The Independent Democrats have failed in their bid to topple the Democratic Alliance-led coalition in the Cape Town unicity, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Thursday. The ID, with the backing of the African National Congress, moved to scrap the mayoral executive-committee system.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) restructuring process will not result in job losses or massive displacement of personnel, says Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula. He said ”a flatter organisational structure” for the police is needed, rather than the current many layers of command and control.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) has postponed its secondary strike planned for Friday — in sympathy with striking security guards — amid a number of applications opposing it. The Johannesburg Labour Court earlier barred the union from organising secondary strikes at Transnet and in the tollgate industry.
Fresh fighting erupted on Thursday between Islamic militia and a United States-backed warlord alliance on the outskirts of the lawless Somali capital, Mogadishu, killing at least three. Stung by the loss on Wednesday of a key position in north-east Mogadishu, the alliance attacked the Islamists at the nearby village of El Arfid.
The man already on death row for terrorising the Washington area in a 2002 sniper rampage was found guilty this week on six counts of murder in Maryland and sentenced to six life terms in prison on Thursday, United States media reported. The jury’s verdict came after a drama-filled trial.
Seismic activity in the only active volcano on the Comoros islands ceased on Thursday after a spectacular but contained eruption created eerie red clouds over the Indian Ocean archipelago this week. ”The seismic signal is null,” said vulcanologist Julie Morin, one of a team of experts from the nearby French island of Réunion.
An Orthodox Jew was threatened with divorce after blowing several thousand dollars on a parrot that swore like a trooper, Israel’s mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot daily said on Thursday. The man’s religious household in the Tel Aviv area was bombarded by insults such as ”son of a bitch” and ”homo” from the bird.
Iran will never negotiate its nuclear programme with the United States, its oil minister said in a television interview while in Venezuela for an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting. ”We are never going to negotiate the nuclear fuel cycle,” Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said.
South Africa will officially unveil its Soccer World Cup 2010 emblem in Berlin on July 7. Significantly, this will be before the end of the World Cup in Germany and, as such, is a first in the history of the tournament. This was announced on Thursday by Danny Jordaan, CEO of the South African World Cup committee.
An East London man who caused the death of six children when he lost control of a bakkie has been sent to prison for seven years, the Dispatch Online reported on Thursday. It said East London Regional Court magistrate Fungile Dotwana handed down the sentence on Wednesday.