Gauteng commuter bus operators have received some outstanding subsidy payments but are still owed a substantial amount, their association said on Monday. ”All of them got payments from the Gauteng transport department at the weekend but not all were payments in full,” said South African Bus Operators’ Association executive manager Eric Cornelius.
April saw a saving of up to 7% in electricity demand, Eskom’s chief executive, Jacob Maroga, said on Monday. He briefed President Thabo Mbeki and a presidential special joint working group on the current state of electricity supply in the country, the Presidency said in a statement.
The sudden disappearance last month of the wife of Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown had destroyed the good faith between the couple and the Scorpions, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court heard on Monday. Scorpions senior counsel Bruce Morrison told the court: ”She’s not coming back.”
The government has set aside millions of rands to assist the poor cope with harsh economic conditions, the Department of Social Development said on Monday. Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya appealed to churches and community-based organisations to help the department in creating awareness around the relief.
United States authorities rushed aid to disaster areas on Monday after a series of tornadoes tore across the US, killing at least 22 people, shattering homes and businesses, and leaving tens of thousands without power. US President George Bush called it a ”sad day” for devastated communities in the states of Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia.
Unionist Willie Madisha has been expelled from the South African Communist Party (SACP), of which he was a central committee member, the organisation announced on Monday. It said the move followed a recommendation by a disciplinary committee that found he never disclosed a supposed R500 000 donation, and that he brought the party into disrepute.
President Thabo Mbeki must go, and he must go now, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille said on Monday. ”In a constitutional democracy such as ours, it is untenable for a president with his track record to remain in office,” she said in a statement. It is ”in the interests of South Africa” that Mbeki step down as president.
A wonder fuel-saving pill has entered the local market but the Automobile Association (AA) warned consumers on Monday to be cautious of such products. The tablet, called the MPG Cap, is added to tanks to make petrol burn more efficiently, said Tim Dunstan-Smith, who claims he was the first person to bring the product to South Africa.
Fifty illegal immigrants have died in an attempt to reach Europe from North Africa, the Tunisian Arab-language daily Assabah-Ousbouii reported on Monday. The victims, all of them African, died of hunger or thirst or froze to death after the small boat in which they were travelling apparently ran out of petrol.
The German government on Monday brushed off a verbal attack from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in which the leftist leader said Chancellor Angela Merkel was a political descendant of Adolf Hitler and German fascism. Merkel sets off for her first trip to Latin America on Tuesday.