In his weekly ANC Today newsletter, President Thabo Mbeki on Friday strongly criticised a report in last week’s Sunday Times, saying the newspaper is ”entirely wrong” in its claim that no additional funds have been set aside by the government for its expanded public works programme.
The South African Navy’s long-serving workhorse, the SAS Outeniqua, is being formally retired from the service on Friday — though she still has a lot of life left in her. The decommissioning of the 12-year old vessel marks a shift in the navy’s capability and spending priorities resulting in part from its acquisition of new corvettes.
A Zimbabwe court on Friday postponed until later this year a ruling in the case in which four directors of the popular independent Daily News are charged with illegally publishing the newspaper. Directors Samuel Nkomo, Brian Mutsau, Rachel Kupara and Michael Mattinson were ordered to return to court on September 20.
The women of the Kawempe Positive Women’s Union are among the new faces of the HIV/Aids epidemic in Uganda. The recent Aids conference in Bangkok, Thailand, shed light on the growing feminisation of HIV: 57% of those infected in sub-Saharan Africa are women. And 75% of the young people infected are females aged 15 to 24.
Six people were injured on Friday when an earthquake measuring 4,6 on the Richter scale shook the eastern Turkish town of Dogubeyazit close to the border with Iran, a local official said. The tremor, which caused minor damage, struck at 10.14am local time with an epicentre 18km north-east of the town.
Mail & Guardian editor Ferial Haffajee was on Thursday evening in Cape Town appointed Woman of the Year in the media and communications category. Sponsored by Shoprite Checkers and SABC2, the Women of the Year Awards recognise achievements by South African women in nine categories.
Former Grootvlei prison director Tatolo Setlai has been acquitted of corruption charges. Setlai had been charged with acting ”’grossly negligently” in allowing a prisoner and others at the prison to produce a video showing footage of wardens procuring sex with minors for prisoners and involved in other illegal actions.
A magistrate on Friday dismissed a ”confession” from prosecution evidence in the trial of three Kenyans charged with plotting terror attacks in the country, a defence lawyer said. Salmin Mohammed Khamis, Mohammed Kubwa Seif and Said Saggar Ahmed are accused of plotting the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, when 213 people died.
Telecommunications giant Telkom will go ahead with its plans to acquire South Africa’s fourth-largest internet service provider in the dial-up market, Tiscali SA, allegedly for R400-million despite "strong opposition" from a number of industry players. The Internet Service Providers’ Association has accused Telkom of being anti-competitive.
Botswana President Festus Mogae on Friday joined last-minute negotiations to head off a strike by approximately 5 000 miners at the country’s four diamond mines, which would severely impact on the nation’s income and the world diamond market, already facing a shortage of rough diamond stock.