There is no final agreement yet on a Legal Services Charter but finalising it is urgent, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said on Friday. While there is broad agreement on the need for transformation of ownership of traditionally white firms, there is no agreement on black economic empowerment quotas.
Black people and women are just as capable of excelling at mathematics or science as men and whites, said Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel on Friday. Quoting statistics from the directors of the top 100 companies in South Africa, Manuel said there are 2 489 directors, of whom 202 are women — 105 white women and 97 black women.
South Africa will ”never achieve redemption” for its HIV/Aids policies, the United Nations special envoy to Africa told the closing session of the International Aids Conference in Toronto on Friday. Stephen Lewis accused the government of expounding HIV/Aids theories ”more worthy of a lunatic fringe”.
A broker must repay two pensioners more than R600Â 000 that they lost when investment entity Leaderguard went insolvent, said the Office of the Ombud for Financial Services Providers on Friday. The ombud found that the pensioners, in their 70s, were not properly advised of the volatile nature of the financial product.
Zimbabwe and Angola have failed to sign a Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol aligning its finance and investment policies with its objectives. ”Some countries first need the approval of their Parliament,” SADC chairperson and Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili said on Friday.
Workers interviewed by the Mail & Guardian this week generally supported the idea that the South African Communist Party should field its own candidates in elections, while expressing growing impatience with the ruling African National Congress. The M&G survey followed an SACP central committee meeting at the weekend, where party leaders discussed the option of going it alone in elections.
The ”samoosa file” is set to return to haunt the South African government when the case of missing Pakistani national Khalid Rashid returns to court in eight days’ time. The file belonging to the Home Affairs Department’s attorney, Vas Soni, mysteriously found its way into a food hamper belonging to a friend of Rashid’s flamboyant lawyer, Zehir Omar, at an earlier court hearing.
The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, which extended the range of health practitioners able to conduct abortions, was declared invalid by the Constitutional Court on Thursday on the grounds that Parliament had not sufficiently involved the public in drafting the Bill.
A bomb threat scrawled on a sick bag caused a British passenger plane from London to Egypt to be diverted to southern Italy on Friday, but police said it appeared to be a false alarm. ”The alarm has been called off,” said Brindisi border police chief Salvatore de Paolis.
Cellphone giant Vodacom has withdrawn a claim that it offers the lowest call rate in South Africa, following a challenge by competitor Cell C. The Advertising Standards Authority said it had been asked to rule on an advertisement for Vodacom’s new monthly packages, which claimed: ”Lowest call rates in South Africa. Calls from 90c per minute or 1,5c per second.”