Allegations that sport ministry staff trashed a luxury hotel suite booked in the name of President Jacob Zuma at an awards ceremony at Sun City last week are “entirely false”, a spokesperson for Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula said on Sunday.

Read the rest of the article here. (via The Mail and Guardian)

Ministers, MPs, magistrates, the president, premiers, judges, and traditional leaders have been granted a humble 5% salary increase, almost making those public servants (6.8%) look greedy.

But then again, they get paid a bit more. There are even plans link the top dogs’ pay to performance in future, CARIEN DU PLESSIS reports.

Read the full story here (via The Daily Maverick)

The Jewish community can help the country to deal with the high unemployment rate, deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe said on Saturday.

“I believe that the South African Jewish board of deputies is well positioned to help us answer some of these challenges because of the skills, knowledge and influence your members wields as significant role players in the South African economy,” he said at the South African Jewish Board conference in Johannesburg.

Read the full story here (via IOL)

There is an open revolt in the ruling party over this week’s Waterloo disciplinary hearing against ANC Youth League president Julius Malema.

City Press is in possession of audio material in which senior Limpopo ANC leaders aligned to Malema can be heard urging league members to revolt against the ANC leadership for bringing misconduct charges against him.

Read the full story here (via News24)

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, has blamed the Government’s weak tax laws for the fact it pays just £8m of corporation tax in Britain despite making more than £6bn in revenues in this country.

However, Mr Schmidt told the Edinburgh Television Festival yesterday that Google “loves” Britain and would pay more tax if it were legally required to do so. He said the company’s hands were tied by Britain’s low tax demands.

Read the full story here (via The Telegraph)

Voters in Singapore went to the polls Saturday in a presidential election seen as a referendum on the popularity of the Southeast Asian city-state’s ruling party.

The presidency is largely a ceremonial position in Singapore’s parliamentary government, but the election attracted four candidates, the most since Singapore began choosing its president by popular vote in 1993.

Read the full story here (via NPR)

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann claims the U.S. has more energy resources than any other country but isn’t exploiting them because of radical environmentalists.

Bachmann says with shale oil, natural gas and coal, the United States shouldn’t be “begging” others for oil and energy supplies.

Read the full story here (via The Huffington Post)

Julius Malema is being isolated because he advocates economic freedom for African people and nationalisation of mines, the African National Congress Youth League’s (ANCYL) KwaZulu-Natal chairperson said on Saturday.

“All these investigations are not coincidental. He is isolated so that he can be silenced,” provincial chairperson Mthandeni Dlungwana said. Dlungwana was speaking after closure of the ANCYL provincial executive committee’s two-day meeting in Durban.

Read the full story here (via The Mail & Guardian)

The cancer of corruption – appropriately referred to as a crime against the poor – is eating public resources at the speed of lightning, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela said on Friday.

Addressing a conference of the Institute of Municipal Personnel Practitioners of Southern Africa, she said if the stories she had heard during the recent road show themed, “The Public Protector dialogues with the Nation”, are proven to be true, “then as a nation we are in trouble”.

Our national health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has enraged us here at IOL Lifestyle.

We carried a report from the news agency AFP, quoting him as saying that the country will no longer distribute free infant milk to public hospitals and clinics.

Read the full story here (via IOL)

Tougher action – including taxing junk food – is needed by all governments if the obesity crisis is going to be tackled, experts say.

The international group of researchers, who have published a series of articles in The Lancet, said no country had yet got to grips with the problem.

Read the rest of this article here (via BBC News)

The South African government believes the way forward in the reconstruction of Libya must be an “all-inclusive process”

This should incorporate elements of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, said international relations and co-operation deputy director-general Clayson Monyela. Read the rest of this article here. (via timeslive)

Does India have a bad-debt problem?

A ritual familiar to students of the subprime and euro crises has started taking place on Indian banks’ conference calls with analysts and investors. Read the rest of this article here. (via The Economist)

A UK government minister has defended a deal with the Swiss that could capture tax of up to £5bn but keep account holders’ identities secret

Money held by UK citizens in Swiss bank accounts will be taxed for the first time, at up to 34% of the sum hidden. Read the rest of this article here. (via BBC)

Alexander Smirnov has never gotten over the euphoria of August 1991.

He was a  college student in Leningrad at the time, lanky and pale with Coke-bottle  glasses, and on the morning of Aug. 20, 1991, he walked out onto the central  square of the city to find a sea of people taking part in one of the largest  demonstrations Russia had ever seen. The day before, a military coup had begun.

Read the rest of this article here (via Time Magazine)

Warren Buffett is playing well in France.

A group of 16 of the richest people in France has signed a petition asking the French government to increase their taxes. The group includes Liliane Bettencourt, the billionaire heiress of L’Oreal; Christophe de Margerie, the head of oil giant Total; Frederic Oudea of bank Société Générale; and Jean-Cyril Spinetta, president of Air France KLM SA. (Given SocGen’s share price, Mr. Oudea may not have as much wealth to tax).

Read the rest of this article here (via The Huffington Post)

The European Central Bank’s emergency efforts to address the continent’s debt crisis represent a highly unorthodox leap into politics

A donors’ meeting is being held in Doha, capital of Qatar, to raise funds for Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC).

The target is to raise $2.5bn (£1.5bn) to pay the salaries of government workers as well as funding treatment for people injured in the fighting. Read the rest of this article here. (via BBC)

The new president of Standard & Poor’s is used to dealing with crises, including mollifying angry government officials

That experience should serve the executive, Douglas Peterson, the chief operating officer of Citibank, well at his new job at a ratings agency under fire on multiple fronts. Read the rest of this article here. (via The New York Times)

The French government is set to unveil broad spending cuts Wednesday in order to meet its deficit goals for this year and next, targeting households and companies in moves that could weaken some of the flagship measures of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s tenure.

The government is considering additional budget savings of as much as €4 billion ($5.8 billion) for this year and €10 billion for 2012 in order to stick to its deficit targets and make up for softer-than-expected economic growth, said several trade unionists who spoke to French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on the phone.

Read the rest of this article here (via The Wall Street Journal)