Eskom has expressed concern that the current cold weather will put additional pressure on an already tight electricity-supply system. ”We are currently experiencing an increase in electricity demand due to the weather. ”The cold was so severe that a new morning peak-demand record was set this morning [Wednesday],” the power utility said.
Somalia’s trade minister and former defence minister escaped assassination attempts, but two others were killed in the latest Iraq-style guerrilla attacks on government targets, witnesses said on Wednesday. A roadside bomb hit Trade Minister Abdullahi Ahmed Afrah’s convoy late on Tuesday in a busy north Mogadishu street.
A Kazakh court jailed more than a dozen health workers on Wednesday for infecting 78 babies with HIV/Aids, but provoked parents’ outrage for sparing senior officials. A group of medical workers went on trial in the southern city of Shymkent in January on charges of criminal negligence for allowing the children to be infected.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe threatened on Wednesday to seize mining firms and other companies if they persist with ”dirty tricks” and keep raising prices in the face of rampant inflation. ”This nonsense of price escalations must come to an end,” the 83-year-old head of state said.
Taxi drivers declared a truce on Wednesday against bus companies they claim are illegally poaching business from them along Johannesburg’s Louis Botha Avenue. This comes after a committee was formed to investigate the taxi operators’ claims and to verify the bus companies’ permits.
Runaway fires in KwaZulu-Natal have claimed the lives of two firefighters and caused damage of about R1-billion over the past week, the province said on Wednesday. Agriculture and environmental affairs minister Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said thousands of livestock and extensive patches of grazing land have been destroyed.
The debate surrounding two centres of power at the African National Congress (ANC) policy conference is set to overshadow other issues being debated by members concentrating on organisational reviews. Meanwhile, the South African Communist Party’s Blade Nzimande has reacted to President Thabo Mbeki’s opening address.
A group of striking public-service workers protested metres away from the African National Congress (ANC) policy conference venue in Midrand on Wednesday. Law-enforcement authorities closed the road leading to Gallagher Estate while Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha intervened.
Healthcare officials in Calgary have unveiled a new ambulance designed for treating and transporting obese patients in an emergency, believed to be the first of its kind in this country. The ambulance is equipped with a wide stretcher and a mechanical lift that gently raises patients weighing up to 450kg into the carriage.
A United States court on Monday ruled against a man seeking $54-million from the Korean immigrant owners of a dry cleaners who, he said, lost his pants despite a promise of "satisfaction guaranteed". Roy Pearson alleged that Custom Cleaners lost his trousers and misled him with a sign promising satisfaction.