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/ 4 February 2005
Polish lawmakers will be paid half their salary if they are "jailed temporarily" but won’t receive their daily parliamentary allowance, the Upper House Senate voted on Thursday. Senators voted 63 in favour and six against an amendment that made a distinction between temporary detention and fully-fledged imprisonment
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/ 4 February 2005
Seven NGOs in Tanzania have formed a coalition to fight female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that is still widespread in the East African country. "Various studies have shown that at least 18% of women in Tanzania are victims of FGM," Hellen Kijo-Bisimba, the coalition’s coordinator, said in Dar es Salaam on Friday.
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/ 4 February 2005
The Cape Town Container Terminal has delivered on its promise to have a total of 2Â 000 "reefer points" — power points for refrigerated containers — in place by the end of January 2005, ahead of the peak season for exports of fruit from the Western Cape.
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/ 4 February 2005
The most devastating prosecution documents handed in at court this week are two affidavits from businessman David Wilson, the former MD of the Renong Overseas Corporation — the Malaysian company that won the rights to develop Durban’s Point Waterfront.
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/ 4 February 2005
The newly appointed national director of public prosecution, Vusi Pikoli, this week spoke out on a number of controversial issues, from the perceived "preferential" treatment of MPs involved in the Travelgate scam to speculation that the Scorpions unit would be moved from the National Prosecuting Authority to the South African Police Service. On Travelgate, he told the <i>M&G</i> the law would take its course
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/ 4 February 2005
In the week that the African National Congress Youth League again endorsed Deputy President Jacob Zuma to succeed President Thabo Mbeki, a raft of new evidence concerning the allegedly corrupt relationship between Zuma and Durban businessman Schabir Shaik emerged at the Shaik trial.
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/ 3 February 2005
The African National Congress says the so-called "Travelgate" probe into the misuse of MPs’ travel vouchers has been carried out in a "vindictive" and "unplanned" manner. But the official opposition Democratic Alliance says the ruling party wants to "smear the Scorpions" and "obscure the culpability" of MPs.
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/ 3 February 2005
The South African rand traded at R6,1675 — its worst level since November 12 last year — early on Thursday afternoon as funds in London unwound long rand positions. Market analysts said the local unit could be in for a nervous time, possibly weakening further when New York enters the fray.
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/ 3 February 2005
The Congress of South African Trade Unions’s eviction from Zimbabwe on Wednesday could be seen as a lighter moment in the dark drama that is the unravelling of democracy in our northern neighbour. The big manne of South Africa’s union movement are Harare-bound in the morning. By mid-afternoon, they’re back, unceremoniously dumped on the next flight to Jo’burg. In the boardrooms of high capital they are treated with far more respect.
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/ 2 February 2005
A dead hedgehog that was at the origin of an airport mishap involving an Air France passenger plane nearly seven years ago has ended up costing the French government more than €3-million (about R23-million) in a court ruling on Tuesday.
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/ 2 February 2005
If your horoscope is looking a bit worrying for the coming Lunar New Year, a Hong Kong company has just the thing to put it right: feng shui underpants. The lucky smalls have been designed by Yeung Tin Ming, a master of the ancient Chinese craft of spirit manipulation, or feng shui, and will ward off evil spirits and bring harmony.
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/ 2 February 2005
The most prestigious unit of Norway’s military, the royal guard, has been outflanked by a wave of gastroenteritis, military officials said on Wednesday. Of the 1 000 or so soldiers tasked among other things with guarding the royal palace, no fewer than 138 were placed in quarantine for five days last week.
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/ 2 February 2005
The official opposition has welcomed the South African Reserve Bank’s announcement that it will be changing the national payments system to create room for increased competition in South African banking. The Democratic Alliance said the move will encourage lower service charges.
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/ 2 February 2005
Shares in media and entertainment group Johnnic Communications (Johncom) soared to a record high on Wednesday on continued speculation that Caxton is to make a bid for the group. By 2.57pm, Johncom shares surged 5,88% or two rand to R36, although only 5Â 000 shares had traded in one deal.
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/ 2 February 2005
There was an impromptu strike at AngloGold Ashanti’s Tautona mine in Carletonville on Tuesday evening, due to problems with a shift boss and the manner in which mine workers’ grievances against him had been handled, the National Union of Mineworkers said on Wednesday.
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/ 2 February 2005
Once again the health minister is at war. This time, in defence of her medicines pricing regulations, she recognises the need to garner public support. Billed as a struggle between the right of access to medicines and corporate greed, the battle for hearts and minds is not letting the facts get in the way. The need for regulation remains undisputed.
