African ICT market analysts BMI-TechKnowledge has released the results from their latest research, entitled Top 350 Telecoms Spenders. The report shows that close to 50% of the 350 indicated they would consider switching some of their telecoms business to the second national operator should the service offerings be competitive.
It was quite a week for Justin Nurse. The 27-year-old ”David” and his company, Laugh It Off, appeared in the Constitutional Court.
The Commission for Africa on Friday called for rich countries to dismantle barriers against African goods, particularly in agriculture, and for trade-distorting agricultural subsidies to be abolished. The commission also said in its report that the developed world must support the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development.
The first constitutional challenge to new health laws left dispensing doctors and the Department of Health each notching up a partial victory on Friday. The Constitutional Court said regulations that force doctors to get licences to dispense drugs are not unconstitutional, but sections that tried to limit the number of pharmacies in an area were declared ultra vires and invalid.
An agreement was reached between the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Musina local municipality in the Pretoria High Court on Friday for Cosatu to increase the number of picketers on the Zimbabwe border to 500. The other limitations imposed by the municipality still stand, the court ruled.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was weaker just before noon on Friday due to selling in resources heavyweights BHP Billiton and Anglo American out of London. Lack of interest from local players contributed to the market’s weakness, dealers said. By 11.52am, the all-share index shed 0,54%.
In 1919, the Chicago White Sox contrived to deliberately lose the baseball World Series, producing a gambling scandal of epic proportions and one of the most enduring lines about America’s favourite sport: ”Say it ain’t so, Joe.” The lament, was back in circulation this week as the world of professional baseball confronted its latest demon: the use of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs.
Action by Churches Together appealed this week for more than ,2-million to fund projects aimed at alleviating food and water shortages in Eritrea, caused by four years of drought. Scarce rainfall has resulted in another poor harvest, and food reserves have been depleted and the coping mechanisms of the population are stretched to the limit, said a statement.
Certain limitations on a Congress of South African Trade Union picket on the Zimbabwe border were arbitrary and unreasonable, Cosatu argued in papers before the Pretoria High Court on Friday. Cosatu is bringing an urgent application to contest an official decision to limit the number of picketers to 200.
The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, launched a fierce attack on Britain and the United States on Thursday for weakening human rights in the name of the war on terror. ”We cannot compromise on core values,” he said in Madrid on the first anniversary of the train bombings that killed 191 people in the Spanish capital.