First National Bank (FNB) on Wednesday announced a joint commercial-property and housing-finance deal that will see the provision of over 3 000 houses in Protea Glen, Soweto, over the next two years. The suburb of Protea Glen to be developed will be called Glen Ridge. The first batch of houses is expected to be available for occupation in September or October this year.
A month-long outbreak of cholera has killed 21 people and sickened 253 in mainland Tanzania and the semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago, officials said on Wednesday. Twelve people have died in the past four days and 115 others were taken to hospitals in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, said city council spokesperson Gaston Makwembe.
South Africa was urged on Wednesday to tread carefully on land reform in a report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. ”Land reform is a massive, complicated process and not everything can be done simultaneously,” said the 185-page report by the Paris-based club of market economies.
Media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi was set to take a bow as Italy’s prime minister on Wednesday, but has promised to be a thorn in the side of centre-left nemesis Romano Prodi in opposition. The supreme court was expected to copper-fasten Prodi’s provisional victory in last week’s polls.
Australian tail-ender Jason Gillespie stunned both himself and the cricket world on Wednesday by scoring an unbeaten 201 in the second Test against Bangladesh. ”I never expected it in my wildest dreams … so it’s pretty surreal, pretty bizarre actually,” said the fast bowler, who celebrated his 31st birthday with one of the most astonishing Test knocks ever seen.
Further suspects police want to arrest for last month’s massive airport heist are in Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Angola, the Kempton Park Regional Court heard on Wednesday. Investigating officer Peter Mbobani revealed this in cross-examination by Pieter Wilkens, an advocate defending an Airports Company South Africa employee.
Police found the car of murdered fashion designer Richard Bloom abandoned in the parking lot of a Cape Town shopping mall shortly before 2am on Wednesday. Bloom and his friend, actor Brett Goldin — who starred in the comedy Crazy Monkey Presents Straight Outta Benoni — were found dead beside a highway on Monday morning having been shot in the back of their heads.
The case of the so-called Waterkloof four was referred back to the regional court for sentencing on Wednesday, after the Pretoria High Court found it was improper for it to sentence the four former schoolboys. The four white accused were found guilty of the murder of an unidentified black man and assaulting another in 2001.
Makhaya Ntini and Dale Steyn put in match-winning performances to wrap up the New Zealand innings on the fifth morning of the first Castle Lager Test at Supersport Park on Wednesday. The two pace bowlers needed just 33 minutes to bowl New Zealand out for 120 runs, to give South Africa victory by 128 runs.
He was behind the worst act of terrorism ever carried out on Japanese soil, but in the eyes of Kaori, his youngest daughter, Shoko Asahara was ”a loving father” who taught her and her siblings to cherish all living things. ”I remember him as a very kind, very proud man,” she said as her father’s lawyers battled to save him from the gallows for masterminding the March 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.