The floor-crossing window, which opens next month, could diminish further the strength of most opposition parties. For the first time this year the floor-crossing window for national and provincial MPs will coincide with that for municipal councillors. The 11 opposition parties are expected to lose more members to the ruling African National Congress.
While the government finesses its plans for sector education and training authorities (Setas), the African National Congress’s (ANC) policy discussion paper has shed light on how 24 Setas could be cut to five. This is being flagged before the Labour Department’s skills-development conference in October.
One of the problems with discussing humanitarian intervention is that the term itself means different things to different people. For legal scholars it describes military intervention to come to the aid of people facing acute danger, for humanitarian aid workers it is the impartial distribution of emergency relief.
Dr Nokuzola Ntshona, deputy manager of the East London Hospital Complex and medical superintendent of the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, was suspended this week for blowing the whistle in the media on baby deaths at Frere Hospital. Zukile Majova spoke to her.
The ANC Youth League’s proposed list for the top six positions on the ANC’s national executive committee might feature the following names: Jacob Zuma (for president), Kgalema Motlanthe (deputy president), Makhenkesi Stofile (national chairperson), Gwede Mantashe (secretary general), Baleka Mbete (deputy secretary general) and Matthews Phosa (treasurer general).
A newly collated Medical Research Council report cites healthcare workers as saying that 20% of the 23 000 newborn babies who die in South Africa each year could probably have been saved. The bombshell report comes against the background of the dismissal of deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.
Peruvians pulled hundreds of dead from the rubble of homes and churches on Thursday, piling some of them on street corners after a huge earthquake ravaged the country’s central coast. At least 437 people were killed in the 8,0-magnitude quake on Wednesday night, Peru’s civil defence agency said.
The Sunday Times had not filed anything by Thursday evening in reply to court papers seeking the return of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s medical records. On Thursday afternoon, the health minister and the Medi-Clinic company filed a notice of motion for an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court.
Civil society groups from opposite sides of the political fence are to highlight their views on the Vlok trial at the Pretoria High Court on Friday. The Khulumani Support Group will be outside the court as part of its proceedings to hand over a charter of redress.
President Thabo Mbeki has unleashed a storm of controversy with his sacking of deputy minister of health Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.