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/ 13 February 2004
In recent months Johannesburg drivers have noticed a new phenomenon: blind people begging at traffic lights and major intersections. They are almost exclusively Zimbabwean, and their influx to the city has been sudden.
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/ 13 February 2004
Public health care has been chronically underfunded for the past five years and gross provincial disparities in spending persist, a government report now confirms. As a result, the Treasury’s claims that health budgets have increased significantly in the same period are under renewed fire.
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/ 13 February 2004
Next week’s Budget will increase state spending on social and economic development programmes and job-creation initiatives while trying to ease the country’s personal tax burden — despite a shortfall in the revenue it is expected to receive in the coming year. This is the key prediction for Manuel’s 2004 government spending plan, due to be unveiled in Parliament on Wednesday.
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/ 13 February 2004
As the African Cup of Nations comes to an end it is time for the continent to take off its rose-tinted glasses and be brutally honest about admitting that the game has not progressed since the last tournament. Commercially, tactically and in overall appeal, we are where we were at the end of the last century.
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/ 13 February 2004
The tragedy about this weekend’s African Cup of Nations is that if its North African contenders Tunisia and Morocco are indeed the best on the continent, only one of them will be in the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany as both are in the same group in the qualifying stages.
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/ 13 February 2004
A Middle East-based British businessman has emerged as a key suspect in a secret network supplying Libya, Iran and North Korea with equipment to build nuclear bombs. Speaking for the first time this week, Paul Griffin denied that his company played any part in shipping prohibited material from the Far East.
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/ 13 February 2004
United States President George W Bush expressed alarm on Tuesday after oil cartel Opec threatened to undermine his chances of a second term in the White House by announcing a surprise cut in production from April.
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/ 13 February 2004
With two-thirds of the season gone, Leeds are second from the bottom of the Premiership. Their chances of avoiding relegation were helped when they beat Wolves 4-1 on Tuesday. However, they may still be relegated. And on Friday Leeds are expecting to hear from their creditors, to whom they owe about £100-million.
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/ 13 February 2004
The British government launched an explicit advertising campaign on Monday as part of a drive to reduce the rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Radio advertisements warn of the risk of developing genital warts, and spoof Valentine cards are being distributed in clubs, student unions and other social haunts of young people.
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/ 13 February 2004
When finance ministers from the G7 rich nations dine in the Florida seaside resort of Boca Raton this week, the spectre at the feast will be China, whose turbo-charged trade and rigidly pegged currency are increasingly a topic of global significance. Stubborn Beijing could cave in to growing calls for a currency revaluation.