Liberation struggle veteran and company director Paul Langa has been appointed as new head of the Robben Island Museum. Langa, who studied political science at the University of the Witwatersrand before leaving the country to join Umkhonto weSizwe, served a 14-year sentence on Robben Island.
The Democratic Alliance has criticised President Thabo Mbeki for his statements on HIV and Aids made during his state visit to Singapore on Thursday, saying he should stay out of the debate. Mbeki said experts at a World Health Organisation conference agreed with him that nutrition is an important aspect of the fight against Aids.
Fewer cases of Marburg fever were reported in Angola this week, but medical experts said on Thursday it is too soon to say this indicates the hemorrhagic virus is waning. And countries of the region, under the 13-member Southern African Development Community, are certainly not dropping their guard. This week saw two scares in South Africa as travellers, both from Angola, suffered high fevers.
Seoul has long had a reputation as one of Asia’s wildest concrete jungles, but even residents who thought they had seen everything would have done a double take on Wednesday when a small herd of elephants stampeded through the city’s streets. A woman, Roh In-sun, was injured by the trunk of one of the beasts as it charged through a narrow alley, sending pedestrians flying.
It was the site of one of the most infamous political executions in Stalin’s Russia. Stalin ordered 157 political prisoners, including the sister of his enemy Leon Trotsky, taken from their cells on September 11 1941 and shot in the woods outside the town.
Petrol, already topping a record R5 a litre in Gauteng and set to increase again next month, is widely seen as the main inflationary risk in South Africa today. However, a revision in the formula by which the fuel is calculated, could result in a small reduction in the fuel price, an economist says.
The parents of a critically ill baby on Thursday lost their battle to overturn a British court order allowing her to die if her condition seriously worsens and her breathing stops. High Court Justice Sir Mark Hedley upheld an earlier ruling giving doctors permission not to resuscitate Charlotte Wyatt, now 18 months old, in such circumstances.
The ministry of sport and recreation on Thursday called on the South African Rugby Union to clarify the decision of awarding the fifth Super 14 franchise.
A resolution was passed by the president’s council on April 15 to award Central Unions the new franchise, rather that the government-backed South-Eastern Cape region.
Temper tantrums by lion murder accused Mark Scott-Crossley during his trial in Phalaborwa Circuit Court should not be held against him in deliberations on the evidence presented during his trial, his counsel, Johann Engelbrecht SC, argued on Thursday. He said Scott-Crossley’s outbursts have to be excluded from deliberations.
The United States government is trying to block the World Health Organisation from endorsing two abortion pills which could save the lives of some of the 68 000 women who die from unsafe practices every year. The WHO wants to put the pills on its essential medicines list, which constitutes official advice to all governments on the basic drugs their doctors should have available.