There was an eerie sense of whistling in the dark about Comoran President Azali Assoumani’s remarks after casting his ballot in Moroni on Sunday. "We are in the last stage of the process of stabilising the Comoros," he said before retiring to his residence on Grande Comoros to wait for the worst.
"To vote or not to vote in 2005 — that is the dilemma facing many Zimbabweans. While others ponder, as do many political parties, here are six reasons why I will not vote next year if Zimbabwe does not have a new Constitution, " writes Everjoice J Win, a Zimbabwean women’s rights activist.
Thousands of people were believed killed or injured on Thursday when two trains carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas collided and exploded in a North Korean train station, hours after leader Kim Jong Il passed through on his return from a China visit, South Korean news media reported.
The African National Congress on Thursday rejected suggestions the party is behind moves to evict journalists from their offices in the parliamentary precincts. Vienna-based International Press Institute director Johann Fritz on Wednesday suggested the "size of the ANC’s majority means it no longer needs to worry about the media".
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=34512">’Media need proper access'</a>
In the first two months of 2004 the rate of CPIX inflation has risen moderately but remains well within the target range of 3% to 6%, South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Tito Mboweni said on Thursday, speaking at the conclusion of a two-day monetary policy committee meeting at which interest rates were left unchanged.
Efforts to strengthen Madagascar’s fragile economy were expected to suffer a setback following the destruction of export crops by Cyclone Gafilo, the Economist Intelligence Unit reported on Wednesday. The cyclone ripped through the giant Indian Ocean island last month with wind speeds of up to 300kph.
The Competition Tribunal will hear two proposed large mergers next Wednesday. The first involves Kagiso Financial Services acquiring Infrastructure Finance Corporation, and the second case involves a merger between two United States companies with operations in South Africa.
Nedbank has announced the launch of Nedbank Pay per K, a unique car insurance product where monthly premiums are determined largely on kilometres travelled. "We recognise that the less one drives, the less the risk," says Seamus Casserly, head of Nedbank Group Insurance Brokers.
A black economic empowerment (BEE) consortium led by Tiso is to acquire a 25,1% interest in South African explosives and chemicals group AECI’s South African explosives operations for approximately R401-million in cash, it was announced on Wednesday.
"Namibia is a country that gets its visitors reaching for their superlatives. For South Africans it has always been a frontier country: someplace we know but don’t understand." Big cats, the desert and cold beer were among the drawcards for Jean-Jacques Cornish on a fact-finding mission to Namibia.
The Office of the Ombudsman for Short-term Insurance saw an upward trend in complaints received from consumers in 2003, with complaints increasing by 34% over the 12-month period. Motor claims continue to dominate complaints at 64% followed by complaints relating to household contents and house structures.
The number of women in the new South African Parliament is set to increase from 120 to 131, a 10% increase, according to calculations by Gender Links. With a national assembly of 400 seats, this will result in an overall proportion of 32,8% women in Parliament compared to 30% in 1999.
A gay clergyman who declined a bishop’s post after an outcry from Anglican conservatives has been appointed dean of a Church of England cathedral, the British government said on Monday. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office said Queen Elizabeth II had approved Canon Jeffrey John as Dean of St Albans cathedral.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=34312">Africa’s answer to ‘homosexual problem'</a>
Listed transport group Putco late on Friday announced a restructuring in which it will sell its bus fleet to subsidiary Putco Services, repurchase its shares, issue new shares and raise funds in order to introduce more than 50% black equity shareholding to the group.
Investment wealth creation and accumulation remains a long-term game, despite new products and services offered by asset managers, says Investment Solutions head of manager research Geoff Blount. "Investors need to keep abreast of market trends and changes to avoid making unnecessary investment blunders," he says.
