Johannesburg International airport’s name will change to OR Tambo airport, probably in October, Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan announced in Parliament on Thursday. "I am formally announcing that I am approving the name change," he told the National Assembly. The name change was initially proposed by the local municipality.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool will ask President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday for the rain-ravaged Eden district to be declared a disaster area, Rasool’s office said. ”The premier will today [Thursday] speak to the president and ask for him to declare it a disaster area. This will immediately free extra funding to do repairs,” said Rasool’s spokesperson, Shado Twala.
Roelf Meyer, former National Party Cabinet minister and key negotiator in South Africa’s transition to democracy, has applied for membership of the African National Congress. Confirming this on Thursday, he was, however, at pains to emphasise that he had no intention of re-entering active politics.
Pursuing solutions, rather than calling for more police, prisons and harsher sentences, are needed when addressing the current crime wave, according to a report released on Wednesday. The document — Building the Peace: A Kairos on Violent Crime — was drawn up by religious, political, business, academic and media leaders, and made public at a launch in Cape Town.
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) chairperson Zackie Achmat on Wednesday appealed directly to his African National Congress (ANC) ”comrades” to support the TAC’s call for the minister of health to be sacked. Achmat made the call during a special address to the Cape Town city council.
The Moerane commission, which investigated South Africa’s fuel-supply crisis suffered late last year, has reported that another supply crisis could emerge in the second half of this year because of scheduled refinery shutdowns. But Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica says she has a task team in place with the industry.
A large segment of South Africa’s black middle class believes marketers and advertisers are making stereotyped efforts to connect with them, according to a study released on Tuesday. The study says 49% of the group feel that they are misrepresented in the media by local marketers and advertisers.
The National Treasury has asked the city of Cape Town to slash the estimated R3,3-billion cost of the Green Point stadium for the Soccer World Cup by 40%, city mayor Helen Zille said on Wednesday. ”This is obviously a tall order, because we are convinced that the costings of the conceptual design are accurate,” she told a meeting of the city council.
National Assembly questions to South African President Thabo Mbeki have been postponed because the head of state has influenza and has been told by a military doctor ”to rest”, the Director General in the Presidency, Frank Chikane, reported to members of the media at Parliament. The questions were to have been put to the president on Wednesday afternoon.
Some parts are used as decorative bangles in certain countries and, at times, it is derisively referred to as a ”fish bag”, but usage of the female condom seems to be rising in South Africa, its second-largest market in the world. The female condom has been around for nearly a decade, and in South Africa it is a focal point of the government’s HIV/Aids programme.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is breaking the law by making unproven claims about the effectiveness of alternative ”treatments” for Aids, according to the South African Medical Association. She has been dubbed ”Dr Beetroot” because of her advocacy of a beetroot, garlic and lemon diet for people with Aids.
The tobacco industry is ”on top of things” when it comes to the government’s proposed tougher anti-smoking legislation, according to the Democratic Alliance’s former health spokesperson, Dianne Kohler-Barnard. She also said she will ”fight to the death” for smokers’ rights. She made these statements last month in a series of e-mails.
South Africa’s Department of Agricultural and Land Affairs has no legislation or policy providing for the settlement of black farmers at the expense of others, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana said on Tuesday. ”Where black farmers are settled on land previously owned by white … farmers, due processes within the constitutional framework … will continue to be followed.”
Former Cape Town City manager Wallace Mgoqi could face a bill of almost R9-million over alleged irregular spending he authorised on a jewellery city project. He could also face criminal charges, mayoral committee member for finance Ian Nielson told a media briefing on Tuesday.
South Africa’s skills challenges "manifest especially" in those areas of the economy that need technical and specialised skills, such as engineers in mining as well as in the chemical, electrical, mechanical and nuclear fields, while artisans, geologists and economists are also needed, Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica said on Tuesday.
South Africa doesn’t have any plans "at the moment" to ease the continued burden of fuel increases on the South African public and any subsidy through the use of the country’s equalisation fund will quickly dry up, Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica told an MP on Tuesday.
