President Thabo Mbeki has withdrawn his application to oppose a Johannesburg businessman’s bid to stop the disbanding of the Scorpions. In his answering affidavit filed in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday, Mbeki’s said: ”The first respondent hereby withdraws his opposition to the application.”
Trade unions have to make sure that this year’s wage demands fully compensate workers for the drop in their real standard of living in the past year, the Congress of South Africans Trade Unions (Cosatu) said in its May Day message on Wednesday.
Forcibly installing prepayment water meters was ruled to be unconstitutional by the Johannesburg High Court, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals) said on Wednesday. Stuart Wilson, spokesperson for Cals, said the meters were found to infringe the constitutional rights of people to have access to sufficient water.
Water contamination was a factor in the death of nearly 80 babies in the Eastern Cape, the provincial government said on Wednesday. An interim report acknowledged that a ”multiplicity of causes”, including ”systematic failures affecting water quality”, were to blame for the deaths of the babies, said the provincial government in a statement.
Nationwide Airlines has been placed under provisional liquidation, an attorney for the company said on Wednesday. "We applied yesterday [Tuesday] at 3pm and were placed under provisional liquidation," said Haroon Maher. On Tuesday passengers were stranded when the airline announced that it had ceased operations due to cash-flow problems.
South Africa’s trade deficit narrowed to R5,03-billion in March from February’s figure of R5,8-billion, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on Wednesday. ”March exports of R51,15-billion and imports of R56,18-billion resulted in a deficit of R5,03-billion,” Sars said.
Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya was not in contempt of court and was respecting a high court ruling for social grants to be given to applicants with alternative forms of identification, his department said on Wednesday. The Department of Social Development said Skweyiya was in the process of implementing the court’s decision.
Zimbabwe has decided to float its local currency on foreign-exchange markets in an attempt to eliminate speculation on the black market, the governor of the central bank said Wednesday. The official exchange rate in Zimbabwe has been kept at Z$30Â 000 for US$1 since September 2007.
A tribunal rejected fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar’s appeal on Wednesday against the five-year ban imposed on him by the Pakistan Cricket Board. Justice Aftab Farrukh, head of the three-member tribunal, told reporters the suspension would remain in place under an interim order until a new hearing was held in June.
Cresslawn in Kempton Park was still without power on Wednesday but the municipality said it would restore electricity to the area by late afternoon or early evening. The entire East Rand suburb was plunged into darkness last Tuesday after a fire at a local substation.