The African National Congress parliamentary caucus has publicly backed the decision of the forum for the minister of housing and provincial housing ministers to remove the Democratic Alliance-led City of Cape Town from the N2 Gateway Housing Project ”with immediate effect”.
The South African government has urged Israel to act with the utmost self-restraint in ensuring the legitimate defence and security of its own people. ”The South African government wishes to express its concern at the continuing Israeli military actions in the occupied territories,” the Department of Foreign affairs said in a statement on Thursday.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has welcomed the plea-bargain agreement entered into by a travel operator with the directorate of special operations. The NPA it said that travel operator Shamima Lamalia had entered into a plea-bargain agreement on Thursday. The case relates to Parliament’s travel fraud, which has been dubbed ”Travelgate”.
It was unclear on Thursday what the condition was of Elita, wife of hospitalised former president FW de Klerk, a family spokesperson said. He confirmed that Elita had been admitted to Cape Town’s Panaroma medi-clinic, which is also treating her husband, on Wednesday evening after she developed a stress-induced allergic reaction.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance is to call on Auditor General Shauket Fakie to carry out a forensic audit of housing departments in all the provinces and at national level. Standing committee on public accounts DA member Eddie Trent said national and provincial housing officials were unable to account for irregularities involving more than R300-million.
The South African government repeated denials on Wednesday that the deportation of Pakistani illegal immigrant Khalid Mahmood Rashid amounted to unlawful rendition. Rashid’s lawyer Zehir Omar seems bent on portraying the government as breaking its own laws and constitutional provisions, government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said in Cape Town.
Former businessman and politician Themba James Maseko is the new head of government communications, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad announced on Wednesday afternoon. Maseko, a former African National Congress MP, becomes CEO of the Government Communication and Information Systems, which makes him spokesperson for the government.
The Scorpions welcomed an appeal against a precedent-setting Cape High Court judgement on Wednesday, in which illicit diamond trader Tony Dos Santos was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. The appeal ”will allow the jurisprudence relating to racketeering to be developed so that it finds national application”, the Scorpions said.
”Oh Lord, I’m burning.” These were the last words of 21-year-old Pollsmoor prisoner Marilyn Syfers as flames engulfed her cell on the evening of April 4 this year. They are recorded in an affidavit from a fellow inmate, which forms part of the documentation of the official inquiry into the incident. Some details of the tragedy have already been made public.
The start of the Soccer World Cup has had an unexpected benefit for blackout-plagued Cape Town, the city’s manager for public lighting, Charles Kadalie, said on Wednesday. He said a drop in evening peak electricity demand in residential areas has been noticeable since Friday, when the tournament got under way in Germany.
The aroma of meat sizzling on the side of the road was an incongruous distraction at the entrance to Virgin Active’s new Khayelitsha ”township gym”, which aims to educate local residents about the advantages of a healthy diet and exercise. ”It’s not going to be easy to convince them, but we must convince them bit by bit,” said trainee assistant Noxolo Jaho on Wednesday.
Hospitalised former president FW de Klerk had a ”peaceful” night after a tracheotomy was successfully performed, Panorama Medi-Clinic said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Melissa Rademan said De Klerk was in a stable condition in an intensive-care unit at the hospital.
Former South African president FW de Klerk is to undergo a tracheotomy, his spokesperson Dave Steward confirmed on Tuesday afternoon. De Klerk originally went to hospital the weekend before last to have a cancerous growth removed from his colon. He has been sedated for about a week.
Mushin Ertugral has been appointed Ajax Cape Town head coach with immediate effect, Ajax CEO John Comitis announced on Tuesday. The former Kaizer Chiefs coach is a replacement for Gordon Igesund, who was fired last week although he still had 12 months to go on his contract.
The former commander of detectives at the Maitland police station was among three police officers remanded in custody by the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. The former commander — Captain Trevor Chetty — and inspectors Ronnie Matthews and John Stevens face charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice.
