Spiralling fuel costs, a strike and a later-than-planned introduction of new routes saw South African Airways’ (SAA) operating profit for the year ended March dwindle from R1-billion to just R300-million, it was revealed on Tuesday. Fuel costs rocketed by a whopping 51,5% over the 12-month period, resulting in a 17,7% spike in operating expenses.
Violence in Western Cape club rugby reared its head again when spectators, including a knife-wielding man, invaded a rugby field in Clanwilliam, the Argus reported on Tuesday. Its website said the fight broke out towards the end of the game between the Clanwilliam Rugby Club and the Delicious club of Clanwilliam on Saturday.
A Vietnamese company plans to turn catfish fat into biofuel to run diesel engines, with industrial-scale production set to start next year, an official of the firm said Tuesday. Catfish exporter Agifish said it had won government approval to build a factory in the southern Mekong delta province of An Giang in 2007 and produce about 10-million litres of the fuel per year.
Uganda will enter talks with leaders of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army guerrillas without preconditions if they give up arms and denounce war, a government spokesperson said on Tuesday. The government will also be willing to pardon rebel commander Joseph Kony and his four commanders who are wanted for trial by the United Nation’s International Criminal Court.
The recent spate of violent criminal attacks has raised South Africa’s security threat profile, the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) said on Tuesday. ”They are concerns that pervade both business and public sentiment, and reflect the low level of public confidence in the criminal justice system,” Sacob said in a media statement.
Renowned Turkish-American record producer Arif Mardin, who worked with the likes of Barbra Streisand, Queen and David Bowie, has died of pancreatic cancer in New York at the age of 74, his family said in Istanbul on Monday. Mardin produced music legends such as Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, the Bee Gees and Phil Collins.
The Department of Labour has issued an ultimatum to its employees, who earlier on Tuesday embarked on an unprotected strike, to resume work or face disciplinary action. The staff members of the Compensation Fund and the Unemployment Insurance Fund have downed tools over the department’s decision to phase out an incentive bonus scheme.
Former Norwegian prime minister Lars Korvald died early on Tuesday aged 90, his Christian Democratic party announced. Korvald served as the party’s first prime minister in a centrist coalition government with the Centre Party and the Liberal Party between October 1972 and October 1973.
Authorities in Kenya said on Tuesday they had smashed a massive fraud ring that was bilking the country’s famed national parks and wildlife reserves of millions of dollars in entrance fees each year. At least 75 people, including employees of the Kenya Wildlife Service, tour guides and operators have been arrested, they said.
The United States government is stepping in to wash potty mouths and clothe exposed bodies on the national airwaves, with new fines that increase penalties tenfold for violating decency standards. The new measures, signed into law in mid-June by President George Bush, culminate years of pressure from religious conservative groups to ”clean up” the airwaves.