Language tends to get mangled when it is put in the mouths of politicians. Apart from unravelling all the pre-election razzmatazz as it has appeared in carefully worked out posters dangling from every telephone pole and lamp-post in the land, the ordinary man/ woman/hermaphrodite in the street has had to work out what politicians across the globe are really trying to say when they speak off the cuff, or even when they stick to carefully spin-doctored speeches. In fact even in their awkward body language.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The Inkatha Freedom Party will contest the results of the election after the Independent Electoral Commission failed to investigate 42 complaints of violence and intimidation lodged by the party, and declared the poll free and fair. The party claims that irregularities occurred in both national and provincial elections, but mainly in its stronghold of KwaZulu-Natal.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=34319">It’s official: ANC takes all provinces</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=34320">Old prejudices now raise a laugh</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=34307">Mbeki: There is life after elections</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
Unions and Harmony management have agreed to save jobs and to avoid the closure of shafts earmarked for closure, says National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)general secretary Gwede Mantashe. This was as a result of talks on Friday between the gold miner, NUM, Solidarity and UASA.
Seven people were killed, three injured and up to 150Â 000 evacuated after large amounts of toxic chlorine gas leaked from a factory in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality on Friday, state media said. Several explosions were also reported. The highly irritating, greenish-yellow gas began leaking from the plant on Thursday evening.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Of the many things puzzling the army of 200 African observers to South Africa’s third democratic election, the most exasperating is why the media of this country complain about it being boring. Without exception, the politicians, officials, academics and clerics from at least 25 African countries would give their eye teeth for a little of the ordinariness from which South Africa is apparently suffering.
Finally the elections are over and workers and the poor have given a clear mandate to the African National Congress government: they want much stronger efforts to address unemployment, HIV and Aids, inequality, corruption, crime and homelessness. The poor who voted ANC must power the contract to create jobs and end poverty, writes Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
It is always disheartening to see how hypocrisy feeds on itself. The recent emotionally gaudy displays of retrospective anguish over the 1994 Rwanda massacres are an indication of how deeply cynical has become the discourse of inter-national politics.
"With a local currency stable at R6,30 to R6,50 to the United States dollar, even with the dollar prices of gold and other major resources mined in South Africa as high as they are, it is not surprising that renewed signs of producer distress are emerging. This is particularly so for the more marginal operations." AngloGold’s Alan Fine argues for an appropriately priced currency.
The customary bunch of election observers stayed away from South Africa’s third democratic poll, giving it a clean bill of health before the citizens went to vote. But even as President Thabo Mbeki was proudly making his "look ma, no hands" acknowledgement of this good housekeeping seal of approval from the United Nations, the European Union and the Commonwealth, Africa’s most populous country was demonstrating what a delicate bloom democracy is.
The disarmament process in Liberia has hit a snag just days before it was due to resume. The rebel groups about to turn in their weapons are saying they want their fighters to be trained in useful skills before being returned to society. The United Nations maintains, however, that the rebels will be cantoned for a relatively short period.
The first of three Russian planes evacuating former Soviet citizens returning home after a spate of hostage takings in Iraq took off from Baghdad on Thursday with 158 civilians on board, officials said. Hundreds of Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians were expected to leave on Thursday and Friday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=34165">Annan adviser attacks US occupation</a>
"What the third democratic election has emphatically indicated is that the country is well on its way to being a mature democracy. The fact that, when we compare the electoral process from 1994 up to now, things are generally getting better, says volumes about the country, voters, political parties, politicians, civil society and many other sectors of society." Thabisi Hoeane reflects on the 2004 elections.
The rand shrugged off South Africa’s third democratic election on Wednesday and was flow-driven in a choppy, illiquid market. A trader said that while the market was obviously watching the elections, these were proceeding smoothly and there had been no news out to move the rand either way.
There “would be no global Aids pandemic were it not for multiple sexual partnerships”, according to an article published recently.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Tensions between the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance flared on Wednesday morning, with accusations that the official opposition workers had placed DA stamps and stickers in a number of identity books.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>In May 1994, a month after being sworn in as the ruling party, the African National Congress drew up a national health plan, with technical assistance from the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund. The ANC called for the development and implementation of an effective HIV/Aids strategy by the end of 1995. Only now, a decade later, is a comprehensive treatment plan being rolled out.
United States President George Bush on Wednesday night declared he was ready to send more US troops to Iraq "to finish the work of the fallen" in accomplishing the transition to democratic self-rule. Bush conceded the US had suffered some "tough weeks" in Iraq but rejected comparisons with the Vietnam War.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=34125">US ‘drops demand for Falluja killers'</a>