Nigeria on Wednesday announced a 25-year plan to venture into space technology by manufacturing and launching locally its own satellite. Science and Technology Minister Turner Isoun said the federal Cabinet had already set up a seven-member ministerial committee to look into the details of the project.
Wildlife wardens and volunteers are working round the clock cleaning hundreds of oil-covered penguins found over the past days in a remote southern nature reserve, officials said. At least 70 of the penguins have died, said Jorge Perancho, the coordinator of protected areas of the far southern province of Santa Cruz.
I have seen any number of games that were preceded by choreographed ceremonies involving schoolchildren, acrobats, mime and giant balloons, but I never thought Middlesbrough would feature in one. Yet here they are in the PSV Stadion on Wednesday waiting for some kids in white suits to finish their act.
A new book, Foul, by British journalist Andrew Jennings, exposes the corruption and power plays at world football’s governing body, Fifa. Jennings’s previous investigation into sport, The Lords of the Rings, led to a radical shake-up of the International Olympic Committee.
Senior Zanu-PF leaders loyal to former parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa allegedly met in November 2004 to plot a parliamentary coup that would have seen Parliament order President Robert Mugabe to resign, the High Court heard on Thursday.
In the brouhaha about the Ministry of Justice’s amendments to the power of the judiciary is one clause that has all but been ignored. Currently, the position is that ”the Constitutional Court … is the highest court in all constitutional matters”. If, as is expected, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is passed later this year, the words ”in all constitutional matters” will be deleted.
Police were called in after a senior army officer apparently told troops in Durban to shoot a group of soldiers if they left a building, a media report said on Friday. The report said this happened on Thursday when a delegation from Group 10, an army unit in Durban, arrived at the army service corps headquarters to remove furniture and equipment.
Pretoria will keep its name for the time being, Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan said on Thursday. South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news quoted him on Friday as saying a number of considerations would have to be weighed up before any decision was taken on changing the name of the capital city to Tshwane.
Mittal Steel South Africa reported headline earnings for the quarter ended March 31 of R684-million — a 21% decline on the previous quarter. The company — formerly Iscor — said this was 57% down on the same period last year. Headline earnings a share for the quarter were 153, down from 195 cents in the previous quarter.
Cerebos, a local investor, has announced a R85-million expansion and relocation project in the Coega Industrial Development Zone in the Eastern Cape’s Nelson Mandela metro. Managing director Len Chandler said on Thursday the expansion meant the company would remain in the metro, retaining and even increasing jobs for the local communities.