South African motor trade sales rose by 23,2% year-on-year in March 2005 to R18 308-billion compared with those for March 2004, Statistics South Africa reported on Tuesday. However, the seasonally adjusted motor trade sales for the first quarter of 2005 decreased by 0,3% compared with the previous quarter.
South Africa’s Cell C said on Tuesday that it has extended its international roaming partnerships to 287 telecommunications operators worldwide. With global roaming, Cell C subscribers will be able to communicate on their cellphones while visiting certain destinations — including Australia, Brazil, India, Lesotho, Nigeria, Spain, the UK and the United States.
Nearly 100 refugees from various African countries are being detained in Zimbabwe as part of an ongoing police blitz in illegal housing, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. ”Operation Restore Order”, backed by President Robert Mugabe, is believed to have left an estimated 200 000 people homeless and bread supplies scarce.
An 87-year-old Australian man fought off an intruder with his shoe after being attacked in his home, reports said on Tuesday. ”I took the bloody shoe off and thumped him,” semi-retired horse trainer Johnny Oswin was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press.
Sweden’s SaabTech and South African-based Avitronics have taken the next step in their co-operation to form a joint business unit — Saab Avitronics — which will start operating on July 1, it was announced on Tuesday. This new entity comprises 1 250 employees in two countries.
Absa and Barclays appear confident that they will get the necessary shareholder support for Barclays to acquire the 60% stake it is seeking in the South African bank. Absa shareholders on Monday voted overwhelmingly in favour of a scheme proposed by Barclays to acquire 32% of all Absa ordinary shares.
In Steel Valley, residents say cats are born without heads, a piglet had sexual organs growing out of its anus, and a cow born hermaphrodite had to be put down. Vegetables grow in strange shapes and even the rats are ill. These alleged monstrosities, have prompted diehard residents of Vanderbijlpark, launch fresh legal action against South Africa’s steel giant, Mittal Steel.
South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk dismissed reports that Zimbabwe’s Gona-re-Zhou National Park — which forms part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park across sections of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique — has been plagued by a huge amount of poaching.
Appearing by turns pensive and quizzical, Saddam Hussein returned to public view on Monday when Iraq’s special tribunal released video images of the former president being interrogated. A tribunal statement said he was being questioned about a 1982 massacre at a Shia village north of Baghdad, one of the cases expected to arise at his trial.
Concerned that his pate is starting to resemble an old cricket pitch that’s devoid of turf, champion legspinner Shane Warne is undergoing replacement treatment to regenerate his peroxided blond locks. The notoriously image-conscious Warne discovered he was losing his hair during a recent trip to a hairdresser.