Members of Parliament’s home affairs committee agreed at their meeting on Friday to probe how an adult shop managed to open its doors in front of Parliament. ”We have a problem. The fact of the matter is that it reflects quite horribly on this Parliament,” committee chairperson Patrick Chauke said.
The Freedom Front Plus joined other political parties on Friday in welcoming the South African Reserve Bank’s reduction of the repo rate by half a percentage point to 7,5%, but expressed concern about the strong rand. "It … will contribute to a more realistic value for the rand on international markets," the FF+ said.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=120354">’Mboweni has shown foresight'</a>
The situation at Bloemhof is reported to be tense after pupils rampaged through the streets of Boitumelong outside the town in the North West on Thursday, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Friday. Pupils at Thutolore High School on Friday continued with a class boycott.
The United Democratic Movement says South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni and the monetary policy committee have shown foresight and courage by lowing the repo rate by 50 basis points. The UDM finance spokesperson said for more than a year the UDM has been advocating against an excessively strong currently.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) killed off the New National Party (NNP) because the DA provided a principled, non-racial alternative to the ANC, (African National Congress) as opposed to the NNP’s ”tergiversation”, DA leader Tony Leon said on Friday. Leon said it was ironic that NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk had only a few months ago called the DA a ”dead-end party”.
At least 100 Maasai tribesmen demonstrated on Friday in the Kenyan capital to demand back land ceded to British settlers under treaties signed with the colonial government in 1904 and 1911, which expire this weekend. The protesters, wearing traditional regalia, took to the streets carrying placards that poured scorn on Britain.
Filmmaker Michael Moore makes no apologies for his Bush-bashing documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, and his lawyer says he’ll make no apologies for its use of an Illinois newspaper headline, either. The Pantagraph says the headline, flashed briefly in the film, came from a letter to the editor about the 2000 presidential election recount but was doctored to look like a news story. Even the date was changed.
The ever-increasing emphasis on the development of small to medium-sized businesses in South Africa, to help combat the high unemployment rate, has led to a rise in the number of small building contractors. However, the existence of many of these registered small contractors is often short-lived.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) remained in the black, but was off the boil, in noon trade on Friday on the back of a modest recovery in the rand. However, demand was still being seen for resources stocks, which benefit most from a softer currency. By 11.52am, the all-share index was up 0,32%.
Hurricane Charley zeroed in on Florida’s west coast on Friday and state officials urged about a million tourists and residents to evacuate and avoid the path of a storm that could submerge parts of this city’s downtown and other neighbouring areas. Charley’s expected 190kph winds and massive storm surge could devastate coastal areas.