Plettenberg Bay’s Bitou council has asked for advice from lawyers on how it should deal with the allegations against its municipal manager and its former mayor, speaker Lawrence Luiters said on Thursday. A report by the special investigating unit recommends criminal and disciplinary action against the two men.
It is time for politicians and security-force officers to face the music for their role in apartheid-era human rights violations, a Cape Town conference heard on Thursday. Former Truth and Reconciliation Commission member Yasmin Sooka said she would like to see ”those who created this milieu” brought to book.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has turned down an invitation to be part of the South African delegation at next month’s special United Nations session on HIV/Aids. TAC general secretary Sipho Mthathi said the process of selecting and announcing the delegation had been unsatisfactory.
Most new taxis did not fully comply with safety requirements published last year, Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe said on Thursday. However, most ”can be said to substantially meet the basic requirements”, he told an Eastern Cape transport conference in East London.
Fewer South Africans are gambling, according to a new study on the socio-economic impact of the practice in South Africa conducted by the Bureau of Market Research at the University of South Africa. The gambling industry now contributed just under 1% of South Africa’s gross domestic product, while only 1,7% of household budgets was spent on gambling.
The Department of Health has rejected a demand for the inclusion of the Aids Law Project in South Africa’s delegation to next month’s special United Nations session on HIV/Aids. The demand was made by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) as a precondition for its acceptance of its own inclusion on the list.
The Southern Spears are still in the dark about their participation in next year’s Super 14. SA Rugby’s board of directors met in Cape Town on Tuesday to discuss the franchise’s state of readiness and delayed a decision until Friday. ”The meeting discussed the Southern Spears issue at length,” SA Rugby said in a statement.
Police found the car of murdered fashion designer Richard Bloom abandoned in the parking lot of a Cape Town shopping mall shortly before 2am on Wednesday. Bloom and his friend, actor Brett Goldin — who starred in the comedy Crazy Monkey Presents Straight Outta Benoni — were found dead beside a highway on Monday morning having been shot in the back of their heads.
SA Rugby board of directors has decided to halt the participation of the Southern Spears in the Vodacom Super 14 next year, and instead put measures in place to help the franchise and the region reach acceptable levels of readiness. The board said it was aware that the decision might not go down well with some members of the affected communities.
Cape Town’s city manager Wallace Mgoqi has been accused by his mayor Helen Zille as being ”instrumental” in an attempt to bring down the DA-led multi-party municipality. ”Dr Wallace Mgoqi was instrumental in assisting this attempt to bring down the elected council,” Zille claimed on Tuesday.
A black economic empowerment company led by Mutle Mogase, chairperson of Vantage Capital, has bought a 28% stake in the Goedemoed, Vredendal, grape and tomato farming business run by Abrie Botha, a leading figure in Western Cape agriculture.
Five people were arrested on Monday in connection with the murders of Crazy Monkey — Straight Outta Benoni actor Brett Goldin and a friend Richard Bloom. Their bodies were found in a field next to the off-ramp from the M5 freeway to Klipfontein road in Mowbray, Cape Town, early on Monday, Superintendent Billy Jones said.
Celebrities Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who have catapulted sleepy Namibia to overnight international fame, plan to have their baby in the Southern African nation and even give it a local name, according to a South African newspaper. The couple are reportedly staying at the luxury Burning Shores resort hotel between the scenic old colonial German town of Swakopmond.
The probe into the ”bolt in the generator” incident at the Koeberg nuclear power station is continuing, and the process of bringing the damaged unit back on line is on track, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Thursday. The investigation by the ”appropriate agency” was continuing and it would announce any arrests.
The turmoil in the city of Cape Town administration could endanger major investments planned ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool warned on Wednesday. He was speaking after the African National Congress appealed for provincial intervention to end what it called the ”chaos” in the city.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma will oppose a high court bid to overturn her decision on alleged sex-pest ambassador Norman Mashabane, her spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said. He was responding to the Public Servants’ Association (PSA), which said it had received notice from the state attorney that both the minister and Mashabane were withdrawing their opposition.
The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) has issued a spring tide warning ahead of the full moon on Thursday, advising people to take care everywhere along the South African coast. Swells would be stronger than usual, and deep-sea fishermen and seafarers, sailers, paddlers, surfers, bathers, anglers and recreational boaters should take special precautions, said an institute spokesperson.
