Minister of Education Naledi Pandor on Tuesday urged the Education Labour Relations Council to get more of South Africa’s best school children to train as teachers. ”Around 17 000 teachers leave teaching each year, and only 3 000 new ones graduate from the 25 universities,” she said.
De Beers pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges in a 10-year-old price-fixing case under an agreement that will clear the way for the diamond giant to resume selling diamonds directly in the lucrative United States market. The South African company agreed to pay a R61-million fine after pleading guilty to conspiring to fix prices.
Egg, the internet bank majority owned by Prudential, is pulling out of France to try to entice buyers for the remainder of the business, which has been up for sale since January. Shutting down the French operation will cost Egg £113-million, taking the total amount of money invested in the ill-fated French venture to £280-million.
The residents of Cape Town claim to have found an effective new weapon in South Africa’s battle against crime. Crime levels have reportedly tumbled in two neighbourhoods where residents go on patrol armed with nothing more than filthy looks. The groups stop and stare in silence at suspected prostitutes and drug dealers.
There is probably no firm on Earth more sensitive to allegations of putting profit before compassion and trampling on the rights of indigenous peoples, but on Tuesday Benetton’s chairperson was forced to defend himself against these and worse charges, levelled at him by an Argentine Nobel Prize-winner.
Three children were on Tuesday hailed for their strength and courage after surviving for six days in a treacherous, shark-infested sea following the capsize of their family’s boat in heavy weather. The children had been travelling to a birthday party on Thursday Island with their parents when disaster struck last Tuesday.
The United States was on Tuesday accused by France of blackmailing developing countries into giving up their right to produce cheap drugs for Aids victims. The French president said favourable trade deals are being dangled before poor nations in return for those countries halting production of life-saving generic drugs.
Uganda’s success in fighting Aids has been justly celebrated. In 1993, the country had an HIV prevalence rate of 30% — this according to the Uganda Aids Commission. The rate now stands at 6%. But health workers continue to face challenges in a crucially important area: mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Police say they are certain that Leigh Matthews, who disappeared on Friday after being held to ransom, has not left the country. It is five days since her family last heard from her, when on Friday afternoon her captors allowed her to speak on the telephone. "We are looking into every single lead," Investigating officer Gabriel Hall said.
"I heard about Paul Hart’s Drakenstein Lion Park from a friend and I wondered whether he was dreaming. A lion park in the heart of the Cape winelands?" Johan Liebenberg is an active member of Cape Town’s café society. When he heard about lions roaring in the winelands, he decided to investigate — and made some startling discoveries.