The duopoly telecoms providers in Uganda, South Africa’s MTN and Uganda Telecom, have opposed the Ugandan government’s plan to open up the telecoms market to competition. The two providers say opening up the telecoms market would not be in the interests of the country.
One Israeli woman has received an unexpected boost from her breast implants during the Lebanon war — the silicone embeds saved her life during a Hezbollah rocket attack, a doctor said on Tuesday. "It’s a fact that the silicone implants prevented her from a more serious and deeper wound," Jacky Govrin, of the hospital in Nahariya that treated the woman, told army radio.
South African petrochemicals group Sasol on Tuesday argued that a windfall tax on the company would not achieve sustainably lower fuel prices but would "hamstring a South African company against its multinational competitors". The group was presenting oral evidence to a special task team appointed by the National Treasury.
The presidents of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique will on Wednesday open a new border crossing to link a giant transnational game park. South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki will join Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe and Mozambican President Armando Guebuza to "officially open the Giriyondo border post in Limpopo", the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.
The Department of Minerals and Energy could implement a retail petrol-price cut of 32c per litre (c/l) on September 6 2006, provided the daily over-recovery remains at or above the August 14 level. South Africa’s daily unleaded petrol-price over-recovery soared to 51,158 c/l on August 14 from only 21,136 c/l on August 9.
United States beverages giant PepsiCo on Monday named company high-flier Indra Nooyi as its new boss, capping a rapid rise to the highest ranks of corporate America for the Indian-born woman. Nooyi will join an exclusive list of women CEOs heading top US companies.
Comprehensive legislation that would prevent child criminals from mixing with adult offenders and provide rehabilitation alternatives remains unenacted nearly three years after its preparation. The Child Justice Bill has seemingly dropped off Parliament’s schedule, child-rights organisations say.
Congratulations to the Teacher on walking for 10 years now — this is a baby that grew up fast! We need papers like yours if education is to play the central role that it should in South Africa’s growth and development. You not only cast a critical eye on the shortcomings and problems in our schools and other institutions, but you stimulate a debate about what should be done.
Government didn’t need to look very far to appoint a new chief executive for the National Credit Regulator (NCR). As head of the former Microfinance Regulatory Council, now the NCR, Gabriel Davel has been regulating credit providers since 2000, and is a chartered accountant who chose to specialise in financial regulation and development finance.
The Grahamstown National Arts Festival earlier this month celebrated South Africa’s wealth of artistic talent. As part of our 10th birthday, we name the choreographers who have set the arts alive.
A<i> Mail & Guardian</i> investigation has thrown light on a number of lesser-known members of Jacob Zuma’s inner circle.
Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana has appointed advocate Edwin Molahlehi, former Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration director, as the chairperson of the Essential Services Committee. The essential services refer to those services the interruption of which endangers life, personal safety or health.
Shoprite on Monday condemned "in the strongest terms" incidents of violence and vandalism allegedly involving striking members of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union at some of its stores in the Eastern and Western Cape over the last 48 hours.
Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin "must apologise publicly" for misleading the South African public about sabotage at Koeberg power station, says the official opposition Democratic Alliance. Minerals and energy spokesperson Hendrik Schmidt said in a statement on Monday that this week he would introduce a motion in Parliament to censure Erwin "for this gross lack of discretion".
The Beijing Olympics will lead to a boom in sales of flat-screen televisions in China, with one in four televisions sold in 2008 either a liquid-crystal display (LCD) or plasma, a Japanese study said on Monday. Only 10% of the 42-million colour televisions sold in China last year was an LCD or plasma, said a study by the economic research firm Fuji Keizai.
SABMiller on Monday announced the completion of the acquisition of the Sparks and Steel Reserve brands from United States contract brewing partner McKenzie River Corporation. Following approval from US antitrust authorities, SABMiller assumes ownership of the brands and related trademarks for the caffeinated malt beverage franchise Sparks and leading high-gravity lager Steel Reserve.
