite fold of companies.
Peace talks to end northern Uganda’s brutal two-decade war hung in the balance on Tuesday as the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) refused to return to the table unless the government declares a truce. The halting negotiations had been due to resume on Tuesday following the LRA’s declaration of a unilateral ceasefire last week.
Disgraced Tour de France winner Floyd Landis said on Tuesday his positive drugs test was fatally flawed as he continued his media campaign to prove his innocence. The American rider tested positive for excessive levels of testosterone after his remarkable comeback stage-17 victory but claims the test was not carried out correctly.
The aircraft that carried former national cricket captain Hansie Cronje to his doom had incomplete maintenance records, an inquest into the crash heard on Tuesday. A Civil Aviation Authority senior accident investigator confirmed that Airquarius Aviation subcontracted its aircraft maintenance work.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.