The South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) will embark on lunchtime pickets at Shoprite Checkers shops throughout the country from Tuesday. Union chairperson Mike Tau told reporters in Johannesburg on Monday the decision stemmed from the company and the union failing to reach agreement over an across-the-board wage increase.
The government’s plan to establish a seventh regional electricity distributor (RED) to take care of the power-supply distribution for all non-metro municipalities may end up "fixing" non-existent problems, says the official opposition Democratic Alliance.
The widespread adoption of male circumcision throughout Africa could avert up to 5,7-million HIV infections by 2026. According to a scientific study published in Public Library of Science Medicine, male circumcision could avert two million new infections and 300 000 deaths over the next 10 years.
At least 250 Zimbabwean medical interns have gone on strike at the financially troubled country’s state hospitals, demanding a more than 700% pay increase, a spokesperson said on Monday. ”The strike started off slowly on Thursday last week, but now everyone has joined in,” said Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, president of the Hospital Doctors’ Association.
A group of Indian villagers presided over the marriage of two donkeys at an ancient Hindu temple in southern India in a bid to promote world peace, a report said on Monday. The wedding took place on Sunday evening in the Sri Thirumoola Natha Swamy Temple in Tamil Nadu state, the United News of India news agency reported.
Carlos Alberto Parreira, whose future with Brazil is uncertain after the five-time champions were surprisingly eliminated in the quarterfinals of this year’s World Cup in Germany, has re-emerged as an odds-on favourite to be the next coach of Bafana Bafana.
Springbok coach Jake White denied on Monday his job was on the line but admitted his side’s 49-0 thrashing by Australia was the worst he could remember. The South Africans are in Wellington preparing for what might be an even sterner challenge on Saturday against the All Blacks.
Twenty Filipino seamen kidnapped by pirates in Somalia in March have been released and are on their way home, officials said on Monday. The men were freed unharmed on Saturday, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether any ransom had been paid, said Roy Cimatu, the government’s special envoy to the Middle East.
Michael Owen will return to the United States in six weeks’ time to undergo a second knee operation, the player said on Monday. The Newcastle striker, who ruptured a cruciate ligament in England’s World Cup group clash against Sweden in Germany, must wait for the swelling in his knee to go down before he undergoes a second bout of surgery.
Zimbabwe’s health minister has ordered striking junior doctors back to work, accusing them of ”biting the hand that feeds” them, reports said on Monday. The doctors, based at two major hospitals in Harare, have been on strike since last week, ever since they were informed they were going to be deployed to district hospitals for a year, said the Herald newspaper.