The circulation of consumer magazines shot up by 40 percent between July 2005 and June 2006, with five new titles launching in the first half of this year, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) results released on Friday.<
For a monk the late Father Trevor Huddleston certainly seems to have sown a lot of wild oats in his early days. He might not have left his physical resemblance lying around the African continent, like many missionary forbears, but he sure left a lot of mothers certain that they did not want their first-born sons named after anyone but him. That, and the good works he left behind, are part of his huge legacy.
As officials sweat over auditing the results of the presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the politicians stay on familiar, albeit treacherous ground. They share the curious quality of public representatives who, until July 30, had never faced an electorate. But this does not make them any less adroit than more conventional politicians at the bluff and double bluff of building coalitions.
The Beijing city government has turned down an undertaker’s application to send human ashes into space, state media said Friday. A funeral home’s proposal to charge 100Â 000 yuan ($12Â 500) each for sending two clients’ ashes into space was turned down on the grounds that there was no law regulating space burials, Xinhua news agency reported.
Czech police detained a journalist who tried to test out airport security at a regional airport on Friday, police spokesperson Roman Pittner said. "In the current situation we judge this as stupid," Pittner said, referring to the foiled terrorist attempt to bomb aircraft leaving London’s Heathrow airport.
A windfall fuel tax won’t benefit motorists — or Sasol, according to the petrochemicals group in its submission to the National Treasury task team appointed to assess possible reforms to the fiscal regime applicable to windfall profits in South Africa’s liquid-fuel energy sector.
Silumko Nondwangu, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, has emerged as a strong candidate to challenge the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, at the federation’s conference next month. The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> understands some union leaders are pushing for Nondwangu to stand against Vavi.
The president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, Cardinal Wilfred Napier, offered to pay for psychological therapy for a woman allegedly raped by a Catholic priest when she was a child. There was a sting in the tail, however. If she accepted, she would forfeit her right to make any future claims against the church.
<b>MOVIE MONTHLY:</b> Along with summer, things are hotting up at the cinema this month: Matt Damon’s back in the sequel to the <i>Bourne Identity</i> — another thriller that’s bound to keep you on the edge of your seat. Tom Cruise indulges in some risky business as a hit man in <i>Collateral</i>, and Julie-Anne Moore delivers a memorable performance in <i>The Forgotten</i>.
There are those who refer to the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, as the United States President, George Bush’s poodle. When you reflect on how faithfully Blair obeys the regular choke-chain training he’s received from the White House, it’s not hard to understand why he’s seen as a submissive dog. But why drag in the fine poodle breed?
Sephiwe Shabange (22) sat patiently with four other men in a busy clinic in Mbabane, Swaziland. They were surprisingly calm considering they were there to be circumcised. “I do this to reduce the chance of getting HIV/Aids,” he said.
"IBM Corporation today announced its smallest, lowest-priced computer system — the IBM Personal Computer," ran the press release 25 years ago. "Designed for business, school and home, the easy-to-use system sells for as little as $1 565. It offers many advanced features and, with optional software, may use hundreds of popular application programs."
Any excuse for a jol and a South African will be there. Women’s Day is following suit. There were fashion shows, concerts, club nights with female DJs, you name it. Soon we will have kitsch cards, balloons and discounts for restaurant chains. That’s fine — it means the day is being institutionalised. But what we should not forget is that the day is one on which to mark progress on the woman’s road to equality and freedom.
Over the past 12 years we have, as a nation, made quantitative and qualitative advances towards a truly democratic and non-patriarchal society. South African women constitute 41% of the Cabinet, 50% of the Presidency, 33% of the National Assembly (women also serve as the speaker and deputy speaker of that body) and 44% of premiers.
United Kingdom police on Thursday foiled a plot to blow up aircraft in mid-flight between Britain and the United States, and were holding 21 people after overnight raids, senior officers said. Unconfirmed media reports said anywhere from six to 10 US commercial airliners had been targeted in the plot, which police said had "global dimensions".
Life assurance and financial services group Liberty on Thursday reported a 34% leap in headline earnings per share from 303,4 cents to 407,2 cents for the six months to the end of June. The group declared an interim dividend per share of 140 cents compared with 126 cents for the previous comparative period.