Cape Town

Opposition parties have strongly criticised Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang over her medicine-dispensing fees policy, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) calling for the suspension of the new fees system. ”It may take another protracted … legal battle … to convince the minister,” DA spokesperson Gareth Morgan said on Wednesday.

South African President Thabo Mbeki should use the opportunity of the visit by Sudan’s Vice-President Salva Kiir Mayardit to ”impress upon” the Khartoum government that a strong international peacekeeping force must be allowed to be deployed there as soon as possible, says the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

South Africa will unveil a new plan aimed at fighting its HIV/Aids crisis on Friday, seeking to calm bitter debate. South Africa’s Aids battle has been two-fold, with doctors and community groups struggling to help an estimated five million people infected with the virus and government officials fending off critics.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has asked Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula to explain whether his police national commissioner has been driving around in an impounded stolen vehicle. This follows media reports of impounded vehicles allegedly being used by police officials for work and private purposes.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, PW Botha’s political nemesis, is not prepared to speculate whether the former president is now in heaven or in hell. ”God is the only one who decides,” he told the domestic news agency Sapa in Cape Town on Tuesday.

President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday congratulated his Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) counterpart Joseph Kabila on his affirmation by the DRC Supreme Court as the democratically elected president of the DRC. ”The government and people of South Africa join the international community in welcoming the DRC’s Supreme Court decision …,” Mbeki said.

The owner of Cape Town’s Teazers nightclub, charged with shooting dead a street child for breaking into his car, told police he had thrown the firearm into the sea, the Cape High Court heard on Monday. Police inspector Kenneth Speed told the court this information turned out to be false.

About 12 000 people will flood into Cape Town this weekend for the biggest international conference the city has ever hosted — the three-yearly World Diabetes Congress. The executive director of the International Diabetes Foundation, Luc Hendrickx, told reporters in Cape Town on Monday that diabetes is responsible for about four million deaths worldwide every year.

South Africa may have gone a long way to addressing racial injustices but there is a growing acceptance that its huge wealth gap threatens to derail the achievements of the post-apartheid era. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which shone the light on abuses committed by all sides during apartheid, is credited with playing a major role in reconciling the races of South Africa.

Team Lincoln — Bobby Lincoln and Retief Goosen — captured the seventh Nelson Mandela Invitational title, hosted by Gary Player, with a superb eagle on the second hole of a sudden-death play-off on Sunday. Lincoln sunk a two-foot putt after hitting a stunning seven-iron approach from 171m to the par-five 18th.

Two-time United States Open champion Retief Goosen’s hot putter guided Team Lincoln to a two-shot lead after the first round of the 2006 Nelson Mandela Invitational, hosted by Gary Player. The Goose and senior pro Bobby Lincoln signed for 10-under-par 62 thanks to an inward nine 29 from Goosen.

Bidvest Wits salvaged a point when they played to a goalless draw in their Premier Soccer League encounter against Santos at the Greenpoint Stadium on Friday night. Wits toiled hard all evening but found the Santos defence in form, especially Musa Ongao who was outstanding as he broke up many of the Wits waves of attack.

The longer police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi stays in office, the stronger will be the impression that ”with the right friends, one could get away with murder”, the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) said on Friday. ”It is in the interests of combating crime in South Africa that Selebi vacates his position,” a party spokesperson said.

A Johannesburg woman told delegates to an international conference at the University of Cape Town on Thursday how she was robbed of her car last month by ”humane” hijackers — one of whom even gave her advice on how to avoid being hijacked again in future.

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon on Friday accused the Presidency of ”a glaring double standard” in its treatment of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi. Writing in his weekly newsletter, Leon referred to the September 7 2003 allegation that then-National Prosecuting Authority director Bulelani Ngcuka had been a police spy during the apartheid era.

South Africans should not be surprised at the anger and brutality that was sweeping the streets when they continued to refuse to acknowledge the socio-economic inequalities in the country, Dr Mamphela Ramphele said on Thursday. Ramphele was speaking in Cape Town at a conference reflecting on the work of the former Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad on Thursday rejected any notion that China has ”sinister motives” in Africa. Briefing journalists in Pretoria and Cape Town, he said China’s involvement in Africa was relatively new. ”I want to believe that the Chinese government realises that the relationship cannot just consist of receiving our raw materials,” he said.

Security steps have been taken at the Kruger National Park in the wake of attacks at four entrance gates and camps of the park between August and October, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has said. Armed Kruger National Park security and ranger personnel have been deployed at all entrance gates.

The Democratic Alliance on Tuesday urged Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to establish a special task team to investigate the ”complete breakdown” of financial and operational management in the Limpopo health department. The Auditor General issued the department with a 21-page qualified audit report for 2005/06.

A community of shack dwellers in the dusty Cape Town township of Mfuleni gathered on Monday to thank a group of Irish volunteers building brick homes to replace their corrugated iron ones. A group of around 350 volunteers are in Africa’s southernmost city this week to help build 50 houses in Mfuleni as part of a larger project to build 720 houses.

Failure to deal with preventable chronic diseases such as those induced by smoking and overeating could erode the gains made in combating other types of disease, public health expert Dr Derek Yach said on Monday. Yach, director of global health programmes at the Rockefeller Foundation, was speaking at a conference in Cape Town.

The presidential task team on African traditional medicines has been compromised by the inclusion of Professor Herbert Vilakazi and advocate Christine Qunta, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. The inclusion of Vilakazi and Qunta is a giant step backwards in developing a regulatory framework for traditional medicines, DA spokesperson Gareth Morgan said.