South African President Thabo Mbeki has described his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo’s acceptance of the scrapping of a plan to extend his tenure as an outstanding act of statesmanship, an official statement said on Tuesday. Obasanjo (69) must step down in May 2007 after serving two four-year terms.
China’s ambassador portrayed his country on Tuesday as a benign force in Africa that dispatches doctors and teachers to the continent, opens trade opportunities and steers clear of political interference. Zhao Wenzhong said China-Africa trade leaped from -billion in 2000 to -billion last year.
The United Nations holds the key to solving an economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe, President Thabo Mbeki told a British newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday. South Africa’s leader threw his weight behind a planned visit to Zimbabwe by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Tow-truck companies are bribing police officers to ensure they are first at accident scenes, according to a report commissioned by Ekurhuleni’s police chief, Robert McBride. The report discovered, among other things, that some companies offer police free cellphones as an incentive to tip them off.
United States President George Bush urged Israel on Tuesday to resume direct talks with the Palestinian president and put on hold plans to withdraw unilaterally from the West Bank. In his first official visit to Washington, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert received little support for immediate movement on his plan to redraw Israel’s borders.
The government has done what it can for a group of protesting former miners from the Eastern Cape, and urged them to go back home. ”We are not resisting to pay the claims; we are willing to, especially when it comes to the elderly,” Boas Seruwe, acting Unemployment Insurance Fund commissioner, said on Tuesday.
While more young people are becoming increasingly concerned about making provision for their retirement, savings numbers show that they are doing very little about it. Old Mutual commissioned a retirement fund survey using a sample of 60 local retirement funds comprising a total of 92Â 000 active members and 33Â 000 pensioners.
In the war against hunger in Southern Africa, food for thought can be as powerful as food for the stomach. While food aid is an obvious short-term solution to chronic hunger, information can steer hungry people towards long-term development strategies, such as improving hygiene, preventing disease and empowering women and children.
For a gay man with little knowledge of — or if truth be told, interest in — the vagina, the recent international conference on microbicides in Cape Town represented a personal turning point. To be honest, my knowledge of the "rectal compartment" — as the arse is euphemistically referred to in scientific circles — was hardly any better.
From technology, to transformation to tabloids, there is no doubting that South Africa’s dailies have evolved in the past ten years. Carol Campbell looks at how the industry has changed and what lies ahead.