After opening weaker in line with world markets, the JSE Securities Exchange had crept into positive territory just after noon on Wednesday. Dealers said that positive local sentiment stemming from the Barclays-Absa deal and the rand coming off its best levels were helping the local bourse.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance is alarmed at reports of a proposal being discussed in the South African Cabinet for a "super-ministry" to oversee the economy, calling it an "outdated idea that will result in the overcentralisation of power and more bureaucratic red tape".
The United Nations’s top emergency relief official on Tuesday pressed the Security Council to take on the crisis in northern Uganda, where a brutal rebellion against the government has been raging since 1988. ”We’ve had atrocious massacres and mutilations of civilians in the past few weeks again,” Jan Egeland told reporters.
About 200 deaf people staged a protest on Tuesday in the northern Nigerian city of Kano against what they called government neglect of their plight. Under the banner of their organisation, the Deaf Youth Association, they called for special sign language interpreters for news and other programmes broadcast on state-run television.
Even developed countries are not prepared for the possibility that the virulent avian flu could develop into a full-scale pandemic, the director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Professor Barry Schoub, said on Tuesday. He said the question is not if, but when, the next flu pandemic will hit the world.
The Medicines Control Council and the Department of Health confirmed on Wednesday that they are investigating the South African activities of the Dr Rath Health Foundation. Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been criticised for not condemning vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath’s activities.
South Africa are looking to close out their best-of-five one-day international series against West Indies with a victory in the third match on Wednesday. The South Africans lead the best-of-five series 2-0, after winning the first two matches at Kingston by the identical margin of eight wickets on Saturday and Sunday.
Andre Agassi’s attempts to turn himself into a contender for the French Open once again failed to convince as he fell at the first hurdle of his last build-up tournament at the Hamburg Masters on Tuesday. Earlier, David Nalbandian slipped to a surprise defeat on the second day of the Masters Series.
The ICT deregulation roadmap draft — which is on hold pending the finalisation of the Convergence Bill — will help Dimension Data clear the hurdles for future expansion in the country. Didata CEO Brett Dawson said as a result of the deregulation changes being introduced in the information and communications technology sector, the group stood "to benefit".
Respected writer Mandla Langa seems set to leave the comparative quiet of heading the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa and move over to the punchbag post of CEO at the public broadcaster, where he should look to a new international standard to settle the matter of the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s independence.