The Democratic Alliance has lambasted the Mpumalanga Rugby Union for including a convicted murderer in the Vodacom Pumas rugby team. Gert van Schalkwyk (22) — one of the infamous ”Waterkloof Four” — has been included in the starting line-up for the provincial team.
Municipal workers will down tools if ”attacks” on Nelson Mandela metropole employees do not stop, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Thursday. ”These attacks are aimed at getting rid of workers who stand against any form of crime,” said Samwu general secretary Mthandeki Nhlapo.
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s last-ditch bid to prevent key documents from being used against him came to an end on Wednesday when the Constitutional Court reserved judgement. On Thursday, Zuma stayed away from the court building.
Joe Phaahla, the director general of the 2010 Fifa World Cup government unit, is stepping down. He has asked to be relieved of his three-year contract, which expires in August. In a statement on Thursday, the unit said Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile has agreed to this, and Phaahla will leave the unit this month.
Stifling the private healthcare industry could see it shift resources to foreign operations, placing greater strain on the public sector, a consulting company said on Thursday. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announced in Parliament on Wednesday that unregulated private healthcare cannot be sustained.
An affiliate of United States-based buyout firm Carlyle Group has defaulted on about ,6-billion of debt and expects its lenders to seize remaining assets as the global credit crunch tightens around leveraged investors. A ”successful refinancing is not possible,” Carlyle Capital said.
The apparent détente between the national Health Department and the Treatment Action Campaign is to be applauded, but will it stick?
One of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s senior aides ordered his Mehdi Army militiamen on Thursday to observe a ceasefire after they clashed with United States soldiers in the southern city of Kut. Mehdi Army militiamen battled Iraqi and US forces on Tuesday in clashes that police said killed 11 people.
In order to pursue a civil claim for damages in the high court, regional airline Comair is seeking an order from the Competition Tribunal declaring that an incentive scheme for travel agents that was run by South African Airways (SAA) was a prohibited practice in terms of the Competition Act.
Work on a multibillion-rand hydro-electric plant in Limpopo will start in September, with completion scheduled for 2015, the Sekhukhune municipality announced on Thursday. It forms part of Eskom’s capacity-expansion programme aimed at resolving the country’s energy shortages, municipal spokesperson Sizwe Yende said.