Morocco has begun airlifting rice, powdered milk and other food stuffs to Niger as part of an effort to ease hunger pangs afflicting one in four of the West African state’s 12-million people, a government official said on Friday. A Moroccan-staffed rural clinic to treat malnutrition has also been erected in the hard-hit central Maradi region.
Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana is expected to report to Parliament on his probe into the so-called Oilgate affair before month-end, his office said on Friday. The investigation, into claims about the alleged misuse of public money involving state oil company PetroSA, should be concluded in the next two to three weeks, a spokesperson said.
The bomb attacks in London caused panic among South Africans on Thursday, resulting in stiff congestion on major phone routes between South Africa and London. Telkom said its network successfully routed 500Â 000 calls to the United Kingdom between noon and 2pm on Thursday, reported ITWeb on Friday.
Cape Town taximen have been deliberately sabotaging the city’s rail services in order to gain customers, the commission of inquiry into violence in the Western Cape minibus taxi industry heard on Friday. Metrorail’s regional manager handed the commission a document he said contained ”very sensitive information” on the issue.
Women who plan to testify against actor and comedian Bill Cosby in another woman’s sex assault lawsuit will not have their identities shielded by the court, a judge ruled. A former Temple University employee is alleging that Cosby drugged and then fondled her. The other women make similar allegations.
The African National Congress’s policy-making body had been correct to express its support for former deputy president Jacob Zuma "during these trying and painful times", wrote President Thabo Mbeki in his internet letter on Friday. "[Zuma] should have an opportunity to defend himself against whatever accusations have been made against him," said Mbeki.
Group of Eight (G8) leaders have agreed to boost development aid to Africa by -billion as part of a package to fight poverty in Africa, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Friday at the end of the three-day G8 summit in Gleneagles.
Following the bombings in London on Thursday, in which more than 50 people died and about 700 were injured, Johannesburg residents can rest assured that there are preventative measures in place in the city if ever it should experience a sudden urban terror attack, a police spokesperson told the Mail & Guardian Online on Friday.
Fifty years after the adoption of the Freedom Charter, we are discovering that there is some fine print that wasn’t there before, writes Mike van Graan.
<i>What Happens After Mugabe?</i> is a thought-provoking book that draws on research from a battery of independent-minded commentators and diplomats across several continents, writes Nazeem Dramat.