<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/199502/Zim_icon.GIF" align=left>Zimbabwe police on Tuesday arrested six youths for distributing fake flyers calling for an opposition boycott of elections in what an activist said may have been a ruling-party tactic to deter voters. "Boycott polls: we are not participating because Zanu-PF have failed to implement the SADC [Southern African Development Community] protocol," read the sheets.
Amid a backdrop of buoyant consumer and government spending, higher international commodity prices, lower inflation and stable interest rates in 2004, the South African Reserve Bank quarterly bulletin reviewing macroeconomic activity in 2004 paints a very positive picture of an economy experiencing accelerating growth.
The government will continue to consult with business and labour to overcome unemployment and increase investment in spite of a threat by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) to strike against unemployment and the strong rand. Cosatu has warned of a ”job-loss bloodbath”.
Listed sugar, aluminium and property development group Tongaat-Hulett is expected to accelerate its earnings growth in 2005 through both incremental growth and investment opportunities, after posting a turnaround in 2004.
Angola grappled on Tuesday to contain a deadly outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus, which has claimed a record toll of 126 according to doctors and officials in the field, but the government said the number of dead is lower. Health officials in the field said 126 have died but the government said the fatalities number 117.
A South African shark expert has condemned as ”sensational” foreign media coverage of a recent attack by a great white shark during a shark-diving excursion. ”One must not lose track of the fact that shark diving is an adrenaline sport,” said Mariette Hopley, chairperson of the Great White Shark Protection Foundation.
Plans to build a record-breaking skyscraper in a Delhi suburb were given the go-ahead on Tuesday. Local officials said the building in Noida will be 710m tall — 202m higher than Taiwan’s Taipei 101, the current tallest building on the planet. The skyscraper is scheduled to be open for business by 2013.
”Uh oh, here we go again.” That is one thought that crosses your mind as you wade through the complexities of the revised Convergence Bill. ”Whew, at least there is some progress” is another sentiment that surfaces. The second of these feelings reflects the substantial improvements on last year’s much-flawed original Bill. The first feeling arises because there are still very sizeable problems that need to be ironed out.
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President Robert Mugabe called the Zimbabwean opposition ”traitors” on Tuesday and accused opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of running to the British ”like a puppy wagging its tail”. The opposition said on Tuesday that one of its supporters had been killed by Zanu-PF members.
The position of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan was undermined on Tuesday after an independent inquiry into the oil-for-food scandal heavily criticised his son Kojo Annan and a Swiss company. The committee of inquiry’s findings about his son left question marks about his stewardship of the UN.