Staff at Johannesburg International airport are to receive skills training to improve customer-service levels in preparation for the Fifa 2010 Soccer World Cup, South African government news agency BuaNews reported on Monday. The Airports Company South Africa has already made R3,5-billion available for infrastructure investment in preparation for South Africa’s hosting of the Cup.
The Airports Company South Africa has reviewed the infrastructure and service requirements that the 2010 Soccer World Cup will place on smaller airports and was satisfied that these airports will be prepared — but there will be an R80-million expansion and refurbishment programme at four of these airports.
Public funds for national roads will almost triple to R3,5-billion in the 2008/09 financial year from the R1,2-billion allocation of 2002/03, Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe has divulged. In reply to a question on Monday from Democratic Alliance MP Stuart Farrow, the minister said that provincial roads’ allocations will grow from R5,2-billion rand to R11,8-billion in the same period.
The death of veteran journalist Barry Streek had robbed news writing in South Africa of one of its most committed exponents, colleagues said in tribute on Friday. A long-time committee member and former vice-chairperson of the Cape Town Press Club, Streek died earlier in the day after a long struggle with cancer. He was 58.
The death of veteran journalist Barry Streek had robbed news writing in South Africa of one of its most committed exponents, colleagues said in tribute on Friday. A long-time committee member and former vice-chairperson of the Cape Town Press Club, Streek died earlier in the day after a long struggle with cancer. He was 58.
The grim state of public education in South Africa highlights the fact that — in spite of "pretentious rhetoric" about a national-democratic revolution and transformation — the African National Congress has failed to facilitate access to opportunity for most South Africans, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.
The insurance and investment giant Old Mutual has raised a Chinese wall over the bidding process associated with what could be Africa’s largest commercial property sale — the V&A Waterfront — for which multibillion-rand bids close on Monday for the parastatal Transnet’s property in Cape Town.
President Thabo Mbeki’s office stated on Thursday that it had no recollection of a meeting held with French arms company Thomson-CSF (now Thales), but said if such a meeting did take place it must have been ”in a situation with others or of such import that it held no meaningful significance”.
The Cape Town city council will prepare for Green Point to host a 2010 Soccer World Cup semifinal match in the hope that the national government will deliver on its financial promises. ”We accept in good faith the national government’s commitment to these costs, but we need to know for sure before we sign the final contracts,” mayor Helen Zille said on Thursday.
A private member’s Bill intended to compensate victims of violent crime has been submitted by the Democratic Alliance (DA) at Parliament. Crime was a national crisis and ”everyone knows a victim, or is a victim” of violent crime, said DA safety and security spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard.
The African National Congress has condemned the killing of two police officers in Langa, Cape Town, on Wednesday, and called on anyone with information to come forward so that justice can be done. ”We hope the perpetrators of this crime will be brought to book and be removed from society,” ANC provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha said on Thursday.
They belch hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year, but South Africa’s coal-fired power stations will remain the major suppliers of the country’s energy needs for years to come, Eskom said on Wednesday. ”We need to be very clear: coal will remain a major, major part of our [energy] supply,” Eskom said.
The end of the marathon Roodefontein corruption trial came into sight on Wednesday as former Western Cape premier Peter Marais decided to exercise his right to silence. As the state and his co-accused, former Western Cape provincial minister of environment David Malatsi, closed their cases, Marais’s advocate Craig Webster asked for half an hour to consult his client.
Cape Town councillor Sheval Arendse distanced himself from his wife Pamela’s behaviour on Wednesday, after she pleaded guilty and paid a fine in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court for fraud. Mother-of-two Pamela paid a R5 000 fine for illegally receiving a child grant — money she was not entitled to.
Hundreds of ostriches are being culled following an outbreak of avian influenza near Mossel Bay, the Western Cape’s veterinary chief said on Wednesday. ”At least a couple of thousand will be culled,” said Dr James Kitching. He said the number is small — about the same number a single abattoir handles in a week.
Former Western Cape provincial minister of environment David Malatsi lied to a Scorpions investigator in order to save his own skin, the Bellville Regional Court was told on Tuesday. Malatsi — in the witness box for the fifth day in succession — was being questioned by prosecutor Bruce Morrison on a 234-page statement he gave to the Scorpions in 2003.
