The African National Congress National Working Committee is to soon make public its decision on what action will be taken against Members of Parliament who have already been found guilty of defrauding parliament. Eight MPs have plea-bargained in the so-called "Travelgate" scam — involving the misuse of travel vouchers provided to Members of Parliament.
Lawyers representing black economic empowerment company Imvume Management have declined to provide the Democratic Alliance with information regarding its transactions and contract with state oil and gas company PetroSA and Glencore International. This follows a report in the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> on the "Oilgate" scandal.
The HIV/Aids pandemic in Burma is “being fuelled by a mixture of ignorance, denial and lack of government action".
Around 190,000 homes have been destroyed and thousands arrested in the operation to clean up Zimbabwe’s cities and towns, leaving many of those affected unable to find proper shelter or food. uthorities claimed the operation, was aimed at ridding urban areas of informal flea markets and illegal residential shacks and houses, saying they had become a haven for criminal activities.
The Chamber of Mines told the representative unions for the gold mining sector on Tuesday that the sector was experiencing its worst crisis for the past 44 years. Three unions — Solidarity, the National Union of Mineworkers and the United Association of South Africa — have started talks with the chamber regarding wages and other conditions of employment.
South African motor trade sales rose by 23,2% year-on-year in March 2005 to R18 308-billion compared with those for March 2004, Statistics South Africa reported on Tuesday. However, the seasonally adjusted motor trade sales for the first quarter of 2005 decreased by 0,3% compared with the previous quarter.
South Africa’s Cell C said on Tuesday that it has extended its international roaming partnerships to 287 telecommunications operators worldwide. With global roaming, Cell C subscribers will be able to communicate on their cellphones while visiting certain destinations — including Australia, Brazil, India, Lesotho, Nigeria, Spain, the UK and the United States.
Malawian civil society has welcomed tax reforms and subsidies for agricultural inputs in the 2005/06 budget that will ease the burden of small-scale farmers plagued by poor harvests again this year. Unveiling the budget on Friday, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe described the reforms as an attempt to "improve the economic buying power of individual Malawians".
The concept of willing-buyer, willing-seller has been underscored by Minister of Agriculture and Land Thoko Didiza in reply to a question about government’s target of 30% of white agricultural land being redistributed to black farmers by 2015.
At least 40 children were killed on Friday when a flash flood struck a primary school in north-eastern China, hospital sources said. "There are at least 40 children who were sent to hospital to be saved and who did not survive," said a doctor at the hospital in Heilongjiang. A local bank worker said there were "at least 50 or 60 dead".
Stephen Gray points out the piece of literature that he thinks Africa deserves.
Eight contestants slug it out in the game of <i>Survivor</i> to make the island of democracy just a little bit bigger, writes Mike van Graan.
Telkom announced on Thursday that its group executive for regulatory affairs and public policy, Nkenke Kekana, will leave the listed telecommunications group at the end of June to pursue other career opportunities. Kekana was the chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma has been battling for his political life for years, and his supporters believe he still has numerous ways to to take the fight to President Thabo Mbeki, writes <b>Sam Sole</b>. "Schabir Shaik is only the instrument of the attack on Zuma," a close associate of Zuma says.
The question is not really whether Jacob will jump and when. The real question –arising out of the Hillary Squires judgement on MK stalwart Schabir Shaik — is who, or what, will ultimately have to jump with him. Or rather, who will be prepared to do so. The African National Congress, now the seat of power, has long had a shady relationship with the moral imperatives of struggle culture.
It is always gratifying to see big business tightening its belt, and Absa should be praised for its decision not to pay extravagant fees to an advertising agency to handle its "My bank" campaign. Indeed, it has become abundantly clear that Absa has not only economised by eschewing professional copywriters altogether, but has empowered previously marginalised camps by entrusting its re-branding to a band of rhesus monkeys chained to typewriters and supervised by crack addicts.
