Gerhard Zandberg kept South Africa’s fast-lane medal hunt on course with his 50m backstroke heats effort, coupled with fine performances by Melissa Corfe, Suzaan van Biljon and William Diering, at the Fina World Short-Course Swimming Championships in Manchester on Friday.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi on Friday accused President Thabo Mbeki’s government of deliberately seeking to emasculate the African National Congress. A new style of political leadership is required, he told the National Union of Metalworkers in the Eastern Cape.
Zimbabwe raised doubts on Friday over whether President Robert Mugabe would attend an emergency regional summit on the weekend to discuss deepening concern over a post-election deadlock in the country. Officials had earlier said Mugabe was expected to attend the Lusaka summit on Saturday of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community.
American Airlines has cancelled about 570 flights scheduled for Friday, raising to more than 3 000 the number this week it has grounded to reinspect the wiring on its MD-80 fleet for a second time. The disruption has affected more than 300 000 passengers, including Friday’s schedule cuts.
The African National Congress Youth League spent a massive R17-million on its national conference in Mangaung in the Free State. After the conference was aborted inconclusively, this money is now wasted. Two league leaders have said the money came from donors including the ANC, Tokyo Sexwale and Patrice Motsepe.
The African National Congress (ANC) on Thursday called on the Competition Commission to intensify its investigations into the causes of high food prices. A spokesperson said all stakeholders in food prices should convene an urgent meeting to discuss ways of minimising the effect of high food prices on the poor.
A security guard accused of murdering Pretoria dancer Estée van Rensburg appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, wearing shackles around his ankles. State prosecutor Lucas Choma told the court the investigation against Aaron Mashishi (25) was almost complete.
American Airlines cancelled 1 094 flights, or nearly half its schedule, on Wednesday to reinspect aircraft, a disruption that affected about 100 000 passengers and triggered chaos at the busiest United States airports. The airline said it also expected more than 900 cancellations on Thursday.
The United States mortgage crisis has spiralled into ”the largest financial shock since the Great Depression” and there is a one-in-four chance that it will cause a full-blown global recession, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Wednesday.
President Thabo Mbeki’s policy of ”quiet diplomacy” on Zimbabwe has been rejected by his own party. The split between the Union Buildings and Luthuli House on the issue became apparent this week when Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai chose to meet Jacob Zuma and Gwede Mantashe in Johannesburg.