Members of Parliament who represent constituencies outside Harare are raking in millions of Zimbabwean dollars every month from transport and accommodation allowances, despite staying in the capital most of the time they are attending parliamentary sessions, investigations by the <i>Zimbabwe Independent</i> have revealed.
A packet of chips and an empty two-litre bottle of Sprite in a plastic bag are still there. This is the site where Johannesburg’s most famous unknown man was found two weeks ago, the morning after paramedics refused to put him in their ambulance because he was too dirty, stinking and flea-ridden. Anonymity has replaced humanity on the streets of Johannesburg.
The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa moved further into uncharted territory on Friday as money continued to follow into local equities. A turnaround in European markets added to the positivity. By 11.55am, the all share and all share industrial indices were up 0.74% and 0.86% respectively. Resources rose 1.05%, the platinum mining index jumped 1.83% and the gold mining index gained 0.48%.
There is a factor of the Iraq war that somehow has faded into the background. What has happened to those brave gents and ladies who, when the United States and British forces were about to bomb Baghdad, dispatched themselves there as human shields? As they prepared themselves for their mission they got a lot of publicity, on television and in the papers.
The trial of Schabir Shaik will put to the test not just him and Deputy President Jacob Zuma — but a groundswell of opinion in the African National Congress and its alliance partners that Zuma should be the country’s next president. The Gauteng ANC last week opened the debate about the presidential succession within the ANC, insisting that the matter should be raised long before the 2007 ANC conference.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard is on course to win a fourth victory in the general election this Saturday. Most opinion polls indicate that the results will be close, but Howard is firming up as the favourite. His opponent, Australian Labour Party (ALP) leader Mark Latham, needs to win 12 seats in the lower house of Parliament to gain government.
Opposition and donors have heaped praise on Malawi’s President Bingu Mutharika for the way in which he runs the government, but his leadership has irked a group in his ruling United Democratic Front who have held secret meetings to plan a demonstration at his Lilongwe state house. Mutharika, who succeeded Bakili Muluzi after the controversial May elections, has vowed to prosecute corrupt officials.
In a touching display of muscular singing and rhythmic dancing on stick-like legs with the aid of crutches, the handicapped adults of Theis in Senegal are drumming up their own style of social mobilisation campaign, calling on people not to let their children end up in wheelchairs and be crippled by polio like them. Joining the chorus from mosques and minarets, the word has gone out across 23 sub-Saharan African countries.
The construction industry has set itself the task of drafting a black economic empowerment charter — amid sharp differences over ownership targets and skills development. Mike Wylie, co-chairperson of the charter work group, told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> last week that the sector should not be trapped by a "fixation on ownership".
Heterosexual men need to take more responsibility for trying to stop the spread of HIV/Aids in Southern Africa, according to regional health experts. At a workshop held in Swaziland’s capital, Mbabane, on Thursday, health workers, government officials and Aids activists called on men across the region to assume a greater role in tackling the disease. At 38,6%, Swaziland has the one of world’s highest rates of HIV infection.