Absa on Wednesday warned job seekers against a ”malicious” hoax e-mail advertising 600 positions at the banking group. Hundreds of jobless people reportedly converged on the Absa branch on the corner of Kruis and Market streets, Johannesburg, with their CVs at 9am on Wednesday to apply for the posts.
South Africa’s proposed ”smart” identity-card plan will receive about R270-million this year, Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told parliamentarians on Wednesday. The card is now ”at the final stages for Cabinet’s approval of such a procurement model”, the minister reported.
The first tropical storm of the eastern Pacific season is on an unusual, dangerous track toward the Central American coast on Wednesday. The United States National Hurricane Centre in Miami said that Tropical Storm Adrian could bring torrential rains to much of Central America in the coming days.
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) criticised South Africa’s cricket authorities on Wednesday over the way it awards franchises, saying the system was ”elitist” and ”retrogressive”. An ANCYL spokesperson said South Africa’s cricket authorities are not interested in a programme of transformation.
An apartheid-era law is causing headaches for a committee set up to investigate the underlying reasons for instability and conflict in the Western Cape minibus taxi industry. The ”problematic area” relates to Ordinance 13 of 1978, which stipulates that the proceedings of such committees should not be open to the public.
Israel on Wednesday launched its first air strike against Palestinian militants since armed groups began observing a de facto truce, seriously wounding a Hamas militant and jeopardising the fragile peace. Amid the violence, the Israeli authorities sought to speed up preparations for the Gaza evacuation.
President Robert Mugabe has told United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan that Zimbabwe will welcome food aid as long as it is not tied to any political conditions. Between two million and five million Zimbabweans face starvation unless 1,2-million tonnes of grain are imported quickly.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has told African transport ministers that he is "concerned" about the high concentration of air-traffic accidents on the continent. He was speaking at the opening ceremony on Wednesday of a summit of African Union ministers responsible for air transport and aviation being held in South Africa.
The Coega Development Corporation (CDC) has finally signed its first investor for the Port Elizabeth-based harbour project, the company said in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Belgian-owned Sander International Textiles has signed a 20-year lease with Coega. The investment with Coega is worth R200-million, said a CDC spokesperson.
Côte d’Ivoire’s main opposition parties signed a deal in Paris on Wednesday ahead of general elections later this year, an alliance that will see them govern together should they defeat President Laurent Gbagbo. The agreement formalises an alliance born last year at talks in Ghana, aiming to jumpstart the moribund Ivorian peace process.