Prospects are ”not particularly bright” for progress in trade liberalisation at next month’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in Mexico, says South Africa’s chief negotiator Xavier Carim.
Heavyweight resources stocks Anglo American and BHP Billiton were propping up the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa in thin noon trade on Friday. Overall, the market’s performance was stodgy, with decliners outnumbering advancers on the Top 40 index by two to one.
Jacob Zuma’s support in the ANC is waning.
Bulelani Ngcuka has finally fulfilled his detractors’ greatest fears — or so some legal minds believe. He, they say, has put politics before the law. Durban attorney Saber Ahmed Jazbhay said businessman Schabir Shaik may have a constitutional case against the Scorpions in terms of the right to equality before the law.
South African Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana has appointed former trade unionist and business leader Herbert Mkhize as the new executive director of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
The deputy president sang for his supper, if charges against arms dealer are to be believed.
A solution to the Korean nuclear crisis seems remote after talks ended in Beijing on Friday with the United States and North Korea showing no inclination to compromise. Although the six-party talks ran their course with no dramatic walk-outs, the absence of any high-profile signals of commitment to future talks was more significant.
World Trade Organisation members on Friday failed to reach a deal on ensuring patent rules do not bar access to cheap medicines for poor countries, after problems prevented a deal at the eleventh hour.
Nelson Mandela has been drawn into the controversy surrounding Deputy President Jacob Zuma. One of the R1-million amounts referred to in the draft charge sheet against Zuma’s financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was in fact a donation from the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
Afghan soldiers were waging a fierce ground battle with entrenched Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan on Friday after a night of heavy bombing by United States warplanes that left many Taliban fighters dead.