This week, Lemmer’s 1973 Escort is at the garage, so he’s been enjoying the subtle pleasures of breaking in a new pair of vellies. He was thus unusually affronted by a particularly snooty Arrive Alive radio advertisement that outlined what pests pedestrians are, before admitting grudgingly that ”pedestrians are here to stay”. Oom Krisjan imagines that if Jozi copywriters weren’t so busy paying off their Volvos they might have remembered that pedestrians were here first.
Gbagbo can tell angry supporters he is complying with a UN resolution rather than admit to caving in. The Pretoria Agreement on Côte d’Ivoire signed at the presidential guest house has all the high-pressure, belt-and-braces characteristics of a South African-brokered peace deal in Africa.
Cláudio Hummes, the Archbishop of Sao Paolo, is a potential successor for Pope John Paul II. One of 15 children, he is a former radical sometimes accused of trimming his views to further his career. As bishop of Santo Andre from 1975 to 1996, he opposed Brazil’s military regime and backed workers’ action. See the other candidates in line for the role of the 264th pope:
John Paul II’s papacy has been one of the longest and most energetic of any in 2 000-odd years of the history of the Catholic Church. On that at least Catholics agree, but there is much less agreement on the nature of this remarkable man’s achievements. John Paul II attracted admiration, incomprehension and hate in almost equal measure.
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Rwanda’s envoy to the United Nations-backed court trying suspects in the country’s 1994 genocide, Aloys Mutabingwa, has called for the world body to prosecute French officials and soldiers allegedly complicit in the slaughter. He said several French political and military figures were among those ”individually or collectively responsible” for the genocide.
General Motors South Africa has been awarded an R18-billion contract to manufacture and export the United States-designed Hummer H3 vehicle, the company said on Wednesday. Production of the Hummer H3 2006 model will start in the fourth quarter of 2006 at the Struandale plant in Port Elizabeth.
The Western Cape agriculture department will on Wednesday announce quarantine measures and other plans to curb the spread of the blue-ear virus among pigs, the department said on Wednesday. Western Cape agriculture spokesperson Ali van Jaarsveld said an assessment would be done on Wednesday to establish the exact area to be quarantined.
One of the men accused of the kidnapping and murder of a Pretoria-based Chinese businessman and his family implicated a state witness in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Siyuan Liu was testifying against an application by the state to withdraw his R3 000 bail and keep him in custody until his October 10 trial.
Côte d’Ivoire political, rebel and opposition leaders on Wednesday formally declared an end to the war in that country. ”The parties … hereby solemnly declare the immediate and final cessation of all hostilities and the end of the war through the national territory,” stated an agreement signed in Pretoria, South Africa.