The Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, issued an environmental wake-up call to China on Monday, saying the world’s fastest-expanding economy had to move away from red-hot growth towards a greener, leaner, slower model of development.
Motor-vehicle accidents and incidents of violent crime in South Africa are leaving their mark on people’s lives in many different ways. Apart from the emotional trauma suffered, the long-term effects of physical injuries can also cause major disruptions. Severe injuries or illness could force one to make adjustments or stop work altogether.
United States President George Bush on Monday promised a series of US-financed measures to help Latin America’s poor, in a belated effort to try to combat the growing influence over the continent of the Venezualan President, Hugo Chávez, and other left-wing leaders.
They should have got Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa to play Idi Amin in <i>The Last King of Scotland</i>. Shilowa at least has the seductive/menacing looks of the fleshy African power-man that Amin became. Forest Whitaker, looking slightly slimmer than he was when I last saw him on screen, unfortunately still just looks like a fat black man from the Louisiana plantations.
A new initiative to tackle crimes such as house robberies and hijackings was unveiled by police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi on Monday. He told an Interpol conference in Johannesburg the move included the deployment of hundreds more police officers in areas where these crimes were common.
Disgruntled residents of Khutsong township in Carletonville, west of Johannesburg, were locked in a meeting with government officials in a bid to resolve their problems on Monday afternoon, the Merafong municipality said. The meeting follows last week’s violent protest by residents, during which some houses belonging to ward councillors were petrol-bombed.
Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa will study a judgement handed down by the Pretoria High Court setting aside his decision to award the national lottery licence to Gidani. Earlier in the day, Pretoria High Court Judge Willie Seriti ruled that the process followed by the National Lotteries Board had been flawed.
The African Union’s top diplomat took aim at the continent’s long-time rulers on Monday by saying that the time had passed when leaders could expect to cling on to power for decades. ”Everybody knows that the era of ‘presidents for life’ is over,” Alpha Oumar Konare told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on democracy in Africa.
The family of convicted Durban businessman Schabir Shaik has been ”lobbying” Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour in an attempt to ”negotiate a deal” reducing his imprisonment term, the Daily News reported on Monday. The newspaper reported that the family had made repeated requests to meet with the minister.
Ernst Middendorp, the amiable, German-born coach of Kaizer Chiefs, was dismissed from his post on Monday. He was clearly stunned and disappointed at the turn of events that emerged after a fateful meeting convened by club chairperson Kaizer Motaung at noon.