South African retail group Mr Price on Wednesday reported a 35% increase in headline earnings per share to 120,4 cents for its 2005 financial year ended March, from 89,1 cents in the previous financial year. The group increased its final dividend per share by 71% to 60 cents, from 35 cents previously.
The South African housing market is most probably in the process of cooling off after a strong boom phase over the past few years, according to commercial bank Absa. "House-price growth is currently on a downward trend," Absa senior economist Jacques du Toit wrote in the latest <i>Property Trends</i> newsletter.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) says junior miner Simmer & Jack Mines is "ready" and has resources and skills to take over DRDGold’s mining operations in the North West province. An NUM spokesperson said labour is convinced that thousands of mineworkers left without jobs in the North West might soon be redeployed.
South African Rugby Union (Saru) deputy president Andre Markgraaff on Tuesday welcomed Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile’s call for a formal investigation into the management of the organisation and has announced his conditional resignation from Saru.
A recent imbizo (meeting) to discuss the future of the Zulu nation had been unnecessary, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday. ”I am a Zulu. You didn’t see me at the imbizo,” Zuma told the South African Broadcasting Corporation at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Modderklip’s 12 000 illegal squatters are to be shifted from their present location, and the government will not be buying the invaded land from the farmer who owns it. This decision follows a recent landmark Constitutional Court judgement, which ordered the authorities either to buy the occupied land from the farmer or to find an alternative site to house residents of the ”Gabon” shack settlement.
Jay Leno, one of America’s most popular and respected television personalities, gave evidence at the Michael Jackson trial on Tuesday, telling the court that he had been approached by the boy at the centre of the sexual molestation allegations and was suspicious of him.
Dvir Hemo was 11 years old when he stepped in front of a car one Saturday evening on his way to get pizza. By sunset the next day, his body had been interred in the small, neat cemetery in the Jewish settlement block of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip, where the Star of David flies over 46 graves.
The House of Representatives defied United States President George Bush on Tuesday night and approved a Bill loosening restrictions on stem cell research on human embryos, illustrating for the second time in as many days that the president is likely to face tough challenges from Congress during his second term.
European Union ministers on Tuesday night surprised and delighted aid agencies around the world when they agreed a dramatic increase in help to countries in Africa and the rest of the developing world that will see the EU’s richest states reach the United Nations’ historic goal of giving 0,7% of national income in aid by 2015.