Nearly 20 000 people could lose their jobs in the next two months, trade union Solidarity said on Thursday. Solidarity is currently negotiating with 25 companies against the retrenchment of 18 293 workers, mostly in the mining, chemical, telecommunications and metal industries.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been mediating in the conflict in Côte d’Ivoire, has called all sides to an ”urgent meeting” this month in South Africa. ”This urgent meeting is to be held during the month of March,” though no specific date has been set as yet, said Amadou Coulibaly, an official in the Rally of Republicans opposition party.
A lot of the Dorsbult regulars lost interest in popular music when Perry Como retired, so when somebody called Mel Botes assured us this week in a television advert that he’d be performing at the 46664 concert in Fancourt, the manne didn’t have a clue who he was. A quick web search revealed him to be a jazz muso; but not before it demonstrated a funky penchant for literary ad-libbing.
A South African citizen appeared in a New York court on Wednesday on charges of smuggling and trying to sell weapons to the United States, The Star newspaper reported. Christiaan de Wet Spies (33) appeared along with 17 other alleged co-conspirators. They face up to 30 years’ imprisonment if found guilty.
Bands of marauding baboons in eastern Uganda are forcing parents to keep their children at home to guard crops, causing rampant absenteeism in the region’s primary schools, officials said on Wednesday. More than 85% of children in Uganda’s Busia district are staying home from school due primarily to the menace of the baboons.
Behaviour that undermines the image of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) will not be tolerated, the SANDF said on Wednesday in response to allegations of misconduct by soldiers abroad. Four SANDF officers on a peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are under investigation for misconduct.
Former Labour Party leader and later African National Congress MP Reverend Allan Hendrickse died suddenly on Wednesday afternoon, his family confirmed. Hendrickse’s son, Peter, also an ANC MP, said his father suffered a fatal heart attack at the Port Elizabeth airport at about 2pm on Wednesday.
Israeli troops pulled away from the West Bank town of Jericho on Wednesday, furling their national flag and dismantling a roadblock, but the formal handover to Palestinian security control was delayed at the last minute because of a dispute over the signing of documents, officials said.
A group of suspected mercenaries in a Zimbabwean jail might have to wait until Monday for the outcome of an application to appeal the men’s deportation to South Africa. Their lawyer, Alwyn Griebenow, said Zimbabwe’s chief justice reserved judgement on the matter, which was heard on Wednesday morning.
Fiery Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille clashed with the lawyer of former ID Western Cape leader Lennit Max when Max’s disciplinary hearing resumed on Wednesday. She repeatedly told the lawyer, Leon van Rensburg, to ”keep quiet” as he cross-examined her, and told him she was laughing at his ”silly remarks”.