As Germany mounts the first prosecution targeting an international nuclear contraband ring, details are emerging of how South Africa was a key base for supplying pariah states. Authorities as far afield as Malaysia, Switzerland, Germany, Pakistan and South Africa were jolted into action after October 2003 when a cargo ship, the <i>BBC China</i>, was searched at an Italian port in a United States-British intelligence operation.
Auditor General Shauket Fakie has hit back at criticism by Parliament that his report on the declaration of interests by ministers, deputy ministers and government employees was based solely on outdated company information. The report revealed that 14 ministers and deputy ministers, and 1Â 678 provincial ministers and senior public service managers had not fully disclosed their financial interests in the 2003/04 financial year.
North West province’s agriculture department has effectively collapsed after the arrest of four top officials on corruption charges relating to the issuing of tenders and fraudulent claims. The woes of the stricken department have led to a war of words in the North West government.
The residents of Merafong and Moutse districts have combined forces in a joint court challenge against the re-demarcation of their areas. But the government recently dismissed any possibility of reconsidering Parliament’s decision on the eradication of cross-border municipalities, or of reversing the constitutional amendment required for this.
Sometimes our fate is written in our names. Never has this been truer for Morgan Tsvangirai, whose name means "sea dweller" and "the edge of sea". Tsvangirai talked up a storm at the congress of his faction of the Movement for Democratic Change as he tried to paddle his divided party to shore, warning the government of a "cold season of democratic resistance".
SABC radio stations are expected to axe a number of white radio presenters in the coming days to fulfil licence agreements with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). The SABC has 18 radio channels. Those that will be most affected are SAFM, Good Hope FM, 5FM and Radio Sonder Grense.
"In Hong Kong in December last year, I watched as South Korean farmers, in a sophisticated military-style operation, engaged the police in a fierce melee outside the convention centre. Their struggle, as Peter Mandelson reminded us later the same day is to maintain their privileges in the face of potential liberalisation through the Doha round," writes Peter Draper.
Anita Roddick, the campaigning businesswoman behind The Body Shop, made £130million on March 17 when she agreed to sell the high-street cosmetics chain to French beauty group L’Oreal. The sale was a surprising turn for Roddick, who founded The Body Shop from a single store in Brighton on the English south coast in 1976.
Twenty-five years after the infamous Trevor Chappell under-arm bowling affair sporting relations between Australia and New Zealand nosedived again on Friday. This time it was the normally sedate world of badminton which hosted the latest trans-Tasman spat when a Commonwealth Games men’s doubles match ended in acrimony.
Athletes from war-torn Sierra Leone who went missing from the Commonwealth Games village phoned team officials and said they didn’t want to return, and the prime minister warned competitors on Friday that they could be treated as illegal immigrants if they tried to stay in Australia.