South African petrochemicals group Sasol on Thursday announced that the R1,45-billion Tshwarisano black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction has been successfully concluded. In terms of the agreement, Tshwarisano acquired a 25% shareholding in Sasol’s South African liquid-fuels business housed in Sasol Oil.
The South African rand was sharply firmer against the dollar in early trade on Friday after a slide in the dollar following the United States federal open market committee’s (FOMC) decision to increase interest rates on Thursday night. At 8.26am, the rand was bid at R7,1153 per dollar.
Wits University’s new policy of imposing a 10% levy on the income earned by academics for private work could benefit them, said Aubrey Blecher of the Wits Academic Staff Association this week. Blecher said having a large institution such as Wits at their side, rather than trying to negotiate as individuals with the corporate world, could work to the advantage of academics.
A belligerent President Robert Mugabe is placing conditions for the lifting of international sanctions first, before any dialogue or planned visit by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. Mugabe is expected to meet Annan on the sidelines of the African Union summit in Gambia this week.
Controversial draft legislation aimed at overhauling the structure of the judiciary has been shelved after the intervention of President Thabo Mbeki. Senior government and parliamentary officials say formal consideration of the proposed laws has been suspended, and will not begin again until they are redrafted.
Deep changes to the judicial system are urgently needed. Just about no one disputes that. Too many relics of the apartheid and colonial past persist in the structure of provincial divisions. And the absence of rigorous, credible and transparent mechanisms to hold judges accountable for their conduct is proving increasingly problematic for the administration of justice.
South Africa has allocated nearly $50-million to win the site bid for the world’s largest telescope, the Square Kilometre Array. The country is vying against Australia, Argentina and China to host this prestigious European Commission-funded science project.
Sexuality is still a taboo topic in many societies — and the taboo is even greater for people with disabilities. "Parents and relatives believe that a woman with a disability should not engage in sex," says Gladys Charowa, founder member and director of Harare’s Disabled Women Support Organisation.
<i>’Mhla kwahamba abelungu kulelizwe, amakhafula ayothi ‘Basi’ lapha kithi"</i> (when all the whites are gone from this country, kaffirs will say ‘Baas’ to us — the Mkhizes). I was about eight when I first heard one of my uncles make this bold declaration. UBab’ Omdala uMlamuli is now almost 90 years old and over the past 23 years, he has repeatedly assured me that his prophecy will indeed come true.
Nothing could have conjured the images of a riven country more eloquently than the Zimbabwe national day of prayer. An event meant to unite a country was marked by a slanging match that would not have looked out of place before a heavyweight boxing match.