Avian influenza detected in poultry north-west of Mossel Bay is under control, the Department of Land Affairs and Agriculture said on Tuesday. ”The virus has been classified as type H5N2 which is not known to infect humans, unlike the H5N1 virus that has caused disease in humans in Asia, Europe and North Africa”, said spokesperson Nare Mabuela.
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) staff and officials will have three days to make submissions to an independent commission probing the public broadcaster’s alleged blacklisting of certain political analysts. Commissioners have set aside this Friday and Saturday and next Monday to hear submissions, an SABC statement read on Monday.
The government’s plan to establish a seventh regional electricity distributor (RED) to take care of the power-supply distribution for all non-metro municipalities may end up "fixing" non-existent problems, says the official opposition Democratic Alliance.
Western Province left no doubt that they are back as a major force on the domestic rugby scene with a courageous 20-13 Currie Cup victory over the Cheetahs at Newlands on Saturday. As was the case the previous week against the Bulls, Luke Watson and company were given no chance of pulling off a victory, but again they defied the odds.
The documentary on South African President Thabo Mbeki, recently rejected by the state broadcaster, the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), sounds like ”something of a left-wing hatchet job”, official opposition communications spokesperson Dene Smuts said on Friday.
A Cape High Court judge ruled on Friday that the Southern Spears do not have to put down almost a quarter of a million rand as security for costs ahead of next week’s court battle against SA Rugby. ”I’m absolutely thrilled and delighted,” said Spears chief executive Tony McKiever afterwards.
South Africa’s food-fortification programme is generating interest throughout the continent, but it is too early to determine the effect on the health of South Africans, a World Health Organisation affiliate said recently. In 2003 South Africa was one of four countries — the others are China, Morocco and Vietnam — that received a fortification grant from Gain, with South Africa’s largesse valued at ,8-million.
A Limpopo chief, Fhulumani Kutama, was elected unopposed on Thursday as chairperson of the National House of Traditional Leaders. He replaces Mpiyezintombi Mzimela, who left the post after the dissolution of the house of traditional leaders in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Whether or not there was enough water for the Roodefontein development should not have held up his department’s decision on its approval, former Western Cape environment provincial minister David Malatsi said on Thursday. He was testifying in the Bellville Regional Court, where he and former premier Peter Marais face corruption charges.
The Zimbabwean student accused of trying to hijack a South African Airways (SAA) domestic flight last month was denied bail in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. Tinashe Rioga (21) had failed to prove the exceptional circumstances necessary for bail to be granted, Magistrate Suzette Marais ruled.
The circumcision death toll in the Eastern Cape has reached 19 with news on Thursday of the death of another would-be initiate, the provincial health department said. An official said the 18-year-old youth died after being circumcised at an illegal initiation school in the Libode area of Transkei.
There had been nothing inappropriate about socialising with Italian Count Riccardo Agusta while his own department was deciding on Riccardo’s planned Roodefontein golf estate development, former Western Cape environment MEC David Malatsi said on Wednesday.
Millionaire Italian developer Count Riccardo Agusta doled out donation cheques to senior New National Party members in the Western Cape government after they intervened on his behalf in the Roodefontein development, the Bellville Regional Court heard on Tuesday. This was in testimony from former Western Cape environment and development planning provincial minister David Malatsi.
A performance audit of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) by Auditor General Shauket Fakie has shown that it was owed 71% of its total levies by municipalities — a total of R135,3-million — by the end of the 2004/05 financial year. At the same time, the organisation hiked its salary budget between 2004/05 and 2005/06 from R39-million to R49,4-million.
Technology can be used to empower individuals, promote economic growth and reduce inequality, former United States president Bill Clinton told a conference in Cape Town on Tuesday. He was speaking on the final day of deliberations at the Government Leaders Forum-Africa conference.
The cost of connectivity is the biggest factor inhibiting more access to computers, specifically in developing continents such as Africa, Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates said in Cape Town on Tuesday. ”That cost is much higher in places where there are less people connected,” Gates told an audience attending the final day of the Government Leaders Forum-Africa conference.