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/ 6 November 2006
Eric Samson is probably South Africa’s richest resident, though you don’t hear much of him. His unlisted Macsteel Holdings business empire generates revenue of nearly R70-billion a year, roughly equivalent in size to Sasol, and supplies much of the steel used in the local industry. Macsteel, one of the 10 largest companies in South Africa, is part of a probe into steel pricing by the Competition Tribunal.
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/ 6 November 2006
On Wednesday, in Jdeida prison on the outskirts of Tripoli, five nurses and a doctor prepared themselves for the worst: word that after seven years in prison, they were to be executed by firing squad. The six, who left their countries to work at the Children’s Hospital in Libya’s second city, Benghazi, were arrested and locked up after being accused of deliberately injecting HIV-tainted blood into more than 400 children.
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/ 6 November 2006
On World Habitat Day women used the opportunity to shed light on their living conditions and to illustrate the obstacles women still face in realising their housing rights. Their testimonies reveal that women bear the brunt of poverty and, along with their children, continue to be vulnerable. It also highlighted the fact that the face of poverty is changing.
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/ 6 November 2006
The last scuffle over the Medicines and Related Substances Act saw the health department announce a Âcomplex four-tier dispensing fee for pharmacists. This was intended to satisfy the requirement of the Constitutional Court, which last year ordered that an "appropriate" fee be drawn up for the purpose.
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/ 6 November 2006
While President Thabo Mbeki will only give up his Union Buildings office in 2009, the next president will effectively be chosen in just over a year’s time at the ANC’s watershed elective conference in Polokwane, Limpopo. How will it happen? And how are the cards stacked? Zukile Majova and Mbuyisi Mgibisa investigated to bring you this exclusive report, taking you into the mechanics of an elective conference.
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/ 6 November 2006
Rwanda and Burundi may be sworn in as new members of the East African Economic Community when the grouping holds its next summit, on November 30, in the Tanzanian financial centre of Dar es Salaam. The regional organisation at present comprises Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and is headquartered in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha.
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/ 6 November 2006
Sudanese telecoms billionaire Mo Ibrahim has launched the Ibrahim Index for African Governance, a new comprehensive ranking of sub-Saharan African nations developed in conjunction with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Rule of law and security will weigh heavily in the index, ahead of human development, economic development, democracy, transparency and empowerment of civil society.
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/ 6 November 2006
The second round of elections took place last week. Results have begun trickling in, but an official announcement is not expected for some time. Stephanie Wolters speaks to party representatives Olivier Kamitatu and Moise Musangana about the way forward.
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/ 6 November 2006
The Chadian Army is stepping up reinforcements in the east of the country as it struggles to deal with rebels intent on overthrowing President Idriss Déby Itno. An upsurge in attacks in the past few weeks has left hundreds of soldiers dead and wounded, and counter-offensives launched by Deby’s men have failed to quell the rebellion.
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/ 6 November 2006
First, let’s lay down the mother of all caveats. The conventional wisdom says Democrats are about to win control of the House of Representatives and could well take the Senate too. But, and here’s the mega-caveat, the conventional wisdom in Washington is often very wrong. Cast your mind back to election night 2004, when the media anointed President John Kerry, writes Jonathan Freedland.