A Lutheran Church elder was killed and two others critically injured while travelling to Pretoria on Wednesday afternoon to buy new chairs for their church. The accident happened on the Ben Schoeman highway in Centurion, Gauteng. When the church’s bishop arrived on the scene, he found the church’s money had gone missing.
The South African government gave the signal on Wednesday that the public debate about foreign ownership of land in the country will continue. President Thabo Mbeki backed the national discussion of the issue of foreign land ownership during his Budget vote in the National Assembly in June.
An impasse in free trade talks between the Southern African Customs Union and the United States is unlikely to be resolved before the US presidential elections. ”The political climate leading up to elections may not lend itself to any material shift in US positions,” the Department of Trade and Industry official said on Wednesday.
Amid growing corruption allegations against the Kenyan government, the European Union has postponed a decision on whether to give Kenya new grants, EU and Kenyan officials said on Wednesday. The EU delayed its decision because it wants clarification on some issues, Cabinet secretary Francis Muthaura said, without elaborating.
A special Vatican inspector began his inquiry on Wednesday into the discovery of a vast cache of child pornography at a seminary where candidates for the priesthood photographed themselves kissing and fondling each other. Austrian Bishop Klaus Kueng was appointed on Tuesday as Pope John Paul II’s ”apostolic visitor” to deal with the scandal.
South Africa had the potential to be the engine of much-needed economic growth on the African continent but the government appeared to be in the process of abandoning growth-favouring economic policies, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) leader, Tony Leon argued in the United States on Wednesday.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa said on Wednesday it is negotiating with striking workers from petrol stations, car dealers and panel beaters following discussions with the Automobile Manufacturers Employers’ Organisation. The strike started on Tuesday.
Strong leadership, access to life-prolonging drugs and reducing infections will be the main challenges facing Southern Africa in the next decade, Aids campaigners say. About 70% of people living with HIV are in sub-Saharan Africa, with the majority of them in the 14-nation Southern African region.
Israel’s construction of its West Bank barrier went ahead full force on Wednesday, hours after the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the structure to be torn down in compliance with a World Court ruling. An Israeli adviser said Tuesday’s resolution "signifies the bankruptcy of the UN".
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119087">UN calls for Israel to tear down wall</a>
Small entrepreneurs, not a handful of magnates, were benefiting most from black economic empowerment, the Department of Trade and Industry said on Wednesday. More than 90% of the beneficiaries of cheap loans, incentives and contract opportunities were black, small, medium and micro enterprises, deputy director-general Lionel October said in Pretoria.