The conservative African Christian Democratic Party has come out firing in support of a Christian picket against the Firearms Control Act outside Parliament on Wednesday. The picket was aimed at expressing opposition to the Firearms Control Act, which comes into operation at midnight on Wednesday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=117976">Gun owners ‘hold court to ransom'</a>
After more than a decade on the beat in central Cape Town, the City Community Patrol Board must cease its activities by Friday, according to the South African Police Service. However, there was unhappiness with the closure of the rent-a-cops, as they were commonly known, with 70 employees not absorbed into the police.
The Presidency has confirmed that the five-year contract of the Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, Gill Marcus, expires on Wednesday. President Thabo Mbeki has consulted with Marcus about the renewal of her contract and she has indicated she would like to discuss other matters with the president regarding her future.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118008">Marcus follows Hogan exit, says DA</a>
Tanks, troops and bulldozers reoccupied a Gaza town on Tuesday in a bid to curb Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, after the crudely made missiles claimed their first Israeli victims, a man and a three-year-old boy. Hamas responded by firing more of the unguided rockets as the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, visited Sderot, the scene of Monday’s killing of the boy.
‘Israel should stop targeting Arafat’
United States President George Bush and French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday clashed sharply for the second day running at Nato’s Istanbul summit, squabbling publicly over Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey’s place in Europe. The French president undermined hopes of burying transatlantic disagreements when he insisted he was ”entirely hostile” to any Nato presence in Iraq.
South Africa recorded a trade deficit of R76,4-million for its trade with non-Southern African Customs Union trading partners in May from a surprise R3,121-billion deficit in April following a R2,085-billion surplus in March, according to the latest customs and excise figures released on Wednesday.
Talks between world number-five gold miner Harmony and the group’s unions, including the National Union of Mineworkers, regarding the closure of shafts has reached a deadlock, the NUM said in a statement on Wednesday. The parties have failed to make any significant progress since the agreement of a framework in May.
Twenty-seven people, including children, were injured on Wednesday in two explosions that rocked a city in eastern Afghanistan, officials said. The bombs hit shortly after 1pm local time in the eastern city of Jalalabad.”There were two explosions, both at security posts,” provincial military corps official Agha Jan said.
Heated debate erupted in Zimbabwe’s Parliament on Tuesday when the ruling party said opposition lawmakers should be probed for treason for allegedly working with Britain, the former colonial power. A ruling party lawmaker accused the Movement for Democratic Change of working ”in concert with foreign and dangerous powers — [including] Britain”.
The chairperson of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) secretariat, Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, and African-American celebrity Bill Cosby recently made statements that have serious implications for black people everywhere. Quite clearly, both statements are profound and contain an element of truth. However, no matter how well-intentioned, they repeat worrying accusations that have been directed at black people throughout history.