New Delhi, Aug 20 : Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni and her South African counterpart Pallo Jordan recently signed the programme of cooperation in the fields of arts and culture. 

The signing was held during Soni''s recent visit to South Africa at the invitation of Jordan to attend the centenary celebrations of historic protest march led by Mahatma Gandhi.

During her four-day visit, Soni discussed bilateral cooperation as well as trilateral cooperation under IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) relating to arts and culture with Jordan.

Johannesburg - Thousands of South Africans demonstrated in cities throughout the country Wednesday as a nationwide strike over the rising cost of living got under way.

The Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has called on its around 2 million members to stay away from work and join demonstrations in cities around the country.

Commuters were left stranded in Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg and other cities as the minibus taxis that transport the masses ground to a halt in response to the strike call.

Schools in some places were also closed.

Car manufacturing was expected to be particularly affected by the strike.

Tokyo - Toyota Motor Corp was

Pietermaritzburg, South Africa - Hundreds of supporters of the leader of South Africa's ruling party, Jacob Zuma, braved cold and wet conditions to show their support for the 66-year-old presidential hopeful ahead of a court hearing to decide the validity of corruption charges against him.

The gathering Sunday night came ahead of Zuma's appeal Monday to the High Court in the southern city of Pietermaritzburg to set aside the prosecution of the African National Congress (ANC) leader on charges of corruption, fraud, racketeering and money laundering in a state arms deal.

He is to argue that the state did not allow him to make representations about the charges against him before indicting him.

Johannesburg  - A report on prostitution in South Africa's tourist capital of Cape Town released Thursday recommending lifting a ban on sex work.

The report by the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, entitled Selling Sex in Cape Town surveyed 164 sex workers out of around 1,200 in the city.

"While sex workers are often subject to exploitative or abusive working conditions, very few (in Cape Town) are forced to sell sex," the report, which was carried out in conjunction with the Cape-Town- based Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce, found.

Maputo- All citizens of the southern African country of Mozambique should have access to electricity within seven years, the head of the national electricity utility Electricidade de Mocambique (EDM) said Tuesday.

EDM chief executive Manuel Cuambe said the utility hoped to finish linking all the country's 128 districts to the national grid by 2015 but that the success of the project would depend on the availability of financing.