South Africa’s robust economic growth made a small, hardly noticeable dent in the country’s massive unemployment rate. Yet those who are lucky enough to be employed in the formal sector saw earnings increase faster than the number of their peers. The latest figures show youth unemployment remains chronically high, while 60% of discouraged work seekers are female.
In the midst of our middle-class economic boom it is easy to delude ourselves that other South Africans are thriving. The Reserve Bank’s quarterly bulletin will no doubt fuel the optimistic view of a country poised for "unprecedented" growth and prosperity. If that is true, that is good news. But other developments on the employment front suggest there is no reason to celebrate yet.
Bantu Holomisa, the president of the United Democratic Movement, has fired arrows laced with poisonous words at the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. He has accused the reserve of killing the Kruger National Park’s wildlife. But the TPNR’s management is convinced of the reserve’s innocence and is fighting back, even threatening legal action.
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On Thursday morning a confident Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s President since independence in 1980, predicted that his ruling Zanu-PF would reach the two-thirds threshold in the 2005 parliamentary poll and use its majority to change the Constitution. Zimbabwe’s president is likely to mend party factions, but has rejected reconciliation with the opposition.
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The reinstatement of an African National Congress official recently implicated in a television documentary on child prostitution has been met with howls of outrage.
Political parties have strongly condemned the move by the ANC council, saying it amounted to condoning the actions of those who abuse children.
Protesters from the Young Communist League and the Swaziland Solidarity Movement have called for sanctions against the Swazi king and his government in a demonstration outside the Swaziland embassy on Wednesday. The monarch has come under scrutiny for the expensive purchase of a number of luxury vehicles while his country is beset by poverty and HIV/Aids.
Uranus may be responsible for recent devastating Asian sea quakes because the mystery-shrouded ”planet of calamity” is unusually close to the Earth, tabloid newspaper readers in Germany were warned on Wednesday. The report in the Bildnewspaper cites an array of experts ranging from Nasa scientists to TV astrologers.
A three year-old Norwegian boy managed to start the family car and then accidentally ran over and trapped his older sister, police said on Wednesday.
The girl suffered broken bones but was not severely injured, a hospital said.
New South Wales Waratahs vice-captain Phil Waugh believes his unbeaten side must play mistake-free rugby if it wants to halt the high-scoring Crusaders juggernaut in Saturday’s Super 12 rugby blockbuster at Aussie Stadium. The Waratahs lead the ladder with an immaculate record of five wins from as many fixtures.