In his regular internet column on Friday, ANC Today, President Thabo Mbeki said he is inspired by United States President George Bush’s determination to help ensure that the upcoming Gleneagles Group of Eight summit in Scotland will produce a positive outcome for Africa.
South Africa’s Black Management Forum wants the government to set up a commission of enquiry into racism and unfair discrimination in the workplace. Such a commission should be given a one-year mandate "to review incidents and cases of racial discrimination in the workplace", it said.
Peddlers of doom for South Africa remain hard at work, but the real story of South Africa is one of hope, South African President Thabo Mbeki argued on Friday in his weekly online column, <i>ANC Today</i>. The reality in the country is a story "of a growing and resilient economy", said the president.
South Africa’s Parliament has a strategic plan that includes the intention of turning the institution into "a beacon of good moral behaviour", according to its secretary, Zingile Dingani. On Monday, journalists asked why it is that parliamentarians are able to remain on as members after being convicted of Travelgate fraud charges.
President Thabo Mbeki has questioned the figures produced by official data capturer Statistics South Africa on unemployment figures and says it is "quite unlikely" that its figures are correct — otherwise people would have seen millions of people in the streets looking for work. There are even millionaires who are deemed "unemployed", he argued on Friday.
The Cabinet will finalise the roll-out plan of the taxi-recapitalisation process by the end of next month — but the transport minister has promised that the much-delayed scrapping of currently ageing vehicles ”will commence this financial year”. He was speaking in his Budget vote in an extended public committee on Friday.
South Africa’s proposed ”smart” identity-card plan will receive about R270-million this year, Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told parliamentarians on Wednesday. The card is now ”at the final stages for Cabinet’s approval of such a procurement model”, the minister reported.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has told African transport ministers that he is "concerned" about the high concentration of air-traffic accidents on the continent. He was speaking at the opening ceremony on Wednesday of a summit of African Union ministers responsible for air transport and aviation being held in South Africa.
The Inkatha Freedom Party has cracked the whip following a public debate about its leadership, with its national chairperson swearing allegiance to 76-year-old party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi. There is tension in the party, with persistent talk that Buthelezi is being challenged for his position by the party’s traditionalist guard.
Billionaire businessman Mark Shuttleworth has offered to pay for the costs of satirical T-shirt-maker Laugh It Off’s Constitutional Court action, founder Justin Nurse told the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday. Nurse told his audience that he is ”flat broke” after several projects of his company were derailed.