The South African Revenue Service is targeting a total tax revenue cake of R372,8-billion in the 2005/06 financial year, with corporate tax representing a slightly lower figure than the provincial outcome for the 2004/05 financial year, according to figures provided on Wednesday to Parliament.
A public library was burned and a police station stoned on Tuesday night at Phomolong, near Hennenman in the northern Free State, police said on Wednesday. The disturbances — in protest over municipal service delivery — followed an agreement between residents and police earlier in the day to restore calm.
Iraq’s new Parliament has chosen former Kurdish rebel fighter Jalal Talabani as the country’s first freely elected President in history. Shi’ite Islamist Adel Abdel Mahdi and outgoing Sunni president Ghazi al-Yawar were named as his two deputies. Iraqi MPs predicted that a government should now be in place by next week.
Those who say eclipses herald history-shaping events will find support for their superstition when, on Friday, the sun will be briefly plunged into darkness on the day of Pope John Paul II’s funeral. Astronomers, though, say the eclipse is simply part of a ballet in celestial physics between the sun, Earth and moon.
The two-week strike by 21 000 National Union of Mineworkers members at most of Harmony Gold’s Free State mines will add to the group’s losses for the current June quarter, analysts said on Wednesday. Harmony has already reported six consecutive quarterly losses.
The trade union Solidarity is urging the adoption of an emergency plan to stem the tide of retrenchments, which it blames to a large extent on the strong rand. The union on Wednesday unveiled a 10-point emergency plan at the release of a report on retrenchments in South Africa compiled by its economist Lullu Krugel.
George du Rand produced the performance of the evening on the second day of the Telkom National Swimming Championships in East London on Tuesday night. The Bloemfontein student shattered his own South African record on his way to victory in the 200m backstroke in 2:01,72.
South African Retief Goosen admits he is not playing well enough to turn golf’s ”Big Four” into the ”Big Five”. Despite two US Open championships to his name, Goosen has arrived at Augusta National searching for the game that has taken him to fifth in the world rankings behind Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson.
The Titans cruised to a seven-wicket win over the defending champion Eagles in a Standard Bank Pro20 Series match at Supersport Park on Tuesday evening. Having been set a target of 151 runs in 20 overs, the Titans scored the winning runs with four overs to spare as their entire top order chipped in with runs.
Ernie Els insists the bitter disappointment of last year’s Masters, when he was beaten by Phil Mickelson’s last-hole birdie, is behind him now. And the Big Easy is raring to go and finally add a Masters title to his two US Opens and British Open victories. ”My expectations here have always been to win the tournament,” said Els.