Discovery blasted off on Tuesday for the first United States space-shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster in February 2003, which forced the US to rethink its space programme completely. Thirteen days after a previous attempt was called off, Discovery lifted off into clear blue skies.
Zimbabwe has resumed destroying homes, witnesses said on Tuesday, a day after United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said he plans to visit the country to discuss the demolition campaign. Meanwhile, South African opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has launched his party’s Stop the Mugabe Loan Campaign.
The current strike is costing South African Airways (SAA) R25-million a day, an economist said on Tuesday. T-Sec chief economist Mike Schussler said that is not the total cost of the strike — which is lower — as there are mitigating factors. Schussler also said the Pick ‘n Pay strike is very different.
Sanlam, South Africa’s second-largest life assurer, has finalised the sale of its entire 21,3% stake in banking group Absa to the United Kingdom’s Barclays Bank for R10,3-billion, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The group sold all of its 124,3-million Absa shares for R82,50 per share in the transaction.
The African continent has much to learn from the successes of Asia, President Thabo Mbeki told reporters in Pretoria on Tuesday. He was speaking after the signing of an agreement at the Union Buildings on the avoidance of double taxation between South Africa and Malaysia.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Tuesday launched a countrywide programme to combat malaria, the top killer of pregnant women and children under the age of five in the East African nation. The National Malaria Programme includes distribution of free insecticide-treated nets, treatment and developing strategies to combat the disease.
As long as they remain overwhelmingly the most popular soccer clubs in the country, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates should be entrenched as participants in the annual Telkom Charity Cup. Who says so? None other than loquacious, controversial one-time Premier Soccer League public-relations officer Abdul Bhamjee.
The Inkatha Freedom Party Youth Brigade has officially denounced, ”with contempt”, utterances made by the party’s national chairperson, Dr Ziba Jiyane, at a weekend IFP rally. The action is expected to be among a variety of personal attacks engineered by the party’s spin doctors.
Listed hotel and gaming group Sun International will proceed with the sale of its entire 38,6% stake in City Lodge Hotels to Sun International shareholders for a total of R627-million, in exchange for repurchasing its own shares from them, the company said on Tuesday.
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Friendship and camaraderie was the reason for payments made by Schabir Shaik to former deputy president Jacob Zuma, the Durban High Court heard on Tuesday in Shaik’s corruption and fraud appeal bid. Shaik’s defence also called his 15-year jail sentence ”shockingly inappropriate”.