South Africa’s Cabinet made the claim on Wednesday to have the largest number of people on anti-retroviral treatment for HIV/Aids in the world. Government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said the government would be ”scaling up its communication and social mobilisation” on the Aids fight.
Cabinet has backed Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils over allegations by the African National Congress Youth League that he may have had an underhanded role in the rape trial against former deputy president Jacob Zuma. The Cabinet issued the statement on Wednesday saying it rejected "insinuations" that any member of the executive or employee of the state may have been involved in illegal "underhand activities … leading up to the trial".
A visit by South African President Thabo Mbeki to Palestine is being discussed with that nation’s president as well as the new Hamas government, but any visit will be judged against its contribution to peace in the area, said South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz Pahad, on Wednesday.
A generic performance contract for municipal managers will be unveiled on May 30 and all their performance contracts must be renegotiated within the next six weeks, says Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi. The minister rejected complaints that some municipal managers were earning packages in excess of ministers "or even the president" — that were over R1-million a year.
South Africa’s Public Enterprises department will talk through the possible pitfalls of the massive injection of capital into government’s infrastructure programme, said Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin on Tuesday. "It is very important that the Treasury does what it now does, which is to monitor the borrowing programme"
South African Airways (SAA) was likely to report its financials as a separate company for the 2006/07 financial year and its separation from its parent company Transnet was well under way, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Tuesday.
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Former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma dismissed suggestions on Tuesday that President Thabo Mbeki had played a part in his rape trial and upcoming corruption trial. ”No, I have not said anything in that direction. I would not want to discuss that matter,” he told the Cape Talk 567 radio station on Tuesday afternoon.
Three opposition parties are to hold a meeting at Parliament this afternoon to protest against being excluded from the parliamentary programme on Monday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Constitution. President Thabo Mbeki is to address a joint sitting of Parliament at 2.15pm on Monday.
Constitution Day, May 8, must be a day of celebration — a red-letter day — for South Africa because what it represents took 53 years to achieve, says South African President Thabo Mbeki. This was the entrenchment of the concept of self-determination.
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If there was anything to celebrate about the rape trial of former deputy president Jacob Zuma, it was that the proceedings in Johannesburg have revealed a small but significant sign that South Africa was slowly moving into a non-racial future, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.