The African National Congress parliamentary caucus has publicly backed the decision of the forum for the minister of housing and provincial housing ministers to remove the Democratic Alliance-led City of Cape Town from the N2 Gateway Housing Project ”with immediate effect”.
Gauteng local governments are owed R17-billion for unpaid services, provincial minister Qedani Mahlangu said on Thursday. Mahlangu said, while delivering her budget speech in Johannesburg, that the debt, which was incurred due to unpaid services, was hampering service delivery in the province.
The South African Municipal Workers’ Union on Thursday warned of a possible national strike by its 200 000 members should they reject a proposed 6% wage increase. The South African Local Government Association is also considering the proposal, made by the facilitator in the wage negotiations that started in March.
The Pretoria High Court will rule on Monday on the urgency of an application for it to declare the arrest, detention and removal from South Africa of a Pakistani national unlawful. Attorney Zehir Omar asked on Thursday that the arrest, detention and removal of Khalid Mahmood Rashid be declared unlawful.
Johannesburg police undertook on Thursday to probe claims of a delayed police response at the crime scene of Cape Town journalist Megan Herselman, who was killed on Tuesday night at the Rivonia offramp on the N1 north. She had arrived from Cape Town that evening and lost her way between Johannesburg International airport and Midrand.
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Ecuador beat Costa Rica 3-0 on Thursday to clinch qualification for the second phase of the World Cup for the first time in their history. The result means that Ecuador only need to draw with host nation Germany next Tuesday to win Group A by virtue of a superior goal difference, meaning they would avoid England if Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side win Group B.
The South African government has urged Israel to act with the utmost self-restraint in ensuring the legitimate defence and security of its own people. ”The South African government wishes to express its concern at the continuing Israeli military actions in the occupied territories,” the Department of Foreign affairs said in a statement on Thursday.
The Kyoto Protocol will cut the developing world’s greenhouse-gas emissions — implicated in runaway global warming — by at least one billion tonnes by the end of 2012, according to the United Nations. Projects planned under the Clean Development Mechanism have reached the one-billion milestone.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has welcomed the plea-bargain agreement entered into by a travel operator with the directorate of special operations. The NPA it said that travel operator Shamima Lamalia had entered into a plea-bargain agreement on Thursday. The case relates to Parliament’s travel fraud, which has been dubbed ”Travelgate”.
It was unclear on Thursday what the condition was of Elita, wife of hospitalised former president FW de Klerk, a family spokesperson said. He confirmed that Elita had been admitted to Cape Town’s Panaroma medi-clinic, which is also treating her husband, on Wednesday evening after she developed a stress-induced allergic reaction.