The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) over the weekend announced that it had declared a dispute over maternity leave and housing with South Africa’s second largest platinum miner Impala Platinum. The declaration of the dispute followed a meeting between the two parties to address the implementation of existing agreements, NUM said.
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Claims that South Africa could lose the 2010 World Cup were ”laughable” and ”absolute nonsense”, said Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the local organising committee for the event. ”What has changed since we won the World Cup? Why will we suddenly now lose it?” Jordaan asked from Germany.
A woman accused of having an affair with long-distance athlete Zola Budd-Pieterse’s ex-husband was arrested after an attempted suicide drama in Bloemfontein, media reports said on Monday. Pinkie Pelser — the alleged mistress — fired a gun while threatening to shoot anyone entering the premises of the house she rents from Mike Pieterse.
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Raymond Domenech is playing down France’s past superiority over their World Cup semifinal opponents Portugal, saying it will count for nothing when the whistle blows in Munich on Wednesday. Les Bleus have won all four of their clashes with Portugal, the most significant coming at Euro 2000 when they ran out 2-1 extra time winners in a fractious semifinal en route to taking the title.
Two of the three former apartheid spies who were released from a Zimbabwean prison at the weekend have been reunited with their families, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Sunday. Michael Smith, Kevin Woods and Philip Conjwayo were jailed for life for murder and sabotage in 1988. They were pardoned by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
Israel threatened to target the Hamas political leadership in the Gaza Strip with detention or worse on Sunday as diplomatic efforts to negotiate the release of a soldier held by Palestinian militias stalled. An Israeli air strike destroyed the office of the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, in the early hours, without causing injury.
The past few weeks have been seriously troubling for those who still consider the Constitution and its promises to be the most effective cement with which to hold this country together. If we fail to make our constitutional dreams an increasing lived reality, the long-term potential of this Constitution to hold all South Africans together may well be jeopardised.
Many fine journalists have quit the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Many have left for greener pastures. But many have quit in disgust after becoming entangled in the labyrinthine (some might say Machiavellian) politics of the public broadcaster.
The government is developing an ambitious plan for every household in the country to use gas for its cooking and heating needs. The plan, which includes regulating the price of gas, foresees the development of special import facilities at the country’s harbours to ship in vast quantities of liquid petroleum gas from gas-rich countries such as Algeria.
A variety of ailments can affect people with albinism, an inherited genetic condition characterised by the absence of melanin in skin, eyes and hair. But the challenges confronting albinos do not end there: all too often, they are also shunned and discriminated against, in Southern Africa and elsewhere.