It is hard to know whether to be appalled or amused by the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) recent about-face on former deputy president Jacob Zuma, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the government says it will await a formal submission from Cosatu on Zuma.
Somali pirates who hijacked a United Nations-chartered food aid ship nearly two months ago have begun unloading its cargo for apparent distribution to residents of their home region of Haradere, witnesses said on Wednesday. The MV Semlow was seized on June 27 en route to Bosasso in Somalia’s north-east Puntland region.
Somalia’s influential parliamentary speaker said on Wednesday he is working to resolve a crisis over the seat of the lawless country’s transitional government and expressed confidence it will not be permanent. Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden said the disagreement is only ”political” and perhaps to be expected.
Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged on Wednesday that he was absent-minded after forgetting to bless the hundreds of pilgrims who attended his weekly audience at his Castel Gandolfo summer residence. He said his mind was already in Cologne, where he is to travel on Thursday.
The Department of Social Development’s anti-corruption campaign prevented R400-million from being stolen this year, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said on Wednesday. Skweyiya said to date the department and law enforcement have taken legal action against 109 officials, with more expected to face the same.
When China under Deng Xiaoping began to discard the socialist legacy after Mao’s death in 1976, the economist Xue Muqiao, who has died aged 100, played a leading role in formulating theory for the new era, but never lost touch with everyday life. His essays gave outsiders a clue to the pace of change, and Xue also called for the return of street stalls and snack bars in the capital.
Distell, South Africa’s largest listed wine and spirits producer, has reported a 34,1% increase in its headline earnings per share for the year to the end of June 2005, to 245,8 cents from 183,3 cents a year earlier. The company declared a final dividend of 67 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 123 cents per share.
Thirteen people were injured at Samancor Chrome’s Middelburg Ferrochrome smelter on Wednesday morning following an accident that resulted from a sudden release of hot gases from an arc furnace. "Our employees’ care is now in the hands of the doctors and medical staff," said Samancor Chrome CEO Jurgen Schalamon.
South African motorists top the list in a study of road rage over 12 months in 10 countries. ”Eleven percent of South African drivers claim to have been at the receiving end of threatening behaviour in the past 12 months,” according to international market-research company Synovate’s report.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has blasted the government over its claim that the crime rate is stabilising. He repeated his party’s assertion that the murder rate is roughly the same as the death rate from terror attacks on civilians in Iraq, and further accused the government of failing to make crime a priority issue.