Former president FW de Klerk on Monday said he respected Adriaan Vlok’s apology to Frank Chikane, and wondered why Vlok’s motives were being questioned. ”The inability of many of his fellow citizens to accept even so sincere and humble an apology is an indication of the profound and unresolved differences over our past,” said De Klerk in a statement.
African communication ministers are gathered in Kigali, Rwanda, ahead of the signing of a policy framework agreement for one of the continent’s biggest broadband network projects, the South African government’s news service, BuaNews, reported on Monday.
Learning from previous hosts Germany, South Africa has a wonderful opportunity to ensure that the 2010 Soccer World Cup conforms to the principles of sustainable development, a top United Nations official said on Monday. ”You have to look at multiple benefits,” said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
If passed by Parliament as it stands, the Health Professions Amendment Bill will effectively make professional medical boards in South Africa arms of the government, the Democratic Alliance warned on Monday. The party is therefore proposing four key amendments to the measure, DA health spokesperson Gareth Morgan told a parliamentary media briefing.
Outgoing Auditor General (AG) Shauket Fakie has been appointed to head multinational telecommunications group MTN’s business risk management, the group announced on Monday. Fakie’s term of office as AG is set to end in November, and he will take up his new post on January 1 2007.
Building a non-racial society was one of South Africa’s greatest challenges, but nowhere was it more challenging than in the Western Cape, President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday. There was a greater sensitivity to issues of race in the region than anywhere else in the country, he told a media briefing in Cape Town.
A Parow couple who allegedly locked their pit bull terrier bitch in a wooden kennel, then set the kennel alight, appeared in the Bellville Regional Court on Friday charged with cruelty to animals. They face two charges — allegedly setting the dog, named Tammy, alight, and the deliberate or negligent failure to take the severely burnt dog to a veterinary surgeon afterwards.
Jailed African National Congress fraudster Tony Yengeni has been transferred to Malmesbury prison, the Cape Argus reported on Friday. The newspaper also said Yengeni was given a big lunch in a prison boardroom before leaving. Quoting an unnamed warder, it said Yengeni was driven to the modern jail, about 60km north of Cape Town.
The ongoing spat over South Africa’s response under Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to HIV and Aids undermines the common struggle against the epidemic, the African National Congress said on Friday. ”Whatever criticisms anyone may have … the current climate of heightened discord does not serve the interests of the … struggle against the epidemic,” the party said.
South Africa is making good progress in improving the lives of all its citizens, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. ”[The Reserve Bank’s 2006 annual economic report] says that we are making steady progress towards the achievement of our objectives, based on the healthy economic fundamentals that we need to enable us to move forward,” he said in his weekly newsletter.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is focusing on the achievement of an umbrella customs union for the 14-member states by 2010, and the matter of monetary regional integration has received "a high level of attention" at its most recent meeting, South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa said on Friday.
The Film and Publications Amendment Bill, which this week received the nod from the South African Cabinet, has crucial long-term implications for the future of the free exchange of ideas in South Africa, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. He said the Bill "is a proposed amendment to the Film and Publications Act — always an arena of controversy in a country with a .. history of censorship".
The public protector’s report on the investigation into allegations of unethical and improper conduct by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, which cleared her of any of any improper behaviour regarding her Christmas holiday trip to the United Arab Emirates, said she is free to take leave and travel to any destination in terms of the government’s policy guidelines.
Six opposition parties urged President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday to sack Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, while her ministry said she had no plans to quit. ”The ministry of health reiterates its position that the minister of health will not resign,” read a statement issued in the afternoon by her spokesperson, Sibani Mngadi.
The Azanian Youth Organisation (Azayo) should pursue its campaign to change South Africa’s name to Azania through Parliament, the Department of Arts and Culture has recommended. The department’s deputy director general, Themba Wakashe, was responding to an Azayo letter to Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan, which said South Africa’s current name reflects the legacy of colonialism.
A Zimbabwean student who allegedly tried to hijack a South African Airways (SAA) flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg may opt for plea-bargain proceedings, the Bellville Regional Court heard on Thursday. The hearing took an unusual turn when University of Cape Town student Tinashe Rioga (21) ended the mandate of attorney Joshua Greeff and appointed attorney Reuben Liddell in his place.