South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has condemned the ”deplorable behaviour” and what it described as ”abusive utterances” of members of the HIV/Aids lobbyist group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) at the Aids conference in Toronto, Canada.
Forty-four Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) members who occupied provincial government offices in Cape Town on Friday to call for the arrest of Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang were themselves arrested. The protesters, who included TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat, were charged with trespassing and warned to appear in court on Tuesday.
South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki cannot demand a new positive image of Africa while continuing to condone the flagrant abuse of office and squandering of public money that typifies so much of the continent, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.
South Africa’s Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang will appear in a live television debate with the shadow health minister Gareth Morgan on Sunday August 20 on SABC TV1. The show will debate the fact that the number of cases of tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa has increased by 400% between 1995 and 2004, and the link between HIV/Aids and TB.
Israel’s action in the Middle East has triggered "unprecedented anti-Americanism" and restiveness on the streets, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Thursday. Noting that the international community now needs to resolve the situation, he said: "I want to warn that the potential for increased terrorism is greater today than it has ever been."
Pre-HIV test counselling may be a luxury South Africa can no longer afford given the scale of the pandemic, according to Judge Edwin Cameron. Cameron, himself HIV positive, said in an article in the latest newsletter of the South African HIV Clinicians’ Society that Aids is now a medically manageable disease, and no longer a necessarily fatal condition.
South African aviation security does not fully conform to international security standards. This much is admitted by the Civil Aviation Authority, whose website notes that a national aviation safety plan, effective since 2004, is not compliant with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s standards.
There is no evidence of any organised group of any sort being the agent of an act of sabotage at Koeberg — which led to the shutdown of the nuclear plant earlier this year — South Africa’s Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin told Parliament on Thursday. Erwin was speaking after months of controversy over remarks he made the day before the local government elections on March 1.
The economic collapse of South Africa’s neighbouring state, Zimbabwe, is stripping South Africa of economic growth of about 2% per year, yet South African President Thabo Mbeki has "handed over the baton" to others to resolve the political impasse in that country, Zimbabwe opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) policy adviser Eddie Cross said on Thursday.
South Africa is pressing ahead with a law to ban mercenaries, clouding the prospects of thousands of South Africans now fighting for foreign armies or working for security companies in Iraq. But critics say the draft law will have far-reaching consequences for South African soldiers fighting for legitimate foreign forces.
South Africans are heading to the point where the country will be as wealthy as it was in 1981 — a 25-year gap of economic decline and claw-back — with a per capita income per head of about R24Â 000 a year, futures trend analyst JP Landman told the Cape Town Press Club on Wednesday.
South Africa’s National Assembly has given the nod to an ad hoc committee recommendation that Terrence Mncedisi Nombembe, the current Deputy Auditor General, be approved as the new auditor general. The current Auditor General, Shauket Fakie, retires at the end of November.
Detailing the suffering of a late Durban Westville prisoner, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) chairperson Zackie Achmat on Wednesday called for homicide charges to be instituted against two Cabinet ministers. Achmat, supported by a group of TAC activists, made the call after occupying the offices of the South African Human Rights Commission in central Cape Town.
A sum of  000 deposited in an offshore trust set up by LeisureNet boss Peter Gardener was cash for a joint investment in property, not an extortion payment, the Cape High Court was told on Wednesday. Gardener, former joint chief executive of the now-defunct group, was in the witness stand for the third day in succession.
The African National Congress in the Western Cape on Wednesday condemned overtures allegedly made to disgraced former party members, Truman Prince and Jeffrey Donson, by the Democratic Alliance. ”The ANC removed both Donson and Prince because they were an embarrassment to the ANC and the councils they lead,” Max Ozinsky, the ANC’s provincial deputy secretary said.
Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is welcome to continue his exile in South Africa as long as necessary, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Dlamini-Zuma on Wednesday said that the open invitation was part of the international process to create ”peace and stability in Haiti”. Aristide fled Haiti in February 2004 amid violent unrest.
