The South African Municipal Workers’ Union on Friday threatened to go on strike if Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride was not suspended. ”We are going to say to the municipality, suspend Robert McBride or municipal service delivery is going to be hampered,” said Samwu branch secretary Koena Ramotlou.
At what point does the columnist stop being a critic and become merely critical? It is an upsetting moment, when the writer who likes to believe that he is creating small, diverting illuminations on the endlessly reproduced pages of our national manuscript looks up from his doodling, lays down his gold leaf and purple ink, and discovers that he is merely drawing unremarkable cartoons of mediocre grumpiness.
The Mail & Guardian newspaper on Friday denied disregarding an interdict barring it from publishing the details of a draft internal report into alleged abuse of power at the South African Broadcasting Corporation. ”We completely deny it … we have a paper trail of every step taken to comply with the order,” said M&G editor Ferial Haffajee.
Diamond beneficiation, whereby stones mined in South Africa are also cut and polished in the country, will be enforced, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on Friday. She said was seriously concerned about De Beers’ director Jonathan Oppenheimer’s comments on the costs of beneficiation earlier this week.
Mobs burned down houses in Shi’ite neighbourhoods of Nigeria’s main Islamic city on Friday in apparent reprisal for the murder this week of a radical Sunni Muslim cleric, witnesses said. Hundreds of people stormed through Shi’ite neighbourhoods of the city ”and started burning down the houses in anger”, a witness told the media by phone.
Long, chaotic lines of vehicles built up on Friday at the few gas stations still supplying fuel after the government banned a hard-currency coupon gas-purchasing system used by well-to-do Zimbabweans. The worsening gasoline shortages caused panic among drivers on Friday.
Ernie Els turned the air blue in frustration as putting woes continued to hamper his attempts to force his way on to the leaderboard at the Open Championship on Friday. The big South African has yet to win this year. But he had come into the tournament with high hopes of challenging after rediscovering his form in the Scottish Open.
South African authorities would adopt a wait-and-see approach before deciding whether or not to seek businessman Billy Rautenbach’s extradition from Zimbabwe. This comes as Rautenbach, best known in South Africa and Botswana for his activities in assembling Hyundai cars, was arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and deported to Zimbabwe.
The fourth round of gold-sector wage talks will start on Monday in Johannesburg, the Chamber of Mines said on Friday. Chamber spokesperson Jabu Maphalala said gold-mining companies represented by the chamber and trade unions would meet at the chamber’s offices in Johannesburg.
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has welcomed a recent Supreme Court of Appeal judgment that, it says, effectively makes the sub-judice rule outdated. ”This means that recourse to this legal excuse to avoid public discussion of an issue — a favourite ploy of politicians — is no longer valid, and those using it can be called to account,” Sanef said on Friday.