Cape Town

Biotechnology research and development in South Africa should not be hampered by onerous and unnecessary safety checks, members of Parliament’s agriculture and land affairs committee heard on Tuesday. University of Pretoria honorary Professor Jocelyn Webster said it only very large companies or public institutions in wealthy countries that could afford all the biosafety assessments required.

A policy for the prosecution of apartheid-era political crimes was unveiled by the National Prosecuting Authority in Cape Town on Tuesday. It sets out directives for the prosecution of individuals denied amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and those who declined to seek such indemnity.

Three people were injured when police threw stun grenades and fired rubber bullets at protesting Power Town informal settlement residents in the southern Cape on Monday. Mossel Bay municipality spokesperson Harry Hill said the residents were protesting poor service delivery in the area.

South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka went to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on holiday, her office said on Friday. ”She did not travel to the UAE on a fact-finding mission, nor did she go there on half business, half holiday, and she did not go there to study crane-building businesses,” an adviser said.

South Africa needs to build on its highly positive brand image, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday in his first ANC Today online letter of the year. He said an international Gallup poll at the end of last year found that 60% of South Africans were optimistic about their future, believing this year would be better than the last one.

Xhosa King Xolilizwe Sigcau was a dignified and straightforward person, always fighting for the development of his people, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said in a tribute released on Friday. Sigcau, who died on December 31, is to be buried at his Nqadu Great Palace in Willowvale on Saturday.

Former state president PW Botha was celebrating his 90th birthday on Thursday with family and friends at his home at Wilderness in the Southern Cape, his daughter Elanza Maritz said. ”He sounded wonderful,” she said. ”He’s really well mentally. He’s 90 years old physically, but mentally he’s really great, razor sharp.”

South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has requested in a letter that President Thabo Mbeki take action over what it described as ”the possible abuse of state resources” by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. It is estimated that a holiday — described by DA MP Gareth Morgan as ”a gravy plane holiday” — to the United Arab Emirates in December cost about  000.

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s family ”gravy plane” holiday in Abu Dhabi would have cost the taxpayer at least R700 000, Democratic Alliance MP Gareth Morgan said on Tuesday. He was reacting to a report that she and her family flew to the United Arab Emirates for a five-day holiday at the end of December on the SA Air Force Falcon 900 jet reserved for VIPs.

The Democratic Alliance paid its own city manager a R196 000 bonus just three years ago, Cape Town mayor Nomanidia Mfeketo said on Tuesday. She was replying to Democratic Alliance mayoral candidate Helen Zille, who revealed earlier in the day that four of the city’s current top managers earned bonuses last year that pushed their before-tax earnings to over a million rand each.

The countdown for South Africa’s 2006 municipal elections, set to be held on March 1, started in earnest on Tuesday with the publication of the electoral timetable in the Government Gazette, according to chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula, head of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

South Africa has been ranked number six in the top 10 world travel destinations in 2005, breaking into the top 10 for the first time to date, as determined by an annual survey by iExplore, a United States-based online seller of adventure and experiential travel.

The government is pressing ahead with legislation that will bar all courts from suspending the coming into force of an Act of Parliament, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development confirmed on Monday. The provision is contained in the Constitution 14th Amendment Bill.

A political novice and former switchboard operator was named on Monday as the Independent Democrats’ mayoral candidate for Cape Town. Simon Grindrod (35) was elected unanimously by the party’s 105 candidates in the metropole. In his first foray into politics, he will contest the municipal elections against seasoned politicians.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has committed the second 10 years of democracy to the achievement of high rates of economic growth and development. The ANC, which came to power in 1994, has targeted the advancement of skills among blacks and the beneficiation of South Africa’s raw materials as key elements of its 10-year economic transformation plan.

President Thabo Mbeki and other members of the African National Congress leadership — including Jacob Zuma — were gathering in Cape Town on Sunday for the launch of the party’s local government election campaign. The launch coincides with the 94th anniversary of the ANC’s founding on January 8 1912.