An African National Congress document circulating in the Eastern Cape has warned that the province is entering ”a phase of political instability” that threatens the social and economic development programmes of the poverty-stricken province.
A puppeteer who has been putting on his Punch and Judy show for English children for the past 15 years is likely to have his show banned by councillors in the Cornish town of Bodmin in southwestern England. Bodmin’s Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre had bombarded Reg Payn (48) the town’s officially licensed puppeteer with leaflets on domestic violence, The Times reported on Friday.
In what the Scorpions described as an ”historic development” the elite unit registered the Western Cape’s first racketeering and money laundering conviction against the ”Marx syndicate”. Members of the notorious perlemoen smuggling gang were convicted in the Hermanus Regional Court on Thursday afternoon, said Scorpions spokesperson Sipho Ngwema.
Zimbabwe’s civic and electoral groups on Thursday said they were concerned over a proposed electoral law that would give President Robert Mugabe the power to appoint key members of a commission overseeing elections. The groups told a parliamentary committee in the capital they were also worried that the law did not adequately address issues around electoral violence, conflict resolution and voter education.
Gaye Derby-Lewis, the wife of one of the two men jailed for the murder of Chris Hani, is suing Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula for about R1,4-million, alleging wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution. Derby-Lewis was arrested in November 2002 as part of a police crackdown on alleged Boeremag members or sympathisers. She spent a weekend in jail.
Draft legislation designed to drastically overhaul the lending practices of banks, retailers and microloan providers is self-defeating and riddled with problems, industry stakeholders have told the Department of Trade and Industry. The draft Consumer Credit Bill aims to improve access, equity and competition in the R362-billion credit market, while limiting reckless lending and protecting borrowers.
Hadima Ebrahim Ally (72) can’t remember the last time she felt this elated. Casting her eyes over the cheering crowds and beyond, to the city skyline and harbour in the distance, the great grandmother adjusts her hijab (scarf) and beams. A land claim victory is a homecoming for a Durban community descended from Zanzibari slaves.
Tony Leon is assured of continued leadership of the official opposition Democratic Alliance because there is no one else in the party ready — or willing — to fill his shoes. This is the overwhelming consensus among public representatives after former Western Cape education minister Helen Zille had been approached by public representatives to run against him. But she’s made it clear she would not stand.
Representatives of Botswana’s Bushmen who have been resettled away from their ancestral land in the Kalahari desert on Thursday accused the government of Botswana and the De Beers diamond mining giant of stealing their lands to exploit their mineral wealth.
Famed United States photographer Richard Avedon was hospitalised over the weekend following a brain haemorrhage, a spokesperson for The New Yorker magazine said on Thursday. The photographer is in a hospital in San Antonio, Texas, and is ”in critical but stable condition,” said a spokesperson.