Members of Parliament have been told to lay off the bottle and stick to tap water. ”There is no need to use bottled water in Parliament; you can use tap water … there is nothing wrong with it,” Water Research Commission CEO Dr Rivka Kfir told members of the National Assembly’s science and technology committee.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille was acting as if she was a ”mayor in opposition”, unable to rise above the interests of her party, the Democratic Alliance, African National Congress Western Cape chairperson James Ngculu said on Tuesday. Ngculu was addressing a media briefing in the city after a two-day meeting of his provincial executive.
The challenging reality of access young girls have to termination-of-pregnancy services is acknowledged in a report by the national Department of Health, detailing the first seven years of abortion legislation in South Africa. The report focuses on the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, implemented in February 1997 and amended in 2004.
The South African National Defence Force rejected claims on Monday that it is excluding whites from promotion — but steps have to be taken ”from time to time to try to correct an abnormality”, defence ministry spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said. ”It is an exercise … that aims to meet representivity imperatives,” he said.
The Western Cape department of local government had its electricity and water reconnected on Friday after it paid R242 000 towards its arrears bill. The department’s city centre building was disconnected on Thursday over what the City of Cape Town said was an outstanding amount of over R724 000.
Hospitalised former president FW de Klerk is recovering well, his family said on Friday. ”He’s very relaxed at the moment and everyone is very positive, and it seems as if we’re over the worst and now it’s just the road ahead,” De Klerk’s eldest son, Jan, told the South African Press Association.
Health for all is one of the central goals of South Africa’s reconstruction and development, says South African President Thabo Mbeki, who on Friday indicated that South Africa is putting too few resources into the development of sport, which is currently in the doldrums on the international stage.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has extended a hand to President Thabo Mbeki to assist him in dealing with ”major problems and crises” facing the country. But Leon has warned that the president had in the past refused to accept that his party could oppose the government politically while at the same time cooperate in resolving problems.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) says the state broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), is guilty of news manipulation and propaganda and it will consider a nation-wide campaign against it.
Former state president FW de Klerk had a second operation on Thursday after developing respiratory problems and is on a ventilator, according to Cape Town’s Panorama Medi-Clinic. De Klerk underwent surgery at the clinic on Saturday to remove a tumour, which was later found to be cancerous, from his colon.
The Western Cape treasury is disputing an amount apparently owed to the city of Cape Town, which by noon on Thursday had cut off the water and electricity supply to the provincial department of local government and housing. ”There was agreement in the last month between senior officials from the province and city,” Lynn Brown, provincial minister for finance, said on Thursday.
The Western Cape department of local government office in Cape Town had its water and electricity cut off on Thursday over an unpaid bill of almost R750Â 000. City of Cape Town workers cut off the water to the department’s city centre building at 1.12pm and the electricity shortly after that.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has scoffed at suggestions that the party’s newly-elected Tafelsig ward councillor Sheval Arendse be suspended. Briefing the media at Parliament after Wednesday’s by-election, Leon said he was unaware of any charges against Arendse.
The head of the Medical Research Council (MRC), Professor Anthony MBewu, on Wednesday dismissed as incorrect a set of minutes recording that he agreed to be a medical investigator in Matthias Rath’s South African vitamin campaign. The minutes, compiled by Rath aides, are part of a set of documents recording contact between the controversial German and the MRC in 2004.
The Tafelsig anti-eviction movement on Wednesday called on residents in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain, to boycott a by-election being held in the area. ”We don’t want to vote for anybody, because everybody sold us out,” claimed Ashraf Cassiem, chairperson of the anti-eviction movement in Tafelsig, part of Cape Town.
A tiny minority of individuals has inflicted pain on millions of people in the violence associated with the security sector strike, attacks on local government councillors and those using murder to advance their social and political goals, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. He described the violence as ”an anti-democratic plague”.
There have been further sightings of the critically endangered riverine rabbit beyond its normal distribution, CapeNature said in a statement on Wednesday. ”This is very significant for conservation as it means there is now a whole new area to discover,” read a statement from CapeNature’s Natasha Rockman.