Angry staff at Unisa have accused the university’s management of unilaterally downgrading their posts, with unclear implications both for their current earnings and future pay negotiations. They also say that although they have been given the choice of accepting or rejecting their new status, management has not spelt out what will happen if they reject it.
About a month ago, CCTV images of a woman in a shopping mall carrying off a toddler who was not her own were broadcast on Mexico’s most popular television news show, introduced by the anchor as a rare chance to see child-stealing in action. And that was about that. A few days later, an English six-year-old called Madeleine McCann went missing in Portugal — and in Britain the media hurricane is still swirling.
What is President Robert Mugabe up to? Two events in the past fortnight lay bare the wily octogenarian’s strategy. On Monday he attempted to play the statesman. In an act of showmanship, he tried to give opposition leaders tractors and other equipment. In the same week his Cabinet authorised a raft of constitutional changes, which point to a far more sinister strategy.
British investigators visited South Africa last week as part of their probe into allegations that BAE Systems paid bribes to secure contracts under the arms deal, while pressure mounts on the company from law enforcement agencies around the world. BAE won the tender to supply Hawk trainer aircraft and SAAB Grippen fighters worth R30-billion under the deal.
It was the result Bafana Bafana wanted, but hardly a classy and composed display as they were outplayed by Congo for much of the frantic 1-1 African Nations Cup qualifying draw at the Municipal Stadium in Pointe Noire on Sunday afternoon. Bafana are now well positioned to qualify for next year’s African Nations Cup finals.
The Nurgalieva twins, Olesya and Elena, do not decide beforehand which of them will cross the line ahead of the other when they compete together. For this reason, Olesya, who won the 2007 Comrades Marathon down run, was champion on merit. Meanwhile, an unidentified runner collapsed on the finish line and later died, organisers said.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) affiliates will meet on Monday to come up with a range of percentage increases they are prepared to accept to end the three-week-old public-service strike. It is understood that the Independent Labour Caucus has already set a percentage range within which it can accept a deal.
Harmony Gold team runner Leonid Shvetsov of Russia has set a new mark of five hours, 20 minutes and 49 seconds in winning the 2007 Comrades Marathon down run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. He was first across the line at the Sahara Stadium in Durban on Sunday and lived up to his pre-race prediction that he was ready for anything.
This might well be the beginning of the end for the hard drive: in mid-May, Dell became the first manufacturer to market a laptop using flash memory instead of a hard drive. Other manufacturers will be joining the company before year’s end with solid-state disk (SSD) technology of their own. For users, this is all good news.
A powerful bomb destroyed a police bus in the heart of the Afghan capital on Sunday, killing more than 35 people, police said, as the extremist Taliban movement claimed responsibility. It was the deadliest attack of its kind in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was toppled in late 2001.