The South African Reserve Bank has increased its "creaming off of excess dollars" from the open market to $469-million in July from only $254-million in June. The July 2004 trade-weighted rand average of R62,17 was the strongest since October 2000. This is 52,5% stronger than the December 2001 monthly average of R40,78.
South African house prices increased by a record 26,3% year-on-year (y/y) in July 2004 from a revised record 26,1% y/y in June 2004 and a revised 25,7% y/y in May. This meant that house prices have doubled since June 2000, while consumer inflation has risen by less than 25% over the same period.
The Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs on Friday denied reports that a donation of money made by the South African government was being used to buy Zambian maize for food aid. "The United Nations World Food Programme has always used South African money to buy maize in South Africa," a statement said.
"I sing of arms and the man. And of his legs. Some toes, too. I sing of …" A thunderflash, the smell of singed hair, and the minstrel was no more. "These epics are just silly nowadays," said Zeus, cooling his finger in a vase. The water steamed and the last surviving lily turned brown. "Does my bum look big in this?" asked Apollo. He had bought a figure-hugging toga that morning.
Though no longer in office, former housing minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele used public funds to fight her appeal court battle. Her case, decided by the Supreme Court of Appeals this week, was fought by the state attorneys’ office and may have cost R500 000, legal experts say.
”A person must be buried in full with all his or her [insides]. That is why we even stay away from post-mortems,” says Grace Mhawula, a member of the Traditional Healers Organisation. People who came back as ”cheeky spirits” are the ones who did not leave this world with all their organs. But these traditional views are not unanimously shared.
Since 1994 no fewer than 24 major cases of political corruption have rocked South Africa. The latest, the parliamentary travel scam, is testing the South African public’s respect for the rule of law for the umpteenth time. South Africa has respectable institutions of accountability — but there is a murky underworld of corruption that is barely being tapped, say commentators.
Local analysts are adamant that most South African Muslims are unlikely to be receptive to a fundamentalist or extreme brand of Islam. They say that while many Muslims are opposed to the United States-led war on ”terror” and feel Islam is threatened by the West, very few are likely to engage in acts of violence, especially against South African targets.
I am a Muslim woman and an anti-war activist who vehemently opposes imperialism, neo-liberalism and occupation. Having seen the global Muslim <i>ummah</i> (community) undergo some of its darkest moments, I have come to see Islamic extremist groups as the enemies of the faith whose interests they claim to advance. Islamic extremism has come to represent an ugliness within Islam.
In the software business, the games go by the indigestible acronym, MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), but they are more easily understood as virtual worlds. Aden is a virtual world in an online game called Lineage, created and run by Korean company NCsoft. The allure of virtual games has software firms selling non-existent ”commodities” for thousands of dollars.