Security during next week’s Comrades marathon is a cause for concern, said a running-club spokesperson on Thursday. ”I received a letter from our Russian manager who is concerned there could be a security risk with his athletes,” said Ray de Vries of Premier Running Club.
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Children played soccer in the deserted streets of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest city and businesses and schools shuttered their doors across Nigeria on Wednesday as unions representing millions of workers launched a general strike over fuel-price hikes. The strike threatened oil exports from Nigeria, Africa’s largest producer.
Energy-sector unions in France have started staging wildcat power cuts in a bid to stop the partial privatisation of the state-run electricity company EDF, prompting condemnation from the government concerned about widespread disruption. The outtages are ”not acceptable” and are ”extremely worrying”, a government spokesperson said.
Five people were injured in a fire on the second floor of a building in central Johannesburg on Wednesday afternoon, emergency services said. A Johannesburg emergency services spokesperson said a total of 64 children, who were taken to the roof of the building when the fire started, escaped unhurt.
Saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline in Iraq on Wednesday, forcing a 10% cut in output for the national electricity grid, Iraqi officials said. The attack appeared part of an insurgent campaign against infrastructure to shake confidence in the new government.
The cost of medicines has already dropped by 16,4% since the beginning of May, an analyst told industry representatives in Johannesburg on Wednesday. ”Sure, there’s chaos at the moment but it’s going to be worth it in the end. It is clearly of benefit to the consumer,” said David Boyce, a health-care analyst.
African National Congress MP Ismail Vadi, who was elected unopposed as chairperson of the ad hoc committee on the public protector on Wednesday afternoon, said he undertakes to conduct his responsibility with humility and in a manner that will ”bring dignity” to Parliament.
Nineteen people civilians were killed by insurgents at a refugee camp in northern Uganda, officials of the Kampala government said on Wednesday. According to Apach district commissioner Mary Francis Owor, ”more than 100 rebels attacked Aboko camp, killed 19 people and also abducting several others”.
Five Moroccan left-wing parties have set up a new grouping called the Rally of the Democratic Left (RGD), the main aim of which is to lay the groundwork for a fully-fledged political party, the group said on Wednesday. ”A left-wing party … based on a multiplicity of ideologies has not yet been tested in our country,” an RGD spokesperson said.