South Africa

Pretoria - The Film and Publication Board (FPB) has given the portrait by Brett Murray, which depicted President Jacob Zuma in a denigrating manner, a 16N rating.

Pretoria - South Africa has seen an overall decrease in serious crime from approximately 3 800 to approximately 3 600 per 100 000 of the population between 2010 and 2011.

Pretoria - South Africa will become the first African country to host the coveted Basketball without Borders NBA programme.

Pretoria - South Africa's power supply is expected to be tight over the next few weeks, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba says.

Pretoria - Government is in the process of finalising consultations on women empowerment and gender equality policy in preparation for the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill.

Pretoria - Corporates have been urged to invest in The President's Award for Youth Empowerment to ensure that the benefits received by the young people being reached by this initiative, continue.

Johannesburg - Government on Friday unveiled a plan that authorities hope will turn the country's major cities into sustainable economic hubs.

Pretoria - The West African Cable System (WACS), which is geared towards improving bandwidth connectivity and intra-country trade, among other things, was formally launched on Friday.

Pretoria - The Defence Review Committee, appointed by Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu last year to look into updating the policy of the South African National Defence Force, on Thursday handed over a Draft Defence Review report to the minister.

Pretoria - An HIV testing campaign, targeting first-year students at universities across the country, has spread its message of awareness to young South Africans, with 21 000 students tested since the campaign started four months ago.

Cape Town - Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said the country's fiscus was losing billions of rands under the guise of commercial transactions.

Pretoria - The backlog of maintenance at power stations should be resolved at the end of 2013, with the first unit of the Medupi power station expected to come on board in the same year, Eskom said on Friday.

Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has appointed nine commissioners to the Commission for Gender Equality.

Pretoria - The Presidency has spoken out on "unfounded allegations about President Jacob Zuma's so-called relationship with Lt-Gen Richard Mdluli" of the South African Police Service (SAPS).

Pretoria - Government, labour and farmers are united in supporting a programme to fast-track the implementation of fair labour practices on wine farms.