The state of health care in the Eastern Cape under the stewardship of sacked provincial minister Bevan Goqwana had been ”deplorable”, the watchdog Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) said on Tuesday. ”The PSAM calls on the premier to urgently appoint a suitably qualified replacement,” the Grahamstown-based organisation said in a media statement.
It is an ”objectively determinable factual reality” that beans make you fart, according to the Advertising Standards Authority. It made the ruling in rejecting a complaint by the Dry Bean Producers Organisation against a television commercial for Wildeklawer Sweet Onions.
Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela on Monday fired her provincial ministers for health and economic affairs, Dr Bevan Goqwana and Andre de Wet, both of whom she has clashed with in recent weeks. She named Mbulelo Sogoni to take over from De Wet, while social development minister Thokozile Xasa will temporarily take on Goqwana’s portfolio.
Cape Town city manager Wallace Mgoqi on Monday evening brushed aside a council decision to terminate his contract, saying he will be in the office as usual on Tuesday. A full council meeting on Monday morning resolved to revoke former mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo’s decision to extend Mgoqi’s contract for a year.
Lies, and lies within lies, were the topic of the day as the LeisureNet trial entered its second week in the Cape High Court on Monday. The liquidated group’s former in-house architect Dawid Rabie was being cross-examined on his evidence that joint chief executives Peter Gardener and Rodney Mitchell pressured him into handing over  000 in kickbacks.
The City of Cape Town’s municipal council has revoked former Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo’s decision to extend city manager Wallace Mgoqi’s contract for a year, meaning that Mgoqi is no longer the city manager for Cape Town, new Mayor Helen Zille said in a statement on Monday.
The opposition Democratic Alliance will on Tuesday submit a private member’s Bill in Parliament that seeks to amend the Constitution so as to disallow public representatives from becoming a member of another party while retaining their seats — so-called ”floor-crossing”, according to DA head Tony Leon.
The average price of wines sold at the 32nd Nederburg Auction over the weekend fell 25% from those attained in 2005, with the market experiencing a correction after having soared 90% last year. The 2006 auction, which returned to a two-day format and offered more wine versus 2005, also saw the return to prominence of supermarkets amongst the buyers.
South Africa’s competition tribunal has prohibited the proposed R403,8-million merger between listed retailer and distributor Massmart and sports retail group Moresport. Announcing its decision on Monday, the tribunal said it would hand down its reasons for the refusal in due course.
Northerns ground out a significant advantage on the third day of the SAA Provincial Challenge Final at Newlands on Saturday. After dismissing Western Province early in the day’s play, they had worked their way to a lead of 180 with seven wickets in hand by the time bad light stopped play a few minutes before the scheduled close.
If an insect is going to crawl into your ear while you’re sleeping, it will most likely be a cockroach, according to the South African Medical Journal. The latest edition of the journal carries a list, compiled by Cape Town doctor Gary Kroukamp and entomologist Jason Londt, of the bugs hauled out of patients’ ears over a two-year period at Cape Town’s Tygerberg Hospital.
A South African Revenue Service (Sars) investigator threatened to arrest the wife of a state witness in the LeisureNet trial, the Cape High Court heard on Friday. LeisureNet’s former in-house architect, Dawid Rabie, was being cross-examined by defence advocate Francois van Zyl on a statement in his evidence-in-chief that he had been put under ”severe pressure” after being arrested by the Scorpions.
Pleading confidentiality for not revealing what Monday’s full council meeting will discuss regarding the continued tenure of Cape Town’s city manager, mayor Helen Zille on Friday ruled out a mooted R1-million golden handshake. ”This multi-party government is saying we are drawing the line at the public purse being used as a piggy bank for golden handshakes.”
A dispute over South Africa’s economic direction lies at the heart of the conflict within the African National Congress, Democratic Alliance acting leader James Selfe said on Friday. ”The spy scandal that has emerged in recent weeks has shaken the foundations of our democratic order and has exposed the fault lines within the ruling party,” he said in the DA leader’s weekly newsletter.
Life assurer Old Mutual was on Thursday ordered to pay a yet-to-be-determined amount of compensation to a black employee labelled a ”kaffir” by a colleague. ”At the heart of this matter lies a view, shared by far too many people, that the word ‘kaffir’ is not as hurtful as some others [Africans in particular] would have it,” Labour Court Judge Elna Revelas said in a ruling handed down in Cape Town.