Jendayi Frazer, the United States ambassador to South Africa, speaks to the <i>Mail and Guardian </i>about the the primary strategic cosiderations driving American policy on Africa and the continent’s prospects for the G8 summit in Gleneagles.
Russian police who smelled something amiss when the owners of a Moscow apartment failed to pay their bills found four mummified corpses and a fridge full of out-of-date food. Investigators established that the bodies were those of four family members, who died at intervals over a five-year period.
At least 30 people have died since interclan fighting broke out on Monday in the town of Beletweyne, south-central Somalia. More than 70 people have been wounded and hundreds more displaced in the violence, now in its fourth day, local sources said on Thursday.
A man who stole two trays of cookies from a bakery in the Cypriot town of Larnaca caused a scare at the nearby airport when he drove on to the runway, forcing aircraft to slam on their brakes, police said on Thursday. The saga began when the man walked out of a bakery on Wednesday with 40 assorted cookies without paying.
Swiss luxury goods group Richemont on Thursday reported a 33% increase in earnings per unit for the year ended March 31 to €1,588, from €1,193 a year ago. In rand terms, basic earnings per depositary receipt amounted to 126 cents — a 25% rise from a year ago and in line with expectations.
It’s official: South African men are bigger talkers than women when it comes to cellphones in their cars. Fifty-seven percent of men interviewed in a major new study admitted to talking on their cellphones while driving, compared with 37% of women.
This week South Africa was caught in the maelstrom of its gravest post-apartheid political crisis. It is a defining moment — what we do now will determine what kind of country future generations of South Africans inhabit. As it grappled with what to do about Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the African National Congress was more publicly split than on any other issue it has faced in government.
An Australian woman has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle 51 tropical fish into Australia concealed under her skirt, customs officials said on Monday. The 43-year-old woman drew the attention of customs officers intrigued by "flipping" noises coming from under her skirt, a customs spokesperson said.
A Las Vegas museum dedicated to the memory and myth of Elvis Presley has launched a worldwide casting call for impersonators of the "King of Rock", organisers said on Monday. Elvis-a-Rama is a sprawling museum that is home to a collection of more than $6-million-worth of Presley memorabilia.
A German court on Tuesday quashed the hopes of a group of naturists who wanted to cycle along the Rhine river wearing nothing more than a smile. The group of 12 naturists was planning to cycle along the Rhine in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg on Saturday as part of what it was dubbing "World Nude Cycling Day".
A German woman was astonished to find deutschemark banknotes and account savings books worth €100 000 (R821 000) tucked in the lining of an old washing basket she bought at a flea market. The woman, from Bavaria, bought the basket for just €7 (R57),
Aflease Gold and Uranium Resources has announced it has signed a milestone black economic empowerment (BEE) deal with a broad-based consortium, with major benefits going to both workers and communities. The empowerment partners will acquire 26% of Aflease’s current exploration and mining activities and prospecting areas in the Klerksdorp region.
Local corporates are joining the international trend to greater use of money-market funds, according to Stanlib, one of the country’s leading providers of cash-management services to business. The global move to money-market funds has been highlighted in a recent United Kingdom survey.
Schabir Shaik’s case links back to the Hefer commission, and goes forward to Deputy President Jacob Zuma. The saga also goes further, to what President Thabo Mbeki should be doing, and this is the story the media should be chasing. All the way. It’s time to get beyond the last-gasp cliché’s like "shaken, rattled and rolled over".
It’s hard to imagine, from our modern vantage point of mass censorship, "Homeland Security" Gestapo-like control, Pentagon-funded war films and propaganda disguised as Hollywood product — but, for a brief moment in the 1970s, film in general was allowed to reflect accurately the distaste and revulsion for the government and the military that seems almost impossible to imagine today.
Cautious buyers and market saturation is contributing to a slowdown at the top end of the residential property market, with houses priced over R2-million staying unsold for longer, First National Bank chief economist Cees Bruggemans said on Tuesday.