Traditional medical practitioners need to be recruited to fight Aids in Africa, which accounts for 60% of the world’s cases, a senior United Nations official said on Thursday. ”Countries should embrace traditional health practitioners as partners in the health care system,” Luis Gomes Sambo, the UN World Health Organisation’s (WHO) regional director for Africa, said in a statement.
A planned strike by immigration officers was averted when officials of the Department of Home Affairs and the Public Servants’ Association (PSA) signed an agreement on Thursday, the union said. ”This agreement settles the dispute between the two parties and the impending strike for [Friday] has been called off,” PSA deputy general manager Manie de Clerq said.
Three African National Congress (ANC) councillors may face disciplinary action after trying to force their way into a council meeting, injuring a security official, Cape Town mayor Helen Zille said on Thursday. The meeting’s doors were closed to allow a vote on whether the city supported the Treatment Action Campaign’s (TAC) HIV/Aids plan.
An appeal against a Durban High Court order to expedite antiretroviral treatment at Westville prison does not amount to a ”constitutional crisis” but is an attempt to alert the court to an ”administrative burden”, the government said on Thursday. A statement from the Government Communications and Information Service read: ”There is no constitutional crisis in this country … ”
The Democratic Alliance has threatened to refer the issue of an alleged R22-million presidential retirement house to the Public Protector if the facts reveal any wrongdoing. DA spokesperson Sydney Opperman said on Thursday that according to Noseweek magazine, the public works department is building a presidential retirement house to the value of R22-million.
Up to 132 African would-be immigrants were on Thursday feared to have drowned when their boat capsized off Mauritania en route to Spain’s Canary Islands, Spanish news reports said. Eighty-four bodies were retrieved from the sea and beaches near the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott between Sunday and Wednesday.
Johannesburg International airport’s name will change to OR Tambo airport, probably in October, Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan announced in Parliament on Thursday. "I am formally announcing that I am approving the name change," he told the National Assembly. The name change was initially proposed by the local municipality.
Egyptian international defender Mohammed Abdel Wahab died of a heart attack while training with his club, champions al-Ahly, on Thursday. The 22-year-old collapsed on the pitch and was immediately transferred to a nearby hospital but resuscitation efforts failed.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool will ask President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday for the rain-ravaged Eden district to be declared a disaster area, Rasool’s office said. ”The premier will today [Thursday] speak to the president and ask for him to declare it a disaster area. This will immediately free extra funding to do repairs,” said Rasool’s spokesperson, Shado Twala.
Roelf Meyer, former National Party Cabinet minister and key negotiator in South Africa’s transition to democracy, has applied for membership of the African National Congress. Confirming this on Thursday, he was, however, at pains to emphasise that he had no intention of re-entering active politics.