An new report has revealed that poverty in sub-Saharan Africa has doubled over the past 20 years, while in East Asia it has fallen by half. Poverty, Inequality and Labour Markets in Africa: A Descriptive Overview was released by the University of Cape Town’s Development Policy Research Unit recently.
On April 20 this year the Cape High Court gave judgement, dismissing the application by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa to access records of private donations made to the four biggest political parties in South Africa — the African National Congress, the Democratic Alliance, the Inkatha Freedom Party and the New National Party — under the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
More than 1 000 historians, writers and intellectuals have signed a petition demanding the repeal of a new law requiring school history teachers in France to stress the ”positive aspects” of French colonialism. ”In retaining only the positive aspects of colonialism, this law imposes an official lie on massacres that at times went as far as genocide, on the slave trade, and on the racism that France has inherited,” says the petition.
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State-owned Alexkor’s land-based diamond-mining operations have ”collapsed”, an expert witness told the Richtersveld hearing in the Land Claims Court on Monday. The community is claiming the return of more than 84 000ha of land confiscated by the state when diamonds were discovered there in the 1920s.
Sixty-four alleged mercenaries — including 61 who returned home on Sunday after being released from Zimbabwe — will be prosecuted, the National Prosecuting Authority said on Monday. The decision followed investigations into whether they had contravened the Regulations of Foreign Military Assistance Act.
Harmony Gold on Monday complied with a Labour Court ruling by withdrawing retrenchment notices issued to about 5 000 Free State mineworkers, the National Union of Mineworkers said. The court found that Harmony Gold had rushed the procedure set down in the Labour Relations Act to retrench workers.
The last surviving member of the infamous 1980s bank robbing ”Stander gang”, Allan Heyl, is to be released on parole from the Krugersdorp prison on Wednesday, the Department of Correctional Services said on Monday. It has been claimed the gang netted more than R500 000 from 20 banks in 1983 and early 1984.
Representatives of civil society on Monday during a public debate said the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is a state apparatus whose job it is to serve the government as a ”mouthpiece”. This is in contrast to how the SABC describes itself — as a public broadcaster.
The impact of climate change on Africa in 30 to 40 years will be as significant as that of malaria and Aids, the chief scientific adviser to the British government said in Johannesburg on Monday. Sir David King is in the country to promote Zero Carbon City, the British Council’s awareness campaign on global warming.