”Winter is the nightmare for utilities,” said City Power vice-president Silas Zimu as call-centre operators fielded calls from irate, cold and powerless Johannesburg residents on Thursday. ”The network of Johannesburg is old and was meant for the original mining industry,” said Zimu.
Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide began his stay in South Africa on Monday by thanking his hosts in Zulu for allowing him and his family to enter the country. President Thabo Mbeki and a host of government ministers and diplomats gave him a high-powered, red-carpet welcome at Johannesburg International airport.
Seven pharmacy and health-care groups launched a joint court challenge against controversial new medicine regulations in the Cape High Court on Friday, their legal firm confirmed. This brings to at least nine the number of legal challenges against the Medicines and Related Substance Act, which came into force on May 2.
Erectile dysfunction, although frequently the butt of jokes, is usually an indicator of underlying serious medical conditions, pharmaceutical company Lilly said on Thursday. Although no broad studies had been undertaken in South Africa, seven out of 10 men between the ages of 35 to 79 interviewed at primary health care clinics in the Western Cape said they had had some experience of the condition.
Dispensing doctors accused pharmacists on Wednesday of trying to deprive the poor of cheap medication following the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa’s call for its members to object to their dispensing licences. Meanwhile, the Department of Health is concerned that it has only issued slightly more than 200 licences.
Soaring international crude oil prices could drive local fuel prices up by between 30c and 40c a litre, a Department of Minerals and Energy official confirmed on Tuesday. ”There is no doubt we are staring a hefty price increase in the face at the moment,” said Theunis Burger, director of petroleum and gas regulations.
The price of medicines will be unstable in the next few weeks as pharmacists clear out old stocks and replace it with new, undiscounted stock in terms of new legislation, the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa warned on Tuesday. Consumers have already started complaining of increases up to 30% in the price of medication.
Only 75 health-care workers out of an estimated 11Â 000 who dispense medicine have the licences they require by law, a Department of Health spokesperson said on Thursday. Under the Medicines and Related Substances Act, by May 2 workers who dispense medicine must have a dispensing licence.
Doctors threaten to down tools
Concern is mounting over what will become of thousands of sick people, especially the elderly and people with HIV/Aids, once it becomes illegal for their doctors to give them medicine without a prescribing licence. Only 10% of South Africa’s approximately 11Â 000 dispensing doctors have applied for the licence that will allow them to continue.
No image available
/ 12 February 2004
Limpopo police appealed on Thursday for any direct relatives of sacked worker Nelson Shisane, the man who was allegedly thrown to lions in a labour dispute, to come forward to help them with DNA tests to identify him.