The African National Congress has heaped praise on author JM Coetzee after it was announced that he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the Democratic Alliance has hailed the award as a ”huge honour” for South African literature. ”Mr Coetzee has made us all proud,” the DA said.
Frenchman Serge Girard set off on Thursday from Africa’s westernmost point on an 8 800-kilometre run that will bring him several steps closer to achieving his bold and a ”little crazy” ambition: he wants to run across the world’s continents.
The last of the four main suspects of the Bali bombings was today sentenced to death by firing squad. Ali Ghufron, otherwise known as Mukhlas, was ”proven guilty of planning a terrorist action … and we, the judges, sentence him to death,” Judge Cokorda Rai Suamba said.
South African writer JM Coetzee won the 2003 Nobel Literature Prize on Thursday, the Swedish Academy said. Coetzee, ”who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider”, will take home the prize sum of 10-million kronor (R8,95-million, ,3-million), the jury said.
ANC, DA praise Coetzee
South African Transport Minister Dullah Omar has announced the appointment of Sebosesco Machobane as the new commissioner for the Civil Aviation Authority on contract from October 1 to March next year.
The Daily News, Zimbabwe’s independent newspaper that was banned by President Robert Mugabe’s government late last month, on Thursday continued its battle in the country’s courts to be allowed to resume publishing. In the past week, 16 of its journalists have been charged with ”publishing an illegal newspaper”.
A Kenyan newspaper editor was released on bail on Wednesday, two days after being arrested in connection with an article about a high-profile murder investigation.
The Delta Motor Corporation in Port Elizabeth on Thursday claimed that despite the ongoing strike by close to 3 000 National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa members, the workers’ attendance continued to increase each day. Delta on Wednesday urged Numsa members based in Port Elizabeth to return to work.
A quarter of all older people living in South Africa may be classified as chronically poor, with most living in households earning less than about R700 per month. According to a recent report commissioned by HelpAge International, South Africa has one of the most rapidly ageing populations in Africa.
Zambia’s former director of intelligence Xavier Chungu has been re-arrested only hours after he was freed from jail by a court that cleared him of theft charges. He was picked up on Wednesday from his home by police officers who detained him at a police station before he was released on police bond.