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.
Bomb attacks around Baghdad killed at least 19 people and wounded 80 on Tuesday as insurgents defied a security crackdown in the Iraqi capital. The first blast echoed around the city at dawn, when a roadside booby trap ripped open a minibus and a taxi in the downtown Nahda area, killing nine people and wounding eight, an interior ministry official said.
Fuel retailers in Zimbabwe have hiked prices by up to 50% as the Southern African country faced fresh shortages amid rampant inflation and a devalued currency, a state-run daily reported on Tuesday. ”Diesel and petrol prices went up at the weekend from about Z 000 (,60) per litre to between Z 000 and Z 000,” the Herald newspaper said.
South Africa’s animal authorities are battling an outbreak of a killer disease near the Kruger National Park in the country’s northern Limpopo province, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said on Tuesday. The department said the foot-and-mouth-disease outbreak was inside a buffer zone around the tourist attraction.
Recently, Standard Bank’s economics division released an update on its residential property gauge. House-price rises slowed from 6,5% in June to 6% in July, the lowest growth rate since December 2002, and the bank believes the slowdown in property price growth is now entrenched.
There is a sentiment among retail investors that socially responsible investing (SRI) is rather like a charity — you don’t get the same returns as a "normal" investment. Performance figures, however, prove that you can have a conscience and make money.
The typical life-stage-cycle approach to investments is that in your 20s you have a maximum exposure to equities, which reduces over time as you get closer to retirement. By the time you retire at 60, your pension should have no equities and be fully invested in cash and bonds with no risk.
The latest unit trust figures show that tracker or passive funds have outperformed the actively managed funds over the past two years. With so much investment choice out there and concerns over the impact of costs in a low-inflation environment, investors looking for a simple equity investment with low costs could consider an index tracking fund such as the JSE’s Satrix securities.