Democratic challenger John Kerry won the first televised presidential debate against Republican President George Bush late on Thursday, according to instant polls. A Gallup poll for CNN gave Kerry a 46% to 37% win over the president. It added that 46% of those asked now have a better opinion of Kerry against 21% for Bush.
An alleged kingpin in the network that helped states acquire illicit nuclear technology has left a trail of footprints in South Africa, and a Pandora’s box of proliferation secrets has been opened. The Regional Court in Vanderbijlpark on Tuesday denied bail to two South African residents who had allegedly manufactured part of a uranium-enrichment plant destined for Libya.
Two years after throwing his weight, credibility and, some say, money behind a noble cause, Patrice Motsepe’s endeavour to revive the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) seems to have been largely fruitless. As Nafcoc prepares to elect office-bearers for a new term in less than three weeks, the organisation is plagued with infighting.
An ”egregious carpetbagger” is a sobriquet coined by Ken Owen, former editor of the Sunday Times, which he applied with some enthusiasm to Ronald Suresh Roberts, former authorised biographer of Nadine Gordimer. I hope Owen will forgive my borrowing his words to describe the BBC World’s television interviewer, Tim Sebastian, for if ever there was a carpetbagger it is he.
South Africa’s Indian community is being fed with images of Bollywood and homeland culture that are way off the mark, argues Dr. Jyoti Mistry. To grab the potential of this niche, research and hard facts are desperately needed.
Americans won’t have much to go on when it comes to casting their ballots in November, unless of course you count the revelation that John Kerry once rescued his daughters’ drowning hamster. Sean Jacobs considers the triviality of U.S. presidential race coverage.
The African National Congress’s powerful Gauteng provincial structures have insisted on starting the debate about who should be the next president of the organisation — and South Africa — seemingly in an effort to prevent the succession of Deputy President Jacob Zuma to the top spot after President Thabo Mbeki steps down.
The success of Barclays’s R20-billion-plus bid for control of Absa may hinge on which tool the government trusts to crack open the cosy oligopoly of the big four banks. Any transaction that results in control of a bank changing hands — whether to a local or a foreign buyer — requires regulatory approval. Several analysts suggest that the lack of competition will be a key factor in Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s decision on the deal.
While the militias and government troops battle it out in Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s premier oil-producing city, an uneasy peace has descended on its twin sister in the west. For eight years the city of Warri in Delta State was convulsed by violence far worse than that in Port Harcourt today. At the height of the crisis, tens of thousands of people were displaced and thousands died.
Trade unionists and industry heavyweights have poured cold water on a claim by a leading South African economist that South Africa is entering a "golden era" of rising employment. Michael Schussler, the CE at T-Sec, said that, for the first time since 1982, the country was enjoying "massive employment growth at 1 400% quicker than America’s monthly employment growth".