The past two or three weeks have been filled with the thrill of discovery. It has taken no more than the reading of a few popular newspapers, the watching of a few local television news broadcasts, the listening to of a few radio talk shows. I now see how easy it is to achieve what so many think is unattainable personal glory and riches, fame and desirability.
This week the <i>M&G</i> throws a harsh spotlight on the growing practice of politicians’ spouses and other immediate family members landing fat government contracts to found and build their private businesses. And on another topic, it can be said that one swallow doesn’t make a summer, and the launch of the African Peace and Security Council this week is only the beginning of the bird’s long migration.
The target of two car bombs that exploded on Wednesday in Karachi, killing at least one person and wounding 17, was a privately run English-language school and not the nearby residence of the United States consul general in the southern Pakistani port city, a US State Department official said.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66939">Car bombs explode in Karachi</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66939">US enters ‘serious threat period'</a>
Two successive car bombs exploded near the residence of the United States consul general in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi on Wednesday, injuring at least 15 people, police said. The second, more powerful, blast occurred as police and security officials were investigating the first explosion.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66939">US enters ‘serious threat period'</a>
The Financial Sector Campaign Coalition said on Wednesday it is disappointed that the signatories of the Financial Sector Charter have failed to engage with the Nedlac community and labour constituencies to finalise its contents or agree on details with regards to its governing structure.
Iraqi interim leaders issued a cry for urgent help from donor countries on Tuesday as aid only trickles through and violence rages ahead of the United States-led coalition’s June 30 deadline for the handover of power. "Iraq needs your help now," interim Planning Minister Mahdi al-Hafidh said.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66870">Shrine damaged in Iraq clashes</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66817">Bush outlines strategy for Iraq</a>
South Africa’s real gross domestic product (GDP) at market prices on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally annualised and adjusted basis rose by 3,1% in the first quarter of 2004 from a 1,3% increase in the fourth quarter of 2004, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday.
As winter approaches, food shortages become more acute in the townships. You might say it is unfortunate we do not suffer from drought or famine: if we did, international agencies would feed people who are now starving. There would be places people could go to get blankets and warm clothing, or to take in children without caregivers.
President Bakili Muluzi’s hand-picked successor was sworn in on Monday as Malawi’s new leader, as opposition supporters waged running street battles with security forces over the result of the impoverished Southern African country’s third multiparty elections.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66760">Rioting in Malawi over election results</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66775">Mixed feelings about president-elect</a>
Overall annual inflation in Zimbabwe declined in April to 505% year-on-year (y/y) from 583,7% y/y in March, with all sub-categories of the inflation index registering a decrease, Standard Bank noted in a research brief. "We expect annual inflation rates will continue to decline but will later revert to a rising trend," said Standard Bank economist Robert Bunyi.
Big brewer SABMiller on Monday launched its offer document for China’s Harbin Brewery and urged the company’s shareholders to accept its offer of HK$4,30 per share. SABMiller’s offer of HK$4,30 per share values Harbin Brewery shares higher than any closing price of the shares since its initial public offering.
What is wrong with the Moroccans and the Egyptians? You feel like just banging their heads together, because they let the soccer World Cup of 2010 slip through their fingers without a fight. No doubt, with their effete, Anglo-Francophone colonial backgrounds, they thought that this was supposed to be a gentlemanly contest. They didn’t reckon with the innate tsotsi culture of South Africans, where gentlemanliness doesn’t come into it.
The South African government will by July launch the Batho Pele Gateway portal which will provide streamlined government services online, says South African President Thabo Mbeki. In his state of the nation address to the newly elected Parliament on Friday, Mbeki said these would be available through public information terminals in post offices and multi-purpose community centres.
"Gerhard Badenhorst argues in the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> (‘A complete misreading’) that the demand for the abolition of value-added tax (VAT) on books will not promote literacy in South Africa. I beg to differ. The demand is consistent with the strategies of social and educational NGOs." Ebrahim Suliman exercises his right to reply.
Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo is at pains this week to create the image of a "take-charge guy". He has sacked Joshua Dariye, the elected governor of Plateau state in the centre of the country, and replaced him with retired general Chris Ali. And he has visited the state to go toe-to-toe with his detractors, who have called him weak on the issue of the Christian versus Muslim violence.
