There is a factor of the Iraq war that somehow has faded into the background. What has happened to those brave gents and ladies who, when the United States and British forces were about to bomb Baghdad, dispatched themselves there as human shields? As they prepared themselves for their mission they got a lot of publicity, on television and in the papers.
The trial of Schabir Shaik will put to the test not just him and Deputy President Jacob Zuma — but a groundswell of opinion in the African National Congress and its alliance partners that Zuma should be the country’s next president. The Gauteng ANC last week opened the debate about the presidential succession within the ANC, insisting that the matter should be raised long before the 2007 ANC conference.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard is on course to win a fourth victory in the general election this Saturday. Most opinion polls indicate that the results will be close, but Howard is firming up as the favourite. His opponent, Australian Labour Party (ALP) leader Mark Latham, needs to win 12 seats in the lower house of Parliament to gain government.
Opposition and donors have heaped praise on Malawi’s President Bingu Mutharika for the way in which he runs the government, but his leadership has irked a group in his ruling United Democratic Front who have held secret meetings to plan a demonstration at his Lilongwe state house. Mutharika, who succeeded Bakili Muluzi after the controversial May elections, has vowed to prosecute corrupt officials.
In a touching display of muscular singing and rhythmic dancing on stick-like legs with the aid of crutches, the handicapped adults of Theis in Senegal are drumming up their own style of social mobilisation campaign, calling on people not to let their children end up in wheelchairs and be crippled by polio like them. Joining the chorus from mosques and minarets, the word has gone out across 23 sub-Saharan African countries.
The construction industry has set itself the task of drafting a black economic empowerment charter — amid sharp differences over ownership targets and skills development. Mike Wylie, co-chairperson of the charter work group, told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> last week that the sector should not be trapped by a "fixation on ownership".
Heterosexual men need to take more responsibility for trying to stop the spread of HIV/Aids in Southern Africa, according to regional health experts. At a workshop held in Swaziland’s capital, Mbabane, on Thursday, health workers, government officials and Aids activists called on men across the region to assume a greater role in tackling the disease. At 38,6%, Swaziland has the one of world’s highest rates of HIV infection.
If the truth be told, President Thabo Mbeki did not need to go on the imbizo that ended in Mpumalanga’s Ga-Manoke village last week, to understand the concerns of his people. This is not to say that the president wasted his time. Nor does it mean that it is a futile exercise for people to meet their elected public officials. Each village and town has its own nuances and idiosyncracies, and the country’s number-one citizen can surely learn a thing or two by paying them a visit.
Billionaire investor George Soros is giving greater control of his business to his sons, Robert and Jonathan, and at the same time scaling back his empire by spinning off several divisions. For years Soros (74) has devoted an increasing amount of time to philanthropy and is engaged in a concerted effort to unseat United States President George W Bush.
At first glance the violence in Jabaliya in Palestine and in the Iraqi town of Samarra appear to be unconnected. The Israeli army’s incursion into northern Gaza looks like just another deadeningly familiar episode in the unending conflict between Palestinians and Jews. The United States-led weekend assault on insurgents in mainly Sunni Samarra seems to be broadly typical of the continuing turmoil in Iraq.