The trade union Solidarity has launched an investigation into a spate of suspensions at the state arms manufacturer Denel, its spokesperson Dirk Hermann said on Monday. By his count the company has now suspended 18 members of staff, including some belonging to Solidarity.
Black economic empowerment in South Africa is set to ”significantly progress” following the signing into law earlier this year of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, says government. In this regard, trade and industry’s first task would be to appoint members to a BEE advisory council.
South Africa has a higher rate of people disabled by strokes than most developed countries, a Southern African Stroke Prevention (Saspi) report revealed on Monday. The report said South African men were more at risk from having a stroke than women, although the research suggested that diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol were higher in rural females.
Another milestone in South Africa’s multi-billion rand arms deal will be reached on Tuesday in Germany, when the SA Navy’s latest addition to its maritime arsenal is officially launched. The first of the Type 209-class submarines, ”S 101”, will be launched that country.
A new brand of the government’s free condoms, featuring bright blue and yellow packaging, was unveiled by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Monday. She said the latest trademarked brand, called Choice, replaced the one with the dull grey colour cover and was aimed at making condoms more appealing and desirable.
Activists on Sunday called for a comprehensive audit of Africa’s crippling debt burden, currently estimated at more than $300-billion. The call was made by representatives of social movements from ten African countries, as well as Brazil, Argentina and the Philippines, at the end of a three-day workshop held in Cape Town
”Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.” So begins June 16, 1904, the day on which James Joyce’s modernist masterpiece Ulysses is set. One hundred years on Ireland is marking the anniversary with a five-month-long, 50-event festival.
A landmine planted by suspected Maoist rebels in Nepal killed 21 policemen and injured 16 others on Monday as a top guerrilla rejected calls by the prime minister to reopen peace talks.The policemen were on a search mission for Maoist hideouts in the insurgency-torn southwestern Nepalgunj district when their truck was blown up by underground explosives, police said.
On average South African workers would have to toil for 111 years to match what their bosses earn in just one year. While the salaries of the country’s business heavyweights have skyrocketed over the past 10 years, their workers’ wages have hit record lows — a trend that spells out a grim future for tackling South Africa’s soaring unemployment levels.
Although the South African government had not envisaged any initial public offerings (IPOs) from state-owned enterprises for the current financial year, it would consider IPOs where appropriate in the future, while concentrating on concessions, joint ventures and public-private partnership arrangements, according to Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin.