The economic vision of the formerly ruling Inkatha Freedom Party in the KwaZulu homeland is being played out even today in KwaZulu-Natal, former premier Lionel Mtshali said on Tuesday. He also said the institutions set up in the former non-independent homeland are still providing key financial and banking services to the poor.
The nine provinces spent on average 98% or R214,8-billion of their adjusted budgets of R219,2-billion in 2005/06, the National Treasury said on Tuesday. This was a significant spending increase year-on-year of 13,5% or R25,5-billion over the audited R189,2-billion spent in 2004/05.
The Department of Home Affairs has slammed the statements of a former senior official who described the department as suffering from "a national crisis" over the issuing of passports. It has also rejected calls made for the resignation of Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and her deputy.
Africa should get to the point where discussions about peace and security on the continent are no longer needed, the President of the Pan African Parliament, Gertrude Mongella, said on Tuesday. Briefing the media after the start of the fifth sitting of the Parliament in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, Mongella said while some conflicts were resolved new ones kept coming onto the agenda.
President Idriss Déby is expected to win re-election in polls on Wednesday. But it may not seem like much of a victory. Many of the fellow tribesman who once supported him have taken up arms with the aim of toppling him, and most opposition political parties are boycotting Wednesday’s election, claiming that it is already rigged.
The ”arrogance” displayed by security-industry employers in their stalemate with striking workers is a cause of concern, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the South African Trade and Allied Workers’ Union said it will continue striking until its demands are met.
Iran has managed to enrich uranium up to 4,8% purity, the head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization said on Tuesday, as envoys of the main world powers met in Paris to discuss how to halt the sensitive nuclear fuel work. Iran had already announced last month that it had enriched uranium to 3,6% purity, sufficient to produce reactor fuel.
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Judgement in the Jacob Zuma rape trial will start on May 8. ”The court will now adjourn and judgement will be delivered 9am, Monday the 8th,” Judge Willem van der Merwe said on Tuesday. He told the Johannesburg High Court that he did not know at this stage how long delivering the judgement would last.
At the start of the first sitting of the Pan African Parliament in Midrand on Tuesday the lack of finance for the continental body was again a major theme. In her opening speech, president of the Parliament Gertrude Mongella said the body was sending a delegation to the African Union sitting next week to discuss the supplementary budget for the Parliament.
Shane Warne has firmly rubbished rumours of an impending return to Australia’s limited overs squad. Warne, back in the United Kingdom for the start of a county season with Hampshire, said he had no intention of coming out of his self-imposed one-day international retirement.