Cape Town

A self-employed man involved in Oprah Winfrey’s philosophy of uplifting the youth was released on R5 000 bail on Monday on a charge of jeopardising the safety of an aircraft flight. Mncedisi Eric Maluleka apparently told a member of the flight crew ”What will you do if me and my friend hijack this plane?”

Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, the conscience of South Africa, celebrated his 75th birthday on Saturday with a gala dinner attended by 1 200 guests, including former president Nelson Mandela. The celebrations for his birthday have lasted for weeks. On Friday, he was guest of honour at a ceremony at the University of South Africa.

President Thabo Mbeki has expressed disappointment at the poor turnout for the centenary celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha (non-violent resistance) in Durban last weekend, saying the truth will out. Writing in his weekly newsletter on the African National Congress (ANC) website on Friday, Mbeki referred to the historic visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Cape Town mayor Helen Zille on Friday assured the city’s residents that disadvantaged people would continue to receive services. ”This month I would like to invite all residents who owe council money for rates and services, but who are unable to pay their debts, to come forward and take advantage of our indigent policy,” she said in a statement.

Mounting anger in the ANC parliamentary caucus over the political management of the Travelgate scandal is focused on chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe, who has been accused by some of those facing charges of sacrificing them to protect more powerful party figures.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has proposed far-reaching measures to improve the management of public finances, including an emergency task team and legislative amendments. ”The management of public money by government in our country is unacceptably poor, and in some cases abysmal,” DA CEO Ryan Coetzee told a media briefing at Parliament on Thursday.

The Young Communist League has urged South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) chief executive Dali Mpofu to make public a report on the SABC’s ”censorship of political journalist[s]”. The public had a right to know the findings of the report so they could make up their own minds on its merits and demerits, a statement said on Thursday.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s voice of conscience during apartheid, is once more at odds with authority over the moral direction of the country as he approaches his 75th birthday. Ten years on from his retirement as archbishop of Cape Town, the indefatigable cleric has lost none of his ability to make those in power squirm as he points out their shortcomings.

South Africa faced a beast with two heads — greed and drunkenness for power, business magnate Saki Macozoma said on Tuesday. Macozoma, who is also a member of the African National Congress’s National Executive Committee , was speaking at a Cape Town seminar organised by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.

Cabinet ministers should conduct themselves as representatives of the people deployed to government office, and not as part of a ruling elite, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Tuesday. Cosatu applauded African National Congress secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe’s ”warning to politicians against alienating the people”, the federation said in a statement.

Repairs to the N7 bridge between the N1 and Frans Conradie Drive in Cape Town will take several months and the bridge will remain closed for at least the next 24 hours, a city official said on Tuesday. Structural supports are being put in place to allow for traffic on the bridge’s eastern span, acting media manager Charles Cooper said in a statement.

President Thabo Mbeki — on behalf of South Africa — has congratulated his Zambian counterpart Levy Mwanawasa on his re-election. ”The government and people of South Africa join the international community in welcoming the outcome of the recently held presidential, parliamentary and local elections in Zambia,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Director General in President Thabo Mbeki’s office, Reverend Frank Chikane, says he now knows the identity of police officers who poisoned him in the late 1980s. In a statement from the Presidency on Monday, it noted that Chikane, a former general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, had revealed on Sunday ”that he now has information about his poisoning”.

Former Hellenic player and Moroka Swallows coach Gavin Hunt returned to his old stadium and collected four points as his team beat Ajax Cape Town 2-1 in their Castle Premiership League match at Green Point on Saturday. Although Ajax had most of the first-half possession, it was Swallows who scored.

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) added its voice on Friday to those supporting High Court Judge Gerhardus Hattingh’s call for a referendum on the death penalty. ”The IFP calls on government to set the wheels of democracy in motion, to allow every citizen of this country to decide for themselves whether or not the death penalty should be reinstated,” IFP Chief Whip Koos van der Merwe said.

A Jacob Zuma presidency would be disastrous for South Africa’s economy and yet the business sector remained silent on the issue, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday. Leon urged business leaders to speak out against the possibility of the African National Congress deputy president taking up the country’s presidency as the ”useful idiot” of the left.

Many of the footballers representing their countries in an international tournament in South Africa this week were remarkably gaunt, sallow-looking and groomed haphazardly. They looked, in fact, as if they had spent the past few years living on the streets. Indeed, that is where these improbable athletes had been spending much of their time before arriving at the Homeless World Cup in Cape Town.

The eighth World Masters Championships, to be played in Cape Town from October 16 to 21, sees the biggest individual squash championships in Africa with 672 players from 31 countries participating in the 16 age-group sections. For the first time since 1995 there will be an over-65 women’s section and an over-75 men’s section.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) wants an urgent national summit on public transport, and will focus its annual Red October Campaign on accessible, affordable, efficient public transport and road safety for all. ”We call on the Ministry of Transport to convene as a matter of urgency a national summit on public transport,” the party said on Wednesday.

South Africa’s National Assembly has signed an agreement with its Chinese equivalent, the 3000-member National People’s Congress. The agreement formalises ”a strategic political partnership” between the two legislatures, Parliament’s public affairs sector said in a statement on Tuesday.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu says some of South Africa’s leaders are sinners and his compatriots have failed to sustain the idealism that brought an end to apartheid. ”Part of our own disillusionment is the high expectations that we had,” Archbishop Tutu told reporters on Monday night.