Thousands of former political prisoners and their families are living in dire poverty, Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota said in Johannesburg on Thursday. Lekota was addressing business people in the presence of former president Nelson Mandela and the newly launched Ex-Political Prisoners Committee.
Iran refuses to halt uranium enrichment, Iranian ambassador Aliasghar Soltanieh told Agence France-Presse on Thursday, the day after the United Nations Security Council called for the programme to be suspended. ”Iran’s decision on enrichment, particularly research and development, is irreversible.” said Soltanieh.
Victims of Sierra Leone’s gruesome rebel war on Thursday hailed the arrest of Liberia’s former president Charles Taylor, who is in United Nations custody in Freetown to face charges of crimes against humanity. Taylor was arrested on Wednesday at the Nigerian border and taken to a detention centre of the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Northern Cape farmers beneath the Spitskop dam want the region to be declared a disaster area due to flood conditions that have stopped all production for almost a month, a representative said on Thursday. The Taung area in the North West province — upstream from the dam — has already been declared a disaster area.
The South African National Taxi Council’s new chairperson, Jabulani Mthembu, aims to transform the taxi industry into a national asset, he said on Thursday. Launching the industry’s first women empowerment initiative, he said one of his first priorities is to entrench a value system into the industry.
Pianist Paul Hanmer writes about his quest to set aside words and communicate only through music.
<b>ANIMATION OF THE WEEK</b>: <i>Ice Age: The Meltdown</i> is a movie that keeps the chocolates in hot little hands and bums firmly in seats, writes Nicole Johnston.
Will the Cape Town Book Fair be as successful as the world-famous Frankfurt Book Fair? Colin Bower reports.
The South African government does not expect the recent power blackouts experienced in the Western Cape to either derail economic growth or impact adversely on investment in the country, according to President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki said the power failures would not derail the gross domestic product growth target of an average of 6% between 2010 and 2014.
The International Bar Association (IBA) on Thursday expressed deep concern over amendments to South Africa’s prosecutions policy, which it said granted the government new powers to give immunity to criminals and thereby undermined victims’ human rights.