The Western Cape auditor general undertook on Tuesday to investigate a R220 000 overpayment to premier Ebrahim Rasool, and the circumstances surrounding it. The undertaking by auditor general Willie Brits was given at a provincial Standing Committee on Public Accounts meeting called by the Democratic Alliance to investigate the overpayment to Rasool while he was the finance MEC.
South Africa’s second largest financial services group, Sanlam, on Tuesday warned that the HIV/Aids pandemic is not only a human tragedy but also an economic time bomb that poses a major threat to the profitability of companies countrywide.
Hours after a powerful blast rocked a power plant near the Algerian capital, newspapers in the north African country speculated that the explosion was caused by an attack by extremists, while officials stuck to their line that it was accidental. The French-language daily Liberte speculated in a front-page headline: ”A car-bomb attack?”
Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned United Nations member states not to use him as an excuse for their own inaction in helping to protect more than a million people caught up in fighting in western Sudan. ”We should avoid the situations where we allow member states to hide behind the secretary-general, use him as an alibi for their own inaction,” Annan stressed.
Constant attacks on the National Prosecuting Authority and its leaders during the past year may have something to do with the success achieved by the unit, the Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday. DA justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer said ”all is not well in the justice community and Minister [Brigitte] Mabandla has inherited a house divided against itself”.
"We will do what has to be done to achieve good broadband Internet access in South Africa." So says Rudolph Muller, founder of MyADSL, a South African website aimed at providing a forum for the discussion of broadband Internet access issues.
South Africa needs to wake up to the fact that its coal reserves are not infinite, and the use of nuclear power to produce electricity in the future is unavoidable, Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Tuesday. ”In addition to coal, nuclear energy will increase as an energy option for South Africa for the foreseeable future,” she told MPs during her Budget vote.
Power station ‘will inject R10bn into SA’
Despite improvements made in the court system over the past five years, the case finalisation rate and outstanding rolls remain a challenge and the concept of night courts is being considered, Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla said on Tuesday. The latest information available — from the end of December 2003 — showed the outstanding number of cases on the roll for district courts to be 149 539, regional courts 43 573, and high courts 1 012.
South Africa’s communications department and the National Treasury will finalise a public private partnership model for the funding of regional television services during the course of this year, says Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri.
Apple Computer and the BMW Group on Monday introduced an adapter that allows iPod and BMW customers to plug their music collections directly into their car sound systems. The two companies worked for a year to jointly develop the system that will work in BMW’s newer model 3 Series, Z4 Roadster, X3 and X5 sports utility vehicles and the Mini Cooper.