Hamas has good reason to celebrate the release of the BBC’s Gaza corrrespondent Alan Johnston, for its success demonstrates to the Palestinians and to the wider international community that it can run the show in the Gaza Strip, less than three weeks since taking it over. Jubilant spokesmen wasted no time in making the connection between the BBC man’s freedom and their own wider political ambitions.
The ANC Women League’s proposal of a special women’s ministry has run into flak from the ANC and from women’s activists who feel it could “ghettoise” women’s issues. The league insists the ANC policy conference last week had agreed to set up a special ministry for women’s affairs.
Even amid Zimbabwe’s increasing instability, life in suburban Harare has remained more or less predictable. Which is why Sunday morning shoppers at a suburban shopping mall, popular with young professionals and the well-heeled, stood stunned as they watched the store manager of a branch of one of the country’s largest retail chains being dragged out of his store by the back of his collar.
A corruption-busting deputy mayor, who was assassinated outside her home in Mpumalanga, is believed to have been killed while investigating suspected housing irregularities. The execution of Thandi Mtsweni is just the latest in a string of violent incidents linked to corruption in the Govan Mbeki municipality in Secunda in the past five years.
In the article "Landowners haul miners over the coals" (22 June) Mr Koos Pretorius is quoted as saying that the Department of Water Affairs ordered Xstrata’s Onverdacht Colliery to stop operating as it did not have the necessary permits or a water license. This statement is factually incorrect. Xstrata has a valid mining licence for its mining activities at Onverdacht Colliery.
Last week’s ANC policy conference brought to mind a traditional proclamation: The king is dead. Long live the king! However one interprets the minutiae of ANC pronouncements on the next leadership selection, three things can be said. First, Thabo Mbeki will not be South Africa’s president come 2009; second, the internecine war for the presidency of the ANC will continue right up to the last moment.
Western Stormers utility forward Gerrie Britz has been called up to the South Africa squad in place of injured skipper Bob Skinstad. The veteran number eight, who led the Springboks against Australia in a Tri-Nations Test in Sydney on Saturday, has a broken rib and is on his way home facing a fight to be fully fit in time for the World Cup in September..
Kimi Raikkonen confirmed his and Ferrari’s return to form with a dazzling triumph in Sunday’s British Grand Prix as home hero Lewis Hamilton struggled home third. The 27-year-old Finn took full advantage of Ferrari’s excellent strategy and tyre problems that slowed both Hamilton and his McLaren Mercedes-Benz teammate and defending champion Fernando Alonso.
A plan to rescue Zimbabwe’s flailing economy by pegging the Zimbabwe dollar to the South African rand is being put together by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). SADC’s Zimbabwe rescue package would see the Reserve Banks of South Africa and Botswana pump money into the Reserve Bank in Harare.
Roger Federer emulated the legendary Bjorn Borg when he captured his fifth successive Wimbledon title with a 7-6 (9/7), 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 2-6, 6-2 win over Rafael Nadal in a thrilling final on Sunday. It was Federer’s 11th career Grand Slam title, taking him within three of Pete Sampras’s record of 14 and his 54th consecutive grasscourt win.