South Africa’s public protector has rapped the National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka over the knuckles for announcing last year that Deputy President Jacob Zuma would not be charged. Ngcuka had issued a press statement on August 23 last year which said that there was ”a prima facie case of corruption” against Zuma but that he would not be prosecuted.
Firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr criticised Iraq’s supreme Shiite Muslim authority during his sermon on Friday delivered by an aide in Kufa after clashes erupted between militiamen and United States troops. Mainstream Shiite leaders have remained largely silent over fighting in Najaf.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=67015">Iraqi politicians secure deal in Najaf</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=67008">US pulls out of Najaf after truce offer</a>
Cape Town has switched on to MyWireless technology — or broadband wireless high-speed, no-limit internet access via regulated high-powered radio frequency — Sentech said in a statement on Thursday. Sentech, a state-owned but commercially run TV and radio signal distributor, launched MyWireless in Gauteng in January.
Absa Bank’s acquisition of LeasePlan South Africa received the green light after the deal was approved by the Competition Tribunal. This approval allows Absa to merge its own fleet management business with LeasePlan. The acquisition through Absa’s vehicle and asset finance division will add more than double the size of its fleet.
Invented in 1986 as a light-hearted guide to whether currencies are at their "correct" level, <i>The Economist</i> magazine’s Big Mac index is used to gauge purchasing power between countries. South Africa’s Big Mac rate is R4,28 a dollar — when the rand touched a record worst level in 2001 a South African Big Mac cost less than a dollar.
New Minister of Education Naledi Pandor has acknowledged that it going to take a little longer than the end of the financial year to ensure that there is no longer a school pupil learning under a tree. She was referring to President Thabo Mbeki’s promise that the problem will be eradicated by the end of the financial year.
The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) was drifting in the red in noon trade on Friday, with heavyweight resources stocks dragged down by a stronger rand. Lack of buying interest also weighed on the local bourse, dealers said. By 11.50am, the all-share index was 0,62% weaker.
The South African government is looking into ways of cushioning the anticipated price rises for petrol and diesel in June, Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena said on Friday. Given the sharp increases in the global price of oil, the retail price of petrol will need to rise by 38 cents a litre on June 2.
Until November 2002 Bulelani Ngcuka enjoyed an enviable reputation. As head of the National Prosecuting Authority he is South Africa’s top prosecutor, and by all accounts, Ngcuka, who is also in charge of the elite Scorpions, is a hard-working and dedicated prosecutor.
Northern Cape businesswoman Maud Dikgetsi was adamant this week that she had done nothing wrong by doing business with the Northern Cape government while her husband was a provincial minister. Dikgetsi also insisted no conflict of interest could arise in such a situation. She emphasised that she was only empowering herself ”as an African businesswoman, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination”.