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/ 2 February 2005
How to break chopsticks using your buttocks, interesting eBay items for sale, outrageous TV commercials, the new art of airigami, the global strategy of genocide by vaccines, how to speak American, prison penpals, and more … Ian Fraser brings you the weird and wonderful on the world wide web.
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/ 1 February 2005
North Korean leader Kim Jong II will fall in love with United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and lead the world to terror kingpin Osama bin Laden’s lair. Meanwhile, he will kidnap a famous movie director and cast Hong Kong actor Chow Yun Fat in Asia’s own James Bond film.
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/ 1 February 2005
The opening of this year’s session of the South African Parliament by President Thabo Mbeki next week, on Friday February 11, is set to cost about R1,2-million, according to the government news agency BuaNews. It is "to be a spectacular affair, with South Africans from all walks of life expected to grace the event".
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/ 1 February 2005
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, hardened by years of heckling, insults and humiliating bad hair days, had an unusual experience on Monday: a member of the public actually kissed him. "He’s got lips like a baby, they’re very soft," said Jean Peterson (42), as if faintly surprised they were not made of solid British steel.
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/ 31 January 2005
Shoppers at one British supermarket were astonished to find a pony alongside them browsing the shelves, a report said. Customers at a Cardiff branch of Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket chain, were joined by a stray Shetland pony that had escaped its nearby paddock.
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/ 31 January 2005
Ferial Haffajee speaks to François Beukmann, chairperson of the standing committee of public accounts (Scopa). Among the questions she asks is whether or not he would revisit the issue of the arms deal, his reaction to media reports and what Scopa can do to repair the damage of the reputation of the Office of the Auditor General.
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/ 28 January 2005
A coroner’s inquest has accused the Royal Swaziland Police Force of torture and neglect in a case that has highlighted human rights groups’ concerns over the treatment of suspects in custody. Mandla Ngubeni died in June last year after the police interrogated him over the disappearance of R28 000 from his place of employment.
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/ 28 January 2005
Scorpions spokesperson Sipho Ngwema said in a statement on Friday that the 40 MPs implicated in the Travelgate scandal — 27 current and 13 former MPs — will appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on February 18. The names of the MPs — who allegedly used their travel vouchers for illicit purposes — will be disclosed when they appear in court.
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/ 28 January 2005
The Freedom Front Plus, which has waged a parliamentary campaign against retrenchments at Telkom, has congratulated the partly state-owned company and its three trade unions after an agreement was struck to put the redundancy of 4 300 of its workers on the back-burner.
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/ 28 January 2005
Postal workers in the south-eastern French city of Saint Etienne refused to do their rounds on Thursday after they were denied extra pay to cope with the biting winter cold, employees and management said. About 70 of the workers did not deliver mail to homes and businesses.
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/ 28 January 2005
South Africa’s petrol price for all grades will decline by two cents a litre from midnight on Tuesday February 2, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. The wholesale price of diesel 0,3% sulphur will decrease by eight cents per litre and that of diesel 0,05% sulphur by seven cents per litre.
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/ 28 January 2005
Red on the faces of officials and politicians in the departments of defence and arts and culture! And this time, the total onslaught is one of sheer ignorance and incompetence, writes Mike van Graan.
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/ 28 January 2005
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is suffering a haemorrhage of senior staff — including its gung-ho public face, spokesperson Sipho Ngwema, and Travelgate prosecutor Ben Avenant. Ngwema and Avenant are among a rash of senior NPA members who have resigned in the past three months, or plan to do so soon.
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/ 28 January 2005
<i>Presentation: Each board should be clearly marked in the top right hand corner with the entrant’s name, the page number (eg. “pg 1 of 5”) and the category name and number. Entry forms (originals or photocopies thereof), as well as letters of motivation for journalism entries, should be pasted flat on the reverse side of the first page of the entry.</i> Kafka, himself, would have been floored by such foetidity of bureaucratic flatulence.
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/ 28 January 2005
With the backing of regional leaders, Deputy President Jacob Zuma went to play hardball in Burundi this week. Zuma told the country’s transitional President, Domitien Ndayizeye, that there would be no tampering with the interim Constitution before it is tested in a referendum next month. He was at pains throughout his visit to emphasise that he was talking for the regional peace initiative.
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/ 27 January 2005
In just six days, four huge flawless diamonds have been discovered at Lesotho’s Letseng diamond mine high in the Maluti mountains. The four stones together weigh in at 366 carats and mine chief executive Keith Whitelock says he expects them to fetch a minimum of $6-million (R36-million).