I’m always wary of public endeavour that in some way or other proposes a betterment of the human race. In my previously unenlightened state of a few years ago, I would have written the latter phrase in that sentence as “an improvement of mankind” and thus set the feminists to agitated clucking. Nowadays I carefully avoid using words like “mankind” because the approved replacements for the word “man” are usually so ludicrous.
Over the past 12 months, "jobs" has surpassed "sex" as the most-searched word on South African internet search engine Ananzi. However, in April the most searched word was "IEC", according to an Ananzi statement on Wednesday.
South African clothing retailer Truworths International said on Thursday that all the conditions precedent, including the unconditional approval of the Competition Commission, for the acquisition of a controlling interest by the company in the Young Designers Emporium (YDE) fashion chain have now been met.
The Competition Tribunal is expected to hear two large mergers next week between three cement manufacturers — Alpha, listed cement company PCC and Lafarge — and a proposed transaction involving investment holding company Venfin Limited and development and design company Intervid Limited.
International ratings agency Moody’s said on Wednesday that South Africa’s Baa2 foreign currency rating and positive outlook reflect the government’s efforts to build on the political and economic achievements of the first post-apartheid decade.
Let’s get something straight on the mercenary mess. The (alleged) bad guys are in Chikurubi prison in Zimbabwe and in Equatorial Guinea, not in the Union Buildings in Pretoria. In the concern, the cacophony and the clamour of the past fortnight, the government is now being blamed for the 70 South Africans holed up in Zimbabwe and the seven in Equatorial Guinea.
International ratings agency Moody’s said on Wednesday that South Africa’s Baa2 foreign currency rating and positive outlook reflect the government’s efforts to build on the political and economic achievements of the first post-apartheid decade.
The Israeli army killed at least 14 Palestinians in Rafah on Wednesday — most of them in a deadly missile strike at a crowd — on the second day of a large-scale offensive in a southern Gaza Strip city. At least 10 people were killed when Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a group of Palestinians.
Results of a survey conducted by the International Telecommunication Union on the perceived importance of agreed-upon targets for improving connectivity and access in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) show overwhelmingly that cyberspace should be a shared resource.
The recent videotaped beheading of a United States "contractor" in Iraq appears to have been nothing more than an act of psy-ops digital snuff porn. Despite appearances of it being just a simple act of video barbarism by "terrorists", there are many questions about this incident that the mass media aren’t asking. Ian Fraser asks the questions.
A delegation from China’s ruling Communist Party on Tuesday held talks with President Robert Mugabe on increasing trade and economic cooperation and closer political ties, state media said. "We discussed ideas of extending cooperation to a new stage," said Cao Bochun, the leader of the visiting delegation.
The South African PC market experienced a 56,5% year-on-year growth in units while it increased by 56,6% in value, BMI-TechKnowledge said on Tuesday in its latest PC quarterly update research report. In the first quarter in 2004, sales of desktops increased by 51,9% compared with the first quarter of 2003.
South African chemical and synthetic fuels group Sasol on Tuesday named Eyesizwe Coal, the largest black-owned, -controlled, -operated and -managed coal-mining company in South Africa, as its lead black economic empowerment mining partner. Eyesizwe’s total coal production is approximately 25-million tons a year.
Zimbabwe’s overall annual inflation shed 78,7% easing to 505% year-on-year (y/y) in April from 583,7% y/y in March, Standard Bank said in a research brief on Monday, attributing the lowering of inflation to the administrative measures in the recent past.
Delays and intransigence in the Great Lakes are threatening the delicate mediation achievements of South Africa in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Presidents Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Domitien Ndayizeye of Burundi met in Dar es Salaam last weekend to talk about putting the Burundi peace process back on track.
The United States and its allies condemned Monday’s killing of the Iraqi governing council head as an act of terror aimed at sowing more instability but vowed it would not derail next month’s power transfer. Ezzedine Salim, the highest-ranking Iraqi to be killed during the US-led occupation, was blown up in a bomb attack along with nine others.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66461">Deadly nerve gas round explodes in Iraq</a>
Conservation officials have "reluctantly" resumed shooting Himalayan tahr on Table Mountain as part of a programme to reintroduce klipspringer and other indigenous buck there. This follows last month’s dismissal of a court challenge by the Friends of the Tahr organisation, which tried to stall efforts to get rid of the animals.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66449">’No ethical clearance’ for tahr killings</a>