A new centre for children infected with HIV, which opened in Maputo this week, plans to use advanced technology to treat the disease.
A meeting between Sasol and two unions that may join Solidarity’s strike was underway on Wednesday at the chemical industry’s national bargaining council. Bosole Chidi, the acting general secretary of the South African Chemical Workers’ Union, and Welile Nolingo, the general secretary of the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union, were at the meeting.
South Africa’s education system has been blamed for school violence that in the past week left one pupil dead and another with multiple skull fractures. A sense of spirituality and humanity is lacking, a Durban-based anti-drug forum said on Wednesday. Teachers lack empathy and the South African educational system needs to stop churning out workers, said forum chairperson Sam Pillay.
I was utterly surprised when my name was read out recently as the 2006 winner of the Nat Nakasa prize for integrity and bravery in journalism. To date, the award has gone to journalists; the idea of an academic getting the glory never occurred to me. Nor is there any special focus on journalism educators by the three groups behind the award.
The latest spike in oil prices to near a barrel is ”very uncomfortable” and is hurting the world economy, the president of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) said on Wednesday. Edmund Daukoru, who is also Nigerian minister of state for petroleum, said the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah was responsible for the latest jump.
Hundreds of ostriches are being culled following an outbreak of avian influenza near Mossel Bay, the Western Cape’s veterinary chief said on Wednesday. ”At least a couple of thousand will be culled,” said Dr James Kitching. He said the number is small — about the same number a single abattoir handles in a week.
Gauteng has to plan now for population growth of five million to an estimated 14,5-million people by 2015, Premier Mbhazima Shilowa warned on Wednesday. He stressed that immediate intervention is needed to avert future crises. ”If we have this congestion with 9,5-million people, how will it be if there are 14,5-million?”
The Ugandan government on Wednesday flatly rejected demands for a truce from the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and said there could be no ceasefire until a full peace settlement is reached. Just a day after peace talks began under Sudanese mediation, Kampala’s delegation took a hard line against a raft of proposals from the LRA’s negotiators.
South Africa, led by their first non-white captain Ashwell Prince, arrived in Sri Lanka on Wednesday to play two Tests and a one-day series also featuring India. The Proteas are depleted by the absence of regular captain Graeme Smith and star all-rounder Jacques Kallis, both of whom are injured.
At least four people were killed and dozens trapped when a four-storey residential building collapsed in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, witnesses said on Wednesday. The building, consisting of 36 flats, a penthouse and some shops, collapsed at around 7.30pm local time on Tuesday, trapping dozens of people.