South Africa-based Dimension Data, a global IT solutions and services company, has acquired a 51% stake in ICL East Africa (Iclea), the leading provider of end-to-end IT systems and services in the East African region, for an undisclosed amount.
Didata announced the acquisition on Monday.
The situation in Tibet is a scar on the conscience of the world, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Sunday. He was speaking after meeting the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, his place of exile in India. Leon said the Dalai Lama emphasised that neither he nor his ”government-in-exile” were seeking independence from China, which they enjoyed until 1951, when China invaded and conquered.
Rugby union will break new ground on Tuesday as the under-19 World Cup kicks off in the United Arab Emirates, the first time a major international 15-a-side tournament has taken place in the region. South Africa will be looking to retain the title they won a year ago on home soil after a 20-15 defeat of New Zealand, while local officials hope the tournament could pave the way for senior level events.
A series of letters discovered in a Swiss cellar reveal how Bertolt Brecht, Germany’s famously uncompromising playwright, fell out with some of the 20th century’s most glittering literary figures, including the novelist Christopher Isherwood. Written in the 1940s during his exile from the Nazis, they show how Brecht insulted Isherwood after inviting him for dinner.
South Africa’s ability to fight coastal oil spills has been compromised by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism’s failure to renew a marine pollution-fighting contract before its expiry. No private pollution-abatement vessels are currently under contract to the department.
Jill Carroll, the American journalist who spent three months as a hostage in Iraq, returned to the United States on Sunday in a homecoming clouded by charges from conservative bloggers that she had fallen under the influence of her kidnappers.
The inquiry into the capsizing of a dinner party cruise vessel in Bahrain, in which 58 people, including five South Africans, died, is likely to focus on the final minutes before the dhow set sail. Survivors said there were long discussions between the captain of the Dana and the tour operator before the vessel cast off.
Cape Judge President John Hlophe should be asked to take a leave of absence until questions about monthly ”expense” payments made to him by a Cape Town investment company were answered, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. A decision he made granting that company permission to sue a judicial colleague also had to be explained.
China’s pandas and Madagascar’s lemurs have found unexpected new allies in a handful of mining companies and oil firms. Though natural-resource-consuming big businesses may seem unlikely champions of environmental conservation, a few are actually in the vanguard of a programme protecting forests and endangered species in Asia, Africa and around the world.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Sunday increased pressure for an end to Iraq’s political deadlock and the speedy formation of a national unity government, during a surprise visit to Baghdad. ”The Iraqi people are losing patience,” Rice said after meeting Sunni, Shia and Kurdish leaders. ”What is more, your international allies want to see this done.”