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.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille believes she can’t afford to be a shrinking violet. She has sought to stamp her authority on a precariously balanced council in which a Democratic Alliance forum with six small parties holds sway, but she will have to fast-track her plans for the city as the African National Congress hopes to oust her during next year’s floor-crossing.
Forensic analysis of Dina Rodrigues’s handwriting had identified her as a suspect in the murder of six-month-old baby Jordan Leigh-Norton, the Cape High Court heard on Thursday. Rodrigues was arrested when she arrived at work while her desk and office were being searched for more handwriting and signature specimens.
A witness in the LeisureNet trial on Thursday told the Cape High Court he plotted with one of the group’s bosses to lie to the official Companies Act inquiry into the collapse of the group. Dawid Rabie was once LeisureNet’s in-house architect and has been in the witness box for two days.
Pan Africanist Congress leader Motsoko Pheko has until April 28 to account for missing parliamentary travel vouchers or face possible civil proceedings, the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday. Pheko’s appearance on Thursday was the latest in the Travelgate liquidation saga.
As the screws started tightening on LeisureNet’s bosses, they instructed their former in-house architect to invest 000 in an overseas development he knew nothing about. The architect, Dawid Rabie, was in the witness box for a second day in the trial of former LeisureNet joint chief executives Peter Gardener and Rodney Mitchell, their business associate Hans Moser, and Mitchell’s wife Suzanne.
Electricity utility Eskom is to launch a major energy conservation campaign next month in an effort to reduce consumption and relieve the current strain on power transmission and distribution facilities, the government announced on Wednesday. The campaign will be ”more intense” in the Western Cape, government communications spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said.
Confirming the suspension of the Eastern Cape’s superintendent general of health, provincial health minister Bevan Goqwana on Wednesday resisted calls for him to resign. ”I don’t think I will resign,” Goqwana said. Asked if he was satisfied with his work, Goqwana said: ”I’m a human being … I’m satisfied. I think I’m on the right track.”
The Western Cape government has approved the development of a multimillion-rand Dreamworld film studio complex. This, after Western Cape environment MEC Tasneem Essop ruled against concerned environmentalists’ appeal that the development could harm a sensitive wetland.
Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla on Wednesday confirmed that she has accepted a request for long leave from embattled Cape Judge President John Hlophe. ”I am giving it. He is entitled to it [leave],” she said during a tea break at a Judicial Service Commission hearing.
LeisureNet accused Rodney Mitchell assigned completely arbitrary values to the work in progress of an architectural firm the LeisureNet group was buying out, the Cape High Court heard on Wednesday. Architect Dawid Rabie, formerly majority shareholder in the firm Keystone was the first witness called in the trial of Mitchell.
Inefficiency and negligence at the Commission for Occupational Injuries and Diseases has caused a multimillion-rand backlog in the payment of claims to doctors who treat workers, the Democratic Alliance charged on Wednesday. Claims are being processed by the commission at an ”absurdly slow pace”.
The South African wine industry marked a milestone on Wednesday with the launch of Women in Wine, the country’s first wine producing company that is owned, controlled and managed by women, during the second day of Cape Wine 2006, the industry’s bi-annual international trade exhibition.
South Africa is in danger of sliding off the list of the world’s top 10 wine-making countries as it runs out of vineyard space, and needs to focus on niche markets instead, a wine industry expert said on Tuesday. ”We are ranked ninth in the world, by volume,” said Su Birch, Wines of South Africa’s chief executive, speaking at the showcase Cape Wine 2006 conference.
Architect Dawid Rabie will give evidence in the Cape High Court on Wednesday as first witness called by the state in the LeisureNet trial, prosecutor Bruce Morrison announced on Tuesday. Morrison was addressing the court after all four accused entered pleas of not guilty.
Chief Justice Pius Langa on Tuesday confirmed that he had received a complaint about Cape Judge President John Hlophe. ”As far as the complaint by Judge [Siraj] Desai, yes, there is a complaint,” he told reporters attending the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) hearings in Cape Town.
