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.
Consideration of legislation by South African members of Parliament to provide Fifa with a legislative platform to manage South Africa’s hosting of the World Cup in 2010 began at Parliament on Tuesday — with a discussion whether previous versions of the South African flag should be banned during the staging of matches.
South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has ruled out reopening the case of the 1993 assassination of then South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani. NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said it had received a request from the Young Communist League that the case relating to Martin Thembisile "Chris" Hani be reopened.
Police investigating the hijack bid by University of Cape Town student Tinashe Rioga have given up trying to trace the person who sent him the a series of threatening SMS messages, the Bellville Magistrate’s Court heard on Monday. This emerged in evidence at Rioga’s bail application, on which Magistrate Suzette Marais is to rule on Thursday.
The Mthatha General hospital, which serves 2,5-million people in the eastern region of the Eastern Cape, has a 32% vacancy rate among doctors and a 39% vacancy rate among pharmacists, according to figures released by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Monday.
The Zimbabwean student accused of trying to hijack a domestic Johannesburg-bound aircraft last month has alleged he was not informed of his rights, the Bellville Magistrate’s court heard on Monday. However, the investigating officer, Superintendent Lungisile Manyana, denied this under cross-examination.
Official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon was being a "party pooper" by selling South Africa short through his negative comments about the country’s ability to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup, says opposition Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance has announced a reshuffle of four key posts in its shadow cabinet, including the shifting of fiery health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard to the safety and security portfolio. Kohler-Barnard takes over from Free State MP Roy Jankielsohn.
Thirty-eight people, including trade union officials, appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday in connection with the May 16 rampage through Cape Town by striking security guards. The cases were postponed to August 25 for further investigation.
The government has politicised policing to the detriment of South Africans, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday. ”Far from removing policing from the party political arena, this government has actually aggravated the politicisation of policing to the detriment of the safety of its citizens,” he wrote in his weekly newsletter on the DA website.
Government’s social sector cluster of ministries is making steady progress with delivery, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said on Friday. Over 3,4-million children under the age of 14 now received the child-support grant, he said during a media briefing on the implementation of government’s programme of action.
The National House of Traditional Leaders is to appoint a four-member task team to get ”first-hand information” on ongoing problems with traditional circumcision ceremonies. The resolution follows the deaths of 16 youths and the hospitalising of dozens more in the Eastern Cape over the past few weeks.
The Democratic Alliance has challenged Education Minister Naledi Pandor to back its private member’s Bill defining ”basic education”. The Bill in the name of DA MP George Boinamo was submitted to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete on Thursday.
A European Union ban on ostrich imports and meat from two Western Cape districts will not be devastating, the South African Ostrich Business Chamber (SAOBC) said on Thursday. ”It is the low season for ostrich consumption in Europe so most of the abattoirs are closed …, so the effect will not be [as] big as it was in 2004,” said Anton Kruger, chief executive of the SAOBC.
Images of the terrorist attacks on September 11 in the United States flashed through the minds of police when they heard of an attempted hijacking of a South African Airways (SAA) flight on June 17, the investigating officer testified in Cape Town on Wednesday. ”At the airport everybody was emotional and worried,” said Superintendent Lungisile Manyana.
The National Lotteries Board has denied responsibility for the alleged delay in appointing distribution agencies. The board was responding to media reports alleging that charity organisations depending on funding from the lottery were in difficulty as money due to them had not been forthcoming.
The Democratic Alliance is to invoke the Promotion of Access to Information Act in an attempt to force Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula to reveal how many police officers have been killed this year. Nqakula left for Burundi on Tuesday ”at a time when armed criminals are waging a war of their own against police … ”, DA spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said.
Human rights in health care is not just an apartheid-era issue, but one that still challenges health professionals in South Africa today, the director of the Steve Biko Foundation, Nkosinathi Biko, said on Wednesday. ”There is a tendency to think of it mainly in relation to politically derived violations of human rights,” he said at a conference on the subject.
Consumer confidence remained at record-high levels during the second quarter of 2006, according to the latest FNB/BER consumer confidence index (CCI) released on Wednesday. First National Bank (FNB) and Stellenbosch University’s Bureau for Economic Research (BER) said in a statement the CCI declined by an insubstantial one index point.
It is an awe-inspiring sight, watching a nine-tonne attack helicopter perform a loop and barrel rolls, the aeronautical equivalent of Luciano Pavarotti performing a perfect pike on the diving board. But this is exactly what Denel Aviation’s CSH-2 Rooivalk attack helicopter can do, although it is not part of its operational flying capabilities.
Auditor General Shauket Fakie’s latest performance audit of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has revealed serious financial and administrative inefficiencies. The audit tabled in Parliament on Tuesday identified financial and administrative inefficiencies in the management of moneys in trust. It revealed that maintenance and inheritance moneys intended for the poor were not being effectively managed.
A University of Cape Town academic has been temporarily suspended from his research duties and his laboratory closed after an international journal associated him with a herbal tonic touted as an HIV/Aids treatment. ”The University of Cape Town is aware of the report … We regard the allegations in the report in a very serious light,” said spokesperson Skye Grove on Monday.
It seems the African Union (AU) is repeating the ”sad past” of the old Organisation for African Unity, particularly with regard to Zimbabwe and Sudan, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has again outwitted President Thabo Mbeki, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the AU, DA foreign affairs spokesman Douglas Gibson said.