”Do I look like a man who can climb up a lamppost?” demanded Sheval Arendse, the Democratic Alliance’s candidate in the Tafelsig by-election. As Arendse weighs 150kg, the question, put to a police inspector investigating a complaint of theft by the Independent Democrats, was clearly rhetorical.
KwaZulu-Natal social welfare and population development minister Nyanga Ngubane’s bid to avoid personally paying the legal costs of thousands of social grant applicants struggling for pensions and grants was thwarted by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein recently.
A free junket to London, courtesy of Telkom, for senior officials of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has drawn criticism. Against the backdrop of attempts to break Telkom’s fixed-line monopoly, the freebie to attend a conference in April hosted by the International Institute of Communications, has attracted censure for the apparent conflict of interest.
The third round of talks to break the 12-week security strike logjam are under way after third parties, including Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille, managed to coax negotiators back to the table.At the same time, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union gave some indication of the costs of strike action for labour.
Former president FW De Klerk was in stable condition after undergoing an operation to remove a cancerous tumour from his colon, his spokesperson Dave Steward said on Thursday. ”He is still in intensive care, but his condition is stable,” Steward said.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has relaunched his diplomatic offensive to engage President Robert Mugabe in a bid to resolve Zimbabwe’s escalating political and economic crisis, it emerged on Thursday. Official sources said Mbeki on Thursday dispatched Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils to Zimbabwe.
A clear majority of Russians think Vladimir Putin should serve a third presidential term, and that the Constitution should be changed to allow him to do so, according to an opinion poll. The poll comes amid persistent speculation that Putin could be coaxed into considering another term.
The façade of legality thrown up around the deportation of Pakistani national Khalid Rashid is crumbling as embarrassing new evidence about his fate trickles out of the Pretoria High Court. Despite repeated assurances by Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, it is now abundantly clear that this was no ordinary deportation.
The South African rand was firmer against the dollar in early trade on Friday as the market digested Thursday afternoon’s surprise 50-basis-point rate hike to 7,5% by the South African Reserve Bank monetary policy committee (MPC). The rand’s move came despite weakness in the euro and gold.
The JSE on Thursday suffered its worst loss since April 17 2000 — the bursting of the internet bubble — when a surprise rate hike locally saw the stuffing knocked out of a market that was already sagging under the weight of weaker world markets and lower commodity prices.