The dragging stalemate in the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea has led the United Nations to voice its concern saying that the impasse poses a security threat to the Horn of Africa. More than 100Â 000 lives were lost before fighting ended almost four years ago.
Inspectors are probing a North West farmer on child labour allegations after a 13-year-old boy was injured while allegedly working on his farm, the Department of Labour said on Wednesday. Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said: ”Child labour is unacceptable — it destroys childhood.”
Affirmative-action targets for companies must also be set on lower job levels that are currently almost 100% black, the trade union Solidarity said on Wednesday. The Employment Equity Commission’s annual report shows that the number of white males on the lower levels declined by 64% to only 1,4%, said the general secretary of Solidarity.
A Companies Amendment Bill, which will be piloted through Parliament by Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa, has been tabled in Parliament. The Bill deals with such matters as the circumstances under which "persons" are disqualified from being directors of companies.
The principal architect for the new World Trade Centre has sued the site’s developer for 750 over unpaid fees, signalling an apparently irreparable dispute over creative control of the project. Little more than a week after the first stone was laid, the two main characters in the project are mired in recrimination.
More black economic empowerment deals are on the cards in South Africa’s financial sector. Speculation in the market is that Cyril Ramaphosa’s Millennium Consolidated Investments is to form part of the BEE consortium that will take a 10% stake in Standard Bank.
Six hours after Jamal Mirsaidov met with the British ambassador, the limp and mutilated corpse of his grandson was dumped on his doorstep. The ambassador, Craig Murray, has paid a more direct price for his decision to step out of the bubble of immunity in which most diplomats live and challenge human-rights abuses in Uzbekistan.
Chinese meteorologists are accusing each other of what could prove to be one of the defining crimes of the 21st century: rain theft. The use of cloud-seeding guns, rockets and planes to induce rainfall has created tensions between dry regions, which are competing to squeeze more drops out of the sky than their equally arid neighbours.
French President Jacques Chirac bowed to pressure from across the political spectrum by announcing on Wednesday that France will hold a referendum on whether to adopt the European Constitution, signalling the start of a fraught campaign to ensure the government secures a yes vote.
Dual-listed telecommunications giant Telkom said in a statement on Wednesday that it has provided its recognised unions — the Alliance of Telkom Unions and the Communication Workers Union — with notice of its intention to start consultations next week on the reduction of a possible 1 381 jobs during this financial year.