Life assurer and financial services group Liberty’s headline earnings recovered from a low base in respect of the first six months of last year, increasing by 28,6% from 130 cents to 167,2 cents for the six months until June as a result of a favourable operational performance and better investment returns.
The two young men sitting cross-legged in a small room off the courtyard of the Imam Ali shrine looked like any of the fighters around them. Their beards were short and neat, their feet bare and their dress the simple dishdasha, the Arab robe. They were deferential to their militia commander and spoke idealistically of defeating the military might of the United States in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf.
A 10-year-old boy who was severely mutilated on a mountain in the Polokwane area last month died in hospital on Tuesday. Sello Chokwe’s attacker had hacked off his ear, hand, genitals and his skull had been damaged. According to Polokwane hospital doctor Joris Zandelanotte, Sello was in a coma in the intensive care unit until he died.
The Eastern Cape Technikon’s Umtata campus has been closed indefinitely after student unrest on the campus on Tuesday. Technikon spokesperson Angela Church said the campus was closed at 5pm in order to ensure the safety of students and staff as well as the institution’s property.
Germany was under pressure on Tuesday night to apologise for an episode of its largely forgotten colonial past, the massacre of up to 60 000 Africans by its troops 100 years ago on Wednesday. Descendants of the Herero tribe, in what is now Namibia, have demanded a formal apology for the atrocities committed under German colonial rule.
I was rather sorry to see that the Peugeot 307cc sent to me for evaluation was the 100 kW version, lumbered with an automatic gearbox nogal. At over 1 410 kg, thanks to the reinforced body shell and the complicated roof-folding mechanism, the convertible is just too heavy to be the nimble performer its looks promise.
Volvo’s new V50 sportswagon is here, aimed squarely at young families. The interior of the new wagon is typically classy and uncluttered, with ample space for four people plus their luggage. And with all the usual features we’ve come to expect from the Swedish motor manufacturer, plus a few more, this wagon is good value.
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) secretary general Gwede Mantashe will on Wednesday lead mineworkers in a march to the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) in Pretoria. The marchers will meet at 10am in Brown Street in the capital, then march to the Reserve Bank where a memorandum will be handed over to SARB Governor Tito Mboweni.
Cape Town is under water. So is Bangladesh. But Capetonians are relatively well off. In Bangladesh, millions of people have been displaced by water this year alone. With global warming a likely culprit, shouldn’t those who caused it pay their debt? The role of climate change — even if only partial — in helping to trigger recent floods increases the moral duty of rich nations to provide assistance.
The recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960, Chief Albert Luthuli made three significant contributions in the realm of international relations. In his acceptance speech of the peace prize, Luthuli said: "I accept it also as an honour, not only to South Africa, but to the whole continent of Africa, to all its people, whatever their race, colour or creed."