The International Rugby Board (IRB) announced in Cape Town on Thursday that it has approved an unprecedented £30-million (R343,5-million), three-year programme of strategic development investments designed to improve the competitiveness of rugby worldwide.
The Blue Bulls and the Natal Sharks renew their long-standing rivalry when they meet in an Absa Currie Cup qualifying competition clash at Securicor Loftus in Pretoria on Friday night. The result will have no bearing on the outcome of the qualifying stage, with both teams having already qualified for the Super 8 stage.
The Inkatha Freedom Party’s support base is ”eroding” in urban areas but still strong in rural KwaZulu-Natal where people believe it represents the interests of the Zulu people, according to a political analyst. ”There are two factions … one loyal to the leadership of Mangosuthu Buthelezi and another pressing for democratisation,” he said.
A total of 131 prisoners released on a special remission of sentence 10 weeks ago have been rearrested, Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour said on Thursday. ”We are going to interview them to see where it went wrong. We need to give them that second chance,” the minister said.
The Johannesburg High Court on Thursday ordered the Johannesburg City Council to pay at least R130-million in arrears to two pension funds, a legal firm said. ”This must be one of the biggest pension fund cases this country has ever seen,” said a spokesperson for Routledge Modise Moss Morris attorneys.
The Cabinet’s unconditional endorsement of Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana’s report into the so-called Oilgate scandal comes as no surprise, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday. Mushwana said in his report that he found no evidence of wrongdoing in the Oilgate scandal.
Western Cape police are investigating necrophilia and the illegal amputation of body parts at the Salt River mortuary. Superintendent Rian Pool said a pathologist took fluid and tissue samples from a body as a ”precautionary measure” to determine whether the corpse had been sexually violated after death.
A Pretoria cosmetic surgeon has been found guilty of unprofessional conduct for performing unnecessary surgery on a patient and leaving her scarred, the Health Professions Council of South Africa said on Thursday. The complaint related to two cosmetic eye operation Jacobus Francois Scholtz performed.
The Communication Workers’ Union on Thursday welcomed the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa’s (Icasa) public hearings aimed at regulating the subsidisation of cellphone handsets. Addressing the Icasa panel, Cell C and MTN representatives said they support the removal of subsidies.
Financial-services groups Old Mutual and Nedbank on Thursday announced one of South Africa’s biggest information and communications technology (ICT) deals to date, which will enable both companies to achieve collectively cost savings of more than R1-billion over the next five years.