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/ 30 September 2004
A Johannesburg pet shop owner and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) were at odds on Wednesday over whether snakes should be fed live rabbits or not. NSPCA Inspector Phillip Roberts said he was ”disgusted, repulsed, and very angry” when he went to the pet shop and saw live rabbits in the snake containers.
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/ 30 September 2004
Most of the historic Wanderers cricket clubhouse in Johannesburg was destroyed by fire on Wednesday night. By 9.30pm flames were still raging in one corner of the building — three hours after the fire first began. Emergency services said the situation was under control, although less than a third of the building was still intact.
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/ 15 September 2004
Two more cycad species have become extinct in the past two years, data from the South African National Biodiversity Institute showed on Wednesday. This means at least three, and possibly more, of these fascinating plant species have been lost to South Africa, said John Donaldson, director of research at the institute.
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/ 6 September 2004
Pharmacists across the country are introducing a range of new charges now that they are limited in the prices they can ask for drugs, players in the industry said on Monday. ”We can charge for any service. Everything that you do for the patient, the patient must pay for,” said a pharmacist in Pretoria North. ”This is very sad.”
The timing and manner of National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka’s resignation speak of political pressure, not just a personal desire to move on, political analysts agreed on Monday. ”I am sure it is a pressurised resignation. He must be exhausted,” said political analyst Nic Boraine.
Ngcuka exit a matter of pressure
Employment has not grown over the last 20 years in South Africa, and in fact there were net job losses, research from the SA Reserve Bank showed on Tuesday. In an article in the Reserve Bank’s new publication Labour Market Frontiers Thami Hlekiso said non-agricultural formal employment dropped from 5,1-million in 1980 to 4,7-million in 2001.
Eric Khumalo first opened a bank account when he got a job as a field assistant at the Hluhluwe Umfolozi Park in KwaZulu-Natal. Khumalo goes to the bank once a month, withdraws his entire salary, and returns to the park with his spending money. He is the type of low-risk client that banks are seeking to exempt from the stringent identification requirements of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act.
The cost of medicines has already dropped by 16,4% since the beginning of May, an analyst told industry representatives in Johannesburg on Wednesday. ”Sure, there’s chaos at the moment but it’s going to be worth it in the end. It is clearly of benefit to the consumer,” said David Boyce, a health-care analyst.
Banking institutions are struggling to conform with the new regulations that they identify and verify all their clients by June 30, but experts believe it is unlikely and believe the procedures they are following are fundamentally flawed. ”It is an enormous task, we are talking about roundabout 18-million accounts,” said Claire Gebhardt-Mann, spokesperson for the SA Banking Council.
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The leader of the Democratic Alliance, Tony Leon, was unperturbed by reporters’ questions about the apparent success of the Independent Democrats in the preliminary election results released on Thursday. ”If they [the ID] were expecting to be the official opposition, they won’t get that,” he said.
Special Report: Elections 2004