Zimbabwe has sent crack police to enforce price freezes in the rural strongholds of President Robert Mugabe, where businesses have failed to heed measures aimed at reining in inflation. Mugabe’s government, grappling with inflation of 4Â 500%, ordered businesses last month to roll back and freeze prices.
Amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, known as the world’s ”fastest man on no legs”, is understandably nervous ahead of his first race abroad against able-bodied athletes, due to take place in Rome on Friday. But how he races, scientifically speaking, could be far more important than who crosses the finish line first.
South African technology firm Dimension Data has agreed to sell 60% of its Britehouse Group IT consulting and services business to black investors. Didata said on Thursday it had won approval to sell the stake to a consortium comprising black empowerment groups Convergence Partners Investments and Safika Holdings, and investment firm VenFin.
Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan took six wickets as Bangladesh were bowled out for 131 on the second morning of the third and final Test on Thursday. The start of play was delayed by rain but Sri Lanka still had time to finish off the Bangladesh innings, which resumed on 72 for four.
South African gold output rose by 1,3% year-on-year in May, the first increase in in nine months, while overall mining production rose by 0,8%, official data showed on Thursday. Gold output in South Africa, the world’s largest producer, showed an increase in volume terms for the first time since August 2006.
South Africa’s manufacturing output rose by an unadjusted 6,6% in volume terms in the year to May, from a 3,8% rise in the previous month, data showed on Thursday. Compared with April, manufacturing production in volume terms increased by a seasonally adjusted 4,5%, Statistics South Africa said.
Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu handed over 10 houses at an ”innovation hub” in Soshanguve, Pretoria on Thursday. The project will afford people who have new innovations the opportunity to have their materials tested and, if approved, the materials are used to build dwellings.
South Africa’s Finance Ministry was disappointed by the European Union’s nomination of a candidate for the top job at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without broader consultation, a spokesperson said on Thursday. The EU said on Tuesday its finance ministers had agreed to support former French finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn to head the IMF.
South Africa said on Thursday it suspended poultry imports from Germany in response to an outbreak of a lethal strain of bird flu on a farm in the European nation. The ban applies to live poultry, birds, meat and other products derived from poultry and birds, the Department of Agriculture said in a statement.
The impoverished African kingdom of Lesotho has declared an official food crisis after bad harvests left more than 400 000 people in need of food aid, a United Nations agency said. Close to 328 000 tonnes of cereals are now needed to feed hungry people in the country.