Go by bike from Pietermaritzburg to the Cape and no end of people will express surprise at your undertaking. Some will offer an opinion on your sanity. On day 13, in the part of the Karoo known as the Camdeboo, this fellow stops his car and does just that. Now he gets out and introduces himself, writes the Mai & Guardian’s Kevin Davie.
Zimbabwe’s Parliament meets for a new session on Tuesday that will consider two major pieces of legislation, one to give the president considerable sway in appointing a successor and another to nationalise foreign firms. Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, is seeking to consolidate power in the face of growing discontent.
The JSE continued to trade in positive territory in midday trade on Monday with world markets stronger after Wall Street’s recovery on Friday. At midday on the JSE, the all-share index was up 2,29%. Resources climbed 2,78% and the gold and platinum mining indices added 1,20% and 1,22% respectively.
South Africa car manufacturers and trade unions have agreed a deal to avert a strike over wages, the country’s metalworkers’ union said on Sunday. ”We have withdrawn the notice to go on strike,” said Mziwakhe Hlangani, national spokesperson at the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.
Chinese rescuers frantically pumped water from flooded mine shafts on Monday with little hope that about 180 miners trapped for three days might be alive and as officials revealed they knew of the danger. The disaster in the eastern coastal province of Shandong is just the latest to strike China’s coal industry, the world’s deadliest.
Leaders of a new Darfur rebel grouping will travel back to Sudan’s restive western region to unite their armies, a rebel official said on Monday. Five rebel groups joined last month in Eritrea under the umbrella United Front for Liberation and Development, but have yet to integrate their armed wings.
Sudanese officials met with Western diplomats on Sunday to calm fears following the discovery of large quantities of explosives in a Khartoum suburb earlier in the week, the official Suna news agency reported. Following the seizure, Britain released a statement saying it was temporarily suspending public services at its embassy in Khartoum.
Power cuts plagued the Gaza Strip anew on Monday as the European Union was reviewing whether to renew its financing of fuel deliveries for the impoverished territory’s sole power plant. Gaza City hummed with the sound of generators and candles disappeared off supermarket shelves as residents stocked up on supplies on the fourth day of intermittent power supplies.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said on Monday that the worst of the United States mortgage crisis was over even if some US investment houses and funds could still be in trouble. Stock exchanges worldwide were sent reeling this month as US borrowers with risky credit histories — the so-called subprime sector — defaulted on their mortgage repayments.
Zambian Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande thinks there may be only one way to influence defiant Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe — enlist the help of liberation giants like Nelson Mandela. Magande’s comments were tacit recognition that Southern African Development Community leaders failed during their meeting last week.