The Boland Rugby Union has served charge sheets on the two clubs involved in the match in which Riaan Loots was fatally injured earlier this year. Attorney for the union Chris Faure said on Wednesday that charge sheets had also been served on five players, one spectator and seven officials.
Further work is required on the accrual accounting format that is being adopted by the South African government, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. He was replying to a question from official opposition Democratic Alliance finance spokesperson Ian Davidson.
South Africa’s Parliament approved legislation on Tuesday for the 2010 World Cup, with lawmakers showing rare unanimity that South Africa will be ready to host soccer’s biggest event. ”The World Cup offers us an opportunity to present ourselves to the world for what we really can be,” Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile said.
Former LeisureNet boss Peter Gardener on Tuesday denied that the purchase of a R7-million home at Hermanus by an offshore trust he set up was an attempt to launder money. In the witness box in the Cape High Court for the second day in succession, Gardener also denied that he was dishonest with his tax return in concealing a R6-million payment into the trust.
The South African Observer Mission (SAOM) to the July 30 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presidential and parliamentary elections says it is happy with progress made in capturing the results, despite difficulties at the start of the process. The 108-member SAOM to the DRC elections was the largest ever to be dispatched by the South African government.
A contentious South African draft Bill to prevent nationals from working as hired guns abroad on Tuesday came a step closer to being promulgated into law after its approval by a parliamentary committee. The draft law was approved by Parliament’s defence portfolio committee with a majority vote by members of the ruling African National Congress. But opposition lawmakers called it flawed, sloppy and unconstitutional.
The Western Cape is losing its tag as the murder capital of the country, provincial minister of community safety Leonard Ramatlakane said on Tuesday when announcing the intensification of a provincial crime-combating strategy. ”We are making a dent, an impact … We are winning the battle,” an upbeat Ramatlakane told reporters. He said Capetonians could look forward to the release of crime statistics in September.
This week’s Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state summit will have to look at how to revitalise the implementation of the economic-integration agenda of the region, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. South Africa’s predominant position in intra-regional trade will also have to be a matter of discussion, he said.
South African economic relations with Iran were "on the increase", but peace and stability in the Middle East was key to the relationship, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. Addressing a media conference in Cape Town, he said that a joint commission would be held in Pretoria on Monday and Tuesday next week.
The Addo Elephant National Park is set to become the third-largest national park in the country, according to South African National Parks. The park’s new southern access road was officially opened by the minister of environmental affairs and tourism on Tuesday, coinciding with the park’s 75th-anniversary celebrations.
The South African government has no plans to change its policy of allowing the market to determine the level of the exchange rate, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Monday. She said that currency volatility "tends to occur when inflows and outflows are large and one-way".
The development of a massive dam in water-scarce Limpopo province raises concerns the government is compromising principles of sustainable development for economic progress. And while the construction of large dams has undoubtedly fuelled industrial growth, it has come at a cost to the environment and taxpayers, displacing communities and even changing local climates.
Former joint chief executive of the defunct LeisureNet group Peter Gardener on Monday defended his non-disclosure of a substantial interest in an offshore company that the group entered into multimillion-rand deals with. He has taken the stand in the Cape High Court to rebut multiple charges of fraud, money laundering and contraventions of the Companies Act.
South Africa has urged all parties to the Middle East conflict to ”maintain the cessation of hostilities” and work towards a solution. In a statement on Monday, the Department of Foreign Affairs welcomed the United Nations Security Council resolution adopted on Friday, which called for an immediate end to hostilities between Israel and Lebanon.
A growing number of HIV-positive people in South Africa are living normal lives in one of the countries worst hit by Aids. But this maturing stage in the epidemic brings new policy dilemmas for officials seeking to track Africa’s expanding Aids crisis and to make long-term plans to treat millions of infected people.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance has welcomed the indication from the South African Communist Party (SACP) that it may go it alone in the next election. DA finance spokesperson Ian Davidson was reacting to reports following the 17th plenary session of the SACP’s central committee held in Johannesburg at the weekend.