Nigeria’s crude oil revenues fell by -million in February because of the unrest in the Niger Delta, the hub of the country’s energy industry, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Friday. Nigeria earned ,177-billion from crude oil sales in February compared to ,877-billion in January, the bank said in its monthly report.
The City of Cape Town is not considering an urgent court interdict barring city manager Wallace Mgoqi from going to work, but is keeping its options open, a lawyer for the city said on Friday. ”Nothing is considered at the moment, but the mayor will review the matter on a day-to-day basis,” said Carl Lindenberg.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has castigated the government for refusing to acknowledge the reality of crime and not doing enough to address the issue. President Thabo Mbeki and senior leaders of the African National Congress do not understand because they are almost completely insulated from crime, he said on Friday.
Stephen Donald and Sitiveni Sivivatu scored tries two minutes apart in the opening five minutes on Friday as the Waikato Chiefs held on for a 33-32 Super 14 rugby win over South Africa’s Cheetahs. The win moved the Chiefs to within a point of the fourth-place ACT Brumbies for the final semifinal play-off spot with three rounds to go.
Jacob Zuma this week sent out the message that the politico-legal drama playing itself out in the Johannesburg High Court was not the personal confrontation onlookers might have mistaken it for. Ever the politican, Zuma, wearing a stylish black chalk-striped suit, started Tuesday morning by shaking hands with the prosecutors and the policemen who arrested him.
On March 24 a mob drags an on-duty guard from his car, overturns the vehicle and sets it alight. A month later, a guard is robbed and beaten by men wanting to know why he has not attended union meetings. This is the public face of a strike that has dragged on in fits and starts since March 23 and could continue unless the government intervenes, according to one union official.
The Kempton Park regional court on Friday refused bail to nine people arrested following a massive heist at Johannesburg International airport last month. Magistrate Eric Mhlari said there was a danger of their interfering with witnesses as certain of them could face lengthy jail terms if convicted, and another 15 suspects were still on the run.
Public hearings to probe South Africa’s alleged illicit payments of oil surcharges and kickbacks to the former Iraqi regime under the United Nations’s oil-for-food programme will start next month. The Donen commission, which will start the hearings on May 8, said on Friday subpoenas were being served on key witnesses.
Women struggling with the discomforts of menopause may soon find relief in a cold glass of beer. Experts in the Czech Republic are working on a beer specifically brewed for women experiencing hot flashes, troubling sleeping and other woes during this phase.
Chatsworth, Durban, lunchtime: 16-year-old Colin Pillay staggers out of an alleged drug-dealer’s semi-detached council home, oblivious. An hour earlier, Pillay and his mother had turned up at the Chatsworth Youth Centre seeking a prescription for Subutex (buprenorphine, a schedule six drug) to combat his three-and-a-half-year "sugars" addiction.