The Cape Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry has asked the government for a moratorium to be placed on a new requirement that all companies submit annual returns and pay fees to the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office.
Kenya’s largest supermarket chain said on Wednesday it has begun using new biodegradable bags in response to growing environmental concerns about pollution by discarded flimsy plastic shopping containers. The chain uses more than 30-million bags every year at a cost of more than R3,4-billion.
The British police have yet to officially confirm media reports that the London attacks, which left at least 52 people dead, were the work of suicide bombers, but Home Secretary Charles Clarke has spoken of the influences that led ”four young men to blow themselves and others up on the Tube on a Thursday morning”.
Wine-growers in southern France, eager to alert holidaymakers to the crisis hitting the industry, will hand out 400 000 bottles later this month at toll booths and along rural roads in the region. Producers also will distribute leaflets explaining the current overproduction crisis in France’s wine industry.
Will South Africa’s new Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, do a better job than her troubled predecessor, Jacob Zuma? According to a recent ACNielsen telephonic survey, the results of which were released on Wednesday, many South Africans have faith in her — despite not knowing her name.
There were cheers on Wednesday as Simmer & Jack mine bosses got operations going again at the newly acquired Stilfontein mine in the North West. Simmer chairperson Roger Kebble ordered the switching-on of the mills at the metallurgical plant at the mine. ”It has been far too quiet for far too long,” he said.
Democratic party leaders on Tuesday called for the dismissal of President George Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove, after evidence surfaced implicating him in the leaking of a CIA undercover agent’s identity. Bush, who pledged last year to take action against anyone found responsible for the leak, ignored a journalist’s question about Rove’s future on Tuesday.
Iraq’s leading Sunni Muslim groups reacted angrily on Tuesday to reports that 10 Sunni Arab men suffocated to death in the back of a police lorry in Baghdad’s sweltering summer heat. The men are alleged to have died after being arrested by Iraqi anti-terrorist special forces on Sunday as they visited relatives in hospital.
KwaZulu-Natal’s libraries will feel the effects of a R90-million budget cut in the 2005/06 financial year, but officials in the province’s department of arts, culture and tourism say they are seeking ways to minimise the impact. Department head Bonga Ntanzi said the reprioritisation should at most slow down library purchases.
Three troops of rowdy baboons are harassing Zeerust residents by rummaging for food in rubbish bins in the North West town. The baboons, numbering about 30, first showed up at the Abjaterskop hotel just outside the town a few months ago. The hotel is near the rubbish dump, which has been moved closer to town recently.