South Africa remains last in a survey of 22 countries able to conduct electronic government operations, but this should be seen in the correct context, said Accenture’s Charles Webster on Monday. ”South Africa is the only African country in the survey and was competing against First World countries. In this light it’s not bad at all,” said Webster.
The speed at which cemeteries are filling up is a matter of concern, Tshwane cemetery services manager Buti Maponyane said on Monday. Maponyane said the Tshwane city council is so worried about lack of space at cemeteries, it has embarked on a campaign to promote cremation or at least reinternment.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66342">Durban runs out of space for the dead</a>
Zimbabwe’s inflation rate fell by 78,7% in April to 505%, an official newspaper reported on Monday, as the country presses on with efforts to bring inflation down to less than 200% by the end of the year. The Herald attributed the drop to the launch of a new monetary policy in December 2003.
The head of the main rebel force in Sudan’s Darfur region has threatened to extend a war affecting more than a million people to other areas if the government refuses to include it in all-round peace talks. ”The government continues to bomb civilian targets … and its militias are burning villages, killing civilians and raping women,” the leader said.
When water affairs ministers from countries along the Nile met recently to discuss the fate of the river, Boutros Boutros Ghali was not in the room with them. But the lingering memory of his comment that future wars would be fought over water probably was.
Troops in an army barracks in Chad’s capital, Ndjamena, mutinied overnight, but their insurrection was swiftly quelled without violence, a source said on Monday. The mutiny was apparently triggered after pay and bonuses were frozen when the Chadian president found the army included ”non-existent troops”.
Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples will exchange wedding vows and obtain marriage licences on Monday, as Massachusetts becomes the first American state legally to sanction gay marriage. In an election-year milestone, the clerk’s office in Cambridge was due to open its doors at midnight on Sunday for applications from same-sex couples.
With almost 1 900 tons of bunker fuel removed from the holed bulk carrier Cape Africa, salvors are expecting the vessel to enter the safety of False Bay by Tuesday. The vessel was on Monday morning still under tow, stern first, by the salvage tug Smit Amandla.
The United States and its allies condemned Monday’s killing of the Iraqi governing council head as an act of terror aimed at sowing more instability but vowed it would not derail next month’s power transfer. Ezzedine Salim, the highest-ranking Iraqi to be killed during the US-led occupation, was blown up in a bomb attack along with nine others.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66461">Deadly nerve gas round explodes in Iraq</a>
Pop stars Neil Young and Prince were paid ,5-million more than they would normally receive to play a post-Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) festival in Hong Kong, an independent panel’s report into the heavily criticised event revealed on Monday. Other bands also received far more money than their usual fee.