No staff will be retrenched when the South African Social Security Agency starts operating next year, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said on Monday. "[Under] the Labour Relations Act, all staff in the social security function will be transferred to the agency," Skweyiya told reporters in Cape Town.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118944">Govt outlines social security agency</a>
A senior official at Iraq’s Defence Ministry has been shot dead in Baghdad, officials said on Monday, in the latest attack against the new administration three weeks after the transfer of sovereignty. The ambush occurred in the southern Saydia neighbourhood where a truck bomb exploded on Monday morning.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118946">Nine dead in car bomb attack</a>
Fears about terrorism returned to haunt Britain on Monday after police said they are investigating how secret police plans to prevent Heathrow airport from attack were found abandoned by a roadside. Also, a government minister advised the public to stock up on food and other emergency supplies in case of a terror attack.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was haemorrhaging just before midday on Monday as the strong rand continued to thump heavyweight resources stocks. Negative sentiment spilled through to the rest of the market and decliners outnumbered advancers on the all-share index by about four to one.
Pro- and anti-whaling nations began a four-day meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Sorrento, Italy, on Monday amid growing support for an end to an 18-year moratorium on commercial whaling. Japan has welcomed growing support for its call for a return to commercial whaling.
Equatorial Guinea is preparing an extradition request for 69 alleged mercenaries to be sent to that country for trial, the Constitutional Court in South Africa was told on Monday. The court was hearing arguments why it should intervene in the trial of the group, which is facing various charges. They are currently being held in a prison in Zimbabwe.
Forty people, most of them commuters, were killed on Monday when a crowded bus shot off a highway in torrential rains and plunged into a rain-filled ditch in India’s West Bengal state, police said. ”The bus sank in the ditch filled up by monsoon rains,” state police inspector general Chayan Mukherjee said.
At least nine people were killed when a huge car bomb exploded outside a police station in Baghdad on Monday in a near daily scene of chaos and bloodshed for the newly-sovereign Iraq. The latest attack capped a week of at least seven car bombings that have left scores of people dead and injured, throwing up a huge challenge for the government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Residents evicted from their houses in Protea Glen, Soweto, will be relocated to free Reconstruction and Development Programme houses in Doornkop outside Soweto from Monday, Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu said on Sunday. Sisulu addressed a public meeting of more than 2 000 people in a bid to resolve the area’s housing problem.
It is not often that you hear of a renowned, five-star hotel going to the dogs. But on the outer reaches of Cape Town, the Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa has literally done just that, welcoming guests of the canine variety with special two day Smooch Your Pooch packages.