A feasibility study is under way into a second nuclear power station to provide relief for the blackout-plagued Cape, the public enterprises ministry confirmed on Friday. Gaynor Kast, spokesperson for Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin, was reacting to a report that Erwin had said the new plant would be sited at Koeberg, alongside the existing power station.
Zambia’s ruling party on Friday endorsed a controversial new electoral bill which seeks to give President Levy Mwanawasa stronger mandate over the conduct of general elections to be held later this year. The bill aims to correct a constitutional anomaly on who should set the date of the elections.
The United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for Somalia appealed for a ceasefire on Friday as thousands continue to flee the capital Mogadishu as heavy fighting between rival militias entered its third day, killing about 60 people. ”I urge all sides to consider the loss of life, injuries and other suffering caused to hundreds of families this week.”
Andie Miller explores four decades in the life of Athol Fugard’s novel <i>Tsotsi</i>.
Zambia’s former president Frederick Chiluba, who is facing several corruption charges, left on Friday for South Africa for medical treatment, his spokesperson said. ”He left the country this morning on a chartered plane,” Emmanuel Mwamba told Agence France-Presse, but declined to give details on his ailment.
A white security expert arrested more than two weeks ago over a stash of weapons found at his home in eastern Zimbabwe has been denied bail, local reports said on Friday. ”The High Court yesterday [Thursday] denied a bail application by ex-Rhodesian soldier Peter Michael Hitschmann,” the radio said.
More than 100 people, most of them wearing the purple T-shirts of the One in Nine campaign, gathered outside the Cape High Court on Friday to protest against the treatment of rape victims. Organiser Johanna Kehler, of the Aids Legal Network, said similar protests were being held at high courts in other centres.
South African explorer Mike Horn and his Norwegian colleague Borge Ousland have reached the North Pole after a 60-day crossing that is said to be the first-ever accomplished during the polar night, their website announced on Friday. The explorers said they had reached the North Pole at 4pm GMT on Thursday.
An increase of between 10% and 20% in milk prices for Free State farmers is needed for them to stay in business, the local milk producers’ organisation said on Friday. ”There is great anxiety among Free State milk farmers about the ever-increasing input costs,” chairperson Koos Pienaar said.
Jostling over governance in the Cape Town metro continued on Friday with no apparent solution imminent. The Democratic Alliance’s tenuous hold on power in the city is being threatened by the Independent Democrats’ determination to pursue its quest for changing the executive mayor system to an executive committee system.