Germany will finance infrastructure development on communal land in Namibia in a bid to boost land reform, the German Minister for Development Heidemarie Wiezcorek-Zeul said in Windhoek on Thursday. ”We will financially support initiatives on communal land to make that land more productive and develop its infrastructure,” she told reporters after meetings with President Sam Nujoma and Namibian Land Minister Hifikepunye Pohamba.
The council of Cape Town’s Peninsula Technikon has approved a severance package ”not exceeding” R2,3-million for vice-chancellor professor Brian Figaji. However the National Health and Allied Workers Union in the Western Cape has called on the national education ministry to intervene to reverse the council decision, which it says sets a bad precedent and is procedurally flawed.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has ordered a probe into reports that State House, his office and residence, spent two billion kwacha ( 000) on beverages in a year, state television reported on Friday. ”I was alarmed, I think shocked is better, to learn State House spent two-billion kwacha on beverages,” Mwanawasa was quoted as saying by the state-run Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation.
London’s metropolitan police have for three years employed a serial burglar as a police constable, after the man simply lied about his past, The Daily Telegraph reported on Friday. The 34-year-old officer, who was patrolling the streets of Belgravia, one of the British capital’s most exclusive areas, has been suspended while investigations continue.
Zimbabwe’s consumer prices dipped 31,7% in July against the previous month but were still 362,9% higher year on year, the official statistics bureau said on Friday. ”The year-on-year inflation rate for the month of July as measured by the all-items consumer price index (CPI) stood at 362,9%, shedding 31,7% points on the June rate of 394,6%,” the Central Statistics Offices (CSO) said.
Daredevils including Austria’s Felix Baumgartner will jump off a 73-storey hotel next week as part of a skydiving festival — marking the first time the sport is allowed in Singapore, organisers said on Friday. Baumgartner and three American members of the aerobatics exhibition team called the Red Bull Air Force will be showcasing their skydiving feats next Friday until Sunday.
A group of youngsters brought a hush to Parliament chamber this week when they spoke about their lives of poverty and hardship and how they think the Children’s Bill could create a happier future for them. They call themselves Dikwankwetla, meaning heroes, and this is how they see themselves in the face of the Aids epidemic.
The announcement of a successor to National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) boss Bulelani Ngcuka is imminent — within days, some say. President Thabo Mbeki is most likely to look inside the NPA for a replacement. It is an open secret that Ngcuka recommended one of his four deputies, Silas Ramaite, although another deputy, Willie Hofmeyr, may also be a contender.
Ngcuka tipped for Old Mutual
Prepaid water meters are at the centre of a war for water waged by a group of informal settlement residents who will challenge Johannesburg Water in court over the lawfulness of these devices. The residents have enlisted leading constitutional lawyer Wim Trengove, SC, to fight their corner. The case is likely to be precedent setting, with implications for municipalities and the delivery of services around the country.
The two South Africans detained in Pakistan as suspected al-Qaeda terrorists are now effectively in American hands, according to a range of sources in Lahore and in South Africa. Asif Shahzad, crime reporter for a Pakistani daily, The Dawn, who has followed the arrests closely, said the interrogation of Feroz Ganchi and Zubair Ismail was being driven by the United States, with Pakistani intelligence only assisting.