As a prelude to the Inner-City Summit set to take place early next month, on Tuesday the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) led members of the media on an inner-city walkabout to gauge the city’s progress in sprucing up the CBD. JDA CEO Lael Bethlehem said the summit will give a big push to inner-city development.
The state has not responded to a settlement offer in a court case in which it is cited alongside controversial vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said on Wednesday. The matter is set down for hearing before Judge Burton Fourie on Thursday, but could be postponed.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation has threatened legal action against those illegally exploiting the former president’s name and image. ”We wish to reiterate Mr Mandela’s own words: his image and name is not for sale,” foundation chief executive Achmat Dangor said in a statement on Wednesday.
South Africa’s largest teachers’ union has rejected a proposed pay rise of 6% for its members. The offer was a ”slap in the face of workers”, South African Democratic Teachers’ Union spokesperson Jon Lewis said on Wednesday. The offer was made by the Department of Public Service and Administration.
The serious side-effects of a popular anti-malaria medicine were listed on Wednesday in the trial of a man accused of murdering his lover with an axe. Michael van Zyl, a BSc graduate, has pleaded not guilty before Judge Daniel Dlodlo to the murder of estate agent Andre Weitz, at the latter’s home at Thornton in Cape Town two years ago.
If ordinary African National Congress (ANC) members want a say in their party’s leadership in December, they have until June 30 to get organised. Briefing reporters in Johannesburg, ANC spokespersons on Wednesday outlined the process of electing the new leadership — including the hotly contested race for the top job.
Life-insurance companies have uncovered 20Â 000 fraudulent claims worth R1-billion over the past four years, the Life Offices’ Association (LOA) said on Wednesday. However, only 2Â 844 fraudulent claims were recorded last year, the lowest number since 2003.
The African Union peacekeeping force in West Darfur told the United Nations on Wednesday that Arab militias were killing and pillaging in the region without arrests by the Sudanese authorities. Major Harry Soko, a Rwandan officer who briefed the head of the UN refugee agency, said that the presence of Sudanese rebel groups in his area had also led to conflict.
Fifty-six Zimbabwean activists arrested this week for staging a peaceful demonstration against power cuts have been released, but most were beaten in police custody, the rights group they support said Wednesday. ”All of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) supporters … arrested on Monday were eventually released late on Tuesday,” Woza said.
South Africa’s targeted CPIX (consumer price index excluding interest rates on mortgage bonds) inflation rate accelerated to 5,5% in the year to March, official data showed on Wednesday, bang in line with forecasts and the highest level of increase in three-and-a-half years.