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The state will use a one-week adjournment to mull over developments in axed deputy president Jacob Zuma’s rape trial and decide how to proceed. Outside the court, Zuma’s supporters huddled together on Thursday as this was explained to them through a megaphone.
The security industry is preparing for next week’s strike by guards, a company said on Thursday. Chubb Security South Africa, one of the country’s larger security companies, said it has a plan in place to ameliorate the impact of the upcoming industrial action. The strike is expected to start on Thursday and last an indefinite period.
As the stormy trial of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein reaches its halfway point, the nature of the prosecution case is finally beginning to emerge, but grave concerns over the court’s procedure and impartiality remain. The court adjourned on Wednesday for three weeks while the three-judge panel reexamines the evidence and drafts specific charges against the eight co-defendants.
Sweden on Thursday urged President Robert Mugabe’s government to mend fences with the West as it joined a United Nations humanitarian drive to help Zimbabweans. The Swedish donation of -million followed a United Nations appeal last year for humanitarian assistance to millions of Zimbabweans reeling from poverty, food shortages and galloping inflation.
Confidence in South African business conditions remained high, but could be dented by electricity supply problems and the recent Transnet strike, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) said on Thursday. The most recent RMB/BER business-confidence index showed a reversal of the one-percentage point decline of the previous quarter.
Six men who became ill during a drug trial remained in serious condition in a London hospital on Thursday. Two of the men were listed in critical condition, Northwick Park Hospital said in a statement. Raste Khan — one of two men given a placebo in the trial — said the six had been stricken within a few minutes of receiving the drug.
Sasol Mining’s black economic empowerment (BEE) ownership component will reach about 20% by 2009 and full compliance with the Mining Charter by 2014, the company said on Thursday. The wholly-owned coal-mining business of Sasol Limited said the first phase of its empowerment strategy entailed the formation of Igoda Coal.
The 2006 football World Cup is bringing the Japanese economy a windfall of -billion in television sales, tourism and other spin-off economic activities, a survey said on Thursday. Japan’s top advertising agency, Dentsu, said that if Japan reaches the semifinals or final the total will swell to ,6-billion.
The International Red Cross said on Wednesday that a total of 4 094 cases of cholera, including 79 deaths, were reported in the southern Sudanese city of Juba since the outbreak of the disease there last month. ”As of March 7, the total number of cases of acute watery diarrhea reported in Juba was 4 094.”
China’s annual gold output is currently increasing at a rate of 5% a year, and by 2009 the country could surpass South Africa or Australia as the world’s number one gold miner, New York-based CPM group managing director Jeffery Christian said on Thursday. South Africa has been the world’s largest gold miner for decades.