The Department of Correctional Services does not know how rife HIV/Aids is in South Africa’s 240 prisons, but will shortly undertake a national HIV prevalence survey in a bid to ”allay speculation”. The survey will be piloted in Gauteng during April and May. Based on these results, it will be expanded nationally.
The Cape High Court is to rule on Tuesday on an application by one of the four accused in the LeisureNet trial for his hearing to be separated from the others. The application by Hans Moser was made on Monday morning as the trial, which has been set down for six weeks, got under way before acting Judge Dirk Uijs.
South Africa-based Dimension Data, a global IT solutions and services company, has acquired a 51% stake in ICL East Africa (Iclea), the leading provider of end-to-end IT systems and services in the East African region, for an undisclosed amount.
Didata announced the acquisition on Monday.
South Africa’s ability to fight coastal oil spills has been compromised by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism’s failure to renew a marine pollution-fighting contract before its expiry. No private pollution-abatement vessels are currently under contract to the department.
Cape Judge President John Hlophe should be asked to take a leave of absence until questions about monthly ”expense” payments made to him by a Cape Town investment company were answered, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. A decision he made granting that company permission to sue a judicial colleague also had to be explained.
President Thabo Mbeki has rejected a request by Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon for a commission of inquiry into aspects of South Africa’s intelligence agencies. Leon had asked for a probe into the activities of the intelligence structures in the wake of the African National Congress hoax e-mail scandal.
Echoing the message of his last weekly newsletter, President Thabo Mbeki on Friday called on members of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) to serve the people of South Africa ”with no expectation of reward in terms of personal wealth, power, position or prestige”.
Cape Judge President John Hlophe has denied a claim that he received a R10Â 000-a-month retainer from a company involved in a lawsuit against a fellow judge. The allegation is contained in an article to be published in the investigative magazine noseweek. However, Hlophe said briefly on Friday: ”I’m not on any retainer.”
Cape Town’s city manager, Wallace Mgoqi, has been asked by the Democratic Alliance-led administration not to come to work until question marks over his contract have been resolved, mayoral spokesperson Robert Macdonald said on Friday. The contract was renewed by then mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, whose African National Congress lost the city to an alliance of the DA and smaller parties.
Planning for Cape Town’s proposed Green Point stadium, earmarked as venue for a 2010 Soccer World Cup semifinal, appears to be back on track following a meeting between city mayor Helen Zille and Fifa local organising committee (LOC) members on Thursday. ”I think the mayor is comfortable right now that the city will not be bankrupt,” LOC chairperson Irvin Khoza said afterwards.
The South African government does not expect the recent power blackouts experienced in the Western Cape to either derail economic growth or impact adversely on investment in the country, according to President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki said the power failures would not derail the gross domestic product growth target of an average of 6% between 2010 and 2014.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Cape Town on Thursday for a three-day state visit that will include political and economic talks with President Thabo Mbeki and an address to the National Assembly. Mbeki will be briefed by Abbas on the situation and developments in the Middle East peace process.
Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile is keeping his distance from the controversy over the proposed Green Point soccer stadium, his spokesperson Bongi Sishi said on Thursday. He was speaking ahead of a meeting on Thursday afternoon between Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, and the Fifa local organising committee, which hopes to allay Zille’s concerns over the project.
President Thabo Mbeki has appointed Manala Manzini as director general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) with immediate effect. The appointment is in accordance with the Constitution and the Intelligence Services Act, and for a three-year term, government communications head Joel Netshitenzhe said in a media statement.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille is to meet Fifa’s local organising committee (LOC) and Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool on Thursday afternoon to discuss the financing of the proposed Green Point Stadium. The meeting, at a city hotel, would also be attended by members of her mayoral committee and Cabinet ministers, she said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Board of South African rugby has approved a Presidents’ Council recommendation to send a fact-finding mission to the Southern Spears franchise to ascertain their state of readiness for participation in the Vodacom Super 14 competition next year. Led by SA Rugby Union president Oregan Hoskins, the delegation will visit Port Elizabeth on Friday March 31.