Ululations, hugs from friends and strangers, and a gutsy rendition of Shosholoza greeted South Africa’s Olympic team on their arrival in Johannesburg on Tuesday from the Athens Olympic Games. ”The experience was beyond words,” said Ramon di Clemente who, with Donovan Cech, clinched bronze in the rowing.
Cloete’s coach ‘angry’ with the media
About 4 000 taxi operators will march to the Gauteng premier’s office on Thursday morning to highlight grievances — especially over violence and intimidation — that they want transport authorities to address. The Gauteng Taxi Council drivers will park their vehicles in Johannesburg’s Newtown, then march up to Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa’s offices in Simmonds street and hand over a memorandum outlining their concerns, said Gataco spokesperson ThuThu Molefe.
The mother of former South African and now Australian rugby player Clyde Rathbone was recovering from injuries sustained during a burglary at her home on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast on Wednesday morning. This comes less than a week after a newspaper article quoted her son as saying that since he had moved to Australia, he had a ”total lack of stress” and never worried about the safety of his fiancée.
The government must tackle muti killings and ritual murders even though some might want this problem to remain hidden, an expert said on Monday. Professor Thias Kgatla, professor of religious studies at the University of the North, said a repeat of a successful campaign in 1994 against the practice is needed.
The Medicines Control Council has declared a generic version of anti-retroviral Duovir ”undesirable” and ordered a recall, the manufacturer confirmed on Thursday. A notice in the government gazette of August 6 advises that patients using the drug consult their doctors for equivalent or alternative treatment.
The private health sector needs to be restructured as its current structure allows financial interests to take precedence over the interests of patients, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday. She said it is a system that has been abused by some and detracts from the constructive role that the private sector plays.
South Africa’s top Catholic bishop said on Monday he cannot understand why the South African government is not considering sanctions against neighbouring Zimbabwe, given the success that sanctions brought for South Africa. ”What further suffering will sanctions bring to the people of Zimbabwe?” the bishop asked, pointing out that he is not calling directly for sanctions against Zimbabwe.
The Chinese embassy in South Africa on Wednesday dismissed allegations that its government was involved in the shooting of a Falun Gong practitioner outside Johannesburg on Monday. But a group of Falun Gong spokespeople said the shooting is another example of the way the Chinese government persecutes them.
Most people see paramedics as angels of mercy — but some have been accused of racing like tow-truck drivers to get to an accident scene before the competition.
One paramedic has already died on the way to an accident, with observers alleging that she was racing another company to get to the scene first. This has raised concern over what appears to be increased competition between the two main private ambulance companies.
President Thabo Mbeki will spend his 62nd birthday on ”work, work, work”, his spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said on Friday. ”The president doesn’t believe in festivities and big bashes. It embarrasses him,” said Khumalo. However, his colleagues in the National Assembly decided that his big day could not go unmarked and in a motion the political parties wished him a happy birthday.