Swashbuckling miner and financier Brett Kebble has lost control of his empire, and the future looks bleak for the network of empowerment companies he has cobbled together. A Western Areas spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that Kebble was forced by his shareholders and bankers to relinquish control of JCI, the citadel at the heart of his family’s beseiged empire, stepping down as CEO.
”I am devastated … This is a principal’s worst nightmare,” is how the principal of the Dennegeur Primary School in Strandfontein, Cape Town, reacted when asked about an accident that claimed the life of four of his pupils and a bus driver on Thursday. Another 25 pupils suffered various injuries, of which four were in a serious condition.
About R1,2-billion of public hospital fees are still outstanding from the 2004/05 financial year, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday. ”An astonishing 68% of fees billed for the 2004/05 financial year were not paid,” said DA health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard. The DA found that only R560-million (32%) was paid.
The jewel in South Africa’s tourism crown, Cape Town, faces a filthy future as the city’s six major landfill sites are expected to reach their capacity in the next five years. ”We have a serious crisis. Imagine what the city will look like in 2010,” said Saliem Haider, acting head of disposal in the city’s solid-waste department.
Even if he doesn’t live up to his name, it’s going to take a hard-hearted magistrate to pronounce him guilty. Always Innocent is facing a charge of possession of suspected stolen goods, and was scheduled to appear for trial in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
Suspended United Democratic Movement deputy president Malizole Diko plans to form a new party, according to affidavits filed this week in the Cape High Court. The documents are part of the UDM’s bundle of papers in reply to a bid by Diko and five other party officials for an interdict lifting their suspension from the party.
PetroSA, the state oil and gas company, will ”have nothing to do” with Imvume Management in future and it has been ordered to pay back monies owed to it, says PetroSA chairperson Popo Molefe. The former North West premier faced tough questions from opposition MPs in the standing committee on public accounts on Wednesday morning.
Listed short-term insurer Santam has reported a 16% increase in its fully diluted headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of June 2005, to 586 cents from 507 cents the previous year. The group declared an interim dividend of 108 cents per share, up from 95 cents in 2004.
Former Western Cape leader of the Independent Democrats Lennit Max has blocked the swearing-in of his successor in the provincial legislature. His legal team was granted an interim interdict by a Cape High Court judge late on Monday to prevent the party’s new provincial leader, Neville Hendricks, from taking his place as a member of the provincial legislature on Tuesday morning.
PetroSA managers are expected to appear before the parliamentary committee on public accounts to explain the auditor general’s findings on the Oilgate scandal, the Freedom Front Plus said on Tuesday. He said there are a few ”interesting issues” that will be raised on Wednesday.
South Africa is developing a three-pronged approach to fight the scourge of rape, with a national strategy on course to be piloted in at least three provinces by June next year. The interdepartmental strategy will develop a tri-pillar plan, focusing on prevention, responses and support interventions.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma questioned on Tuesday the wisdom of ”smart sanctions” imposed on the Zimbabwean government by Western countries, particularly the European Union. She said South Africa’s much-maligned quiet diplomacy is the correct stance to take.
The African Christian Democratic Party says that larger parties — in particular the ruling African National Congress — will benefit from the upcoming floor-crossing period for MPs and the nine provincial legislatures. The ACDP opposes floor-crossing because it undermines the will of the voter as expressed in an election.
Metro police chiefs across South Africa are calling for metro police officers to be held more accountable for their actions. Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride said in Parliament that it was unfair to expect police chiefs to maintain disciple with their hands tied behind their backs.
Billowing smoke forced the evacuation of 157 guests at Cape Town’s St George’s hotel on Tuesday morning. About a third of them had to be treated for smoke inhalation. It is suspected the fire was started by an electrical short where the main power supply from the council linked to the complex’s transformer-driven private electricity supply.
Banking group Absa has issued 27 new put and call warrants in order to keep up with the fast growth in South Africa’s warrants market. "We have decided to include a few put warrants for the fainthearted who feel that the market has gone too far, too fast and believe that there will be a pullback," said Gizelde Brady, a member of the Absa Corporate Merchant Bank equity derivatives team.
South Africa’s rigid black economic empowerment (BEE) targets for equity, employment and management mean that United States firms will have to rearrange their entire business structure "simply to invest" in South Africa, says official opposition leader Tony Leon.
McCarthy Motor Holdings, part of listed diversified industrial group Bidvest, has introduced a new concept in car sales targeting the low end of the car market — McCarthy Student Wheels, selling used automobiles at prices of R55 000 or less. It provides reliable cars to students or first-time car buyers with limited budgets.
South Africa’s transition to democracy over the past decade has proved a disaster for the country’s poor, Congress of South African Trade Unions Western Cape secretary Tony Ehrenreich said on Monday. Speaking in Cape Town’s City Hall at the launch of a grassroots coalition to tackle poverty in the province, he harshly criticised the government’s failure to stem job losses.
Former Western Cape leader of the Independent Democrats Lennit Max has been expelled from the party after being found guilty of contravening its code of conduct. The expulsion was ordered by labour law expert Sarah Christie, who was appointed by the high court as an independent presiding officer over Max’s disciplinary hearing.
Listed retailer Edgars Consolidated Stores (Edcon) has teamed up with Standard Bank to offer qualifying Edcon store-card clients a MasterCard, the first credit card available in South Africa to carry no annual fee. The partnership will provide a credit card to Edcon’s customers who have a proven credit track record.
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The aggressive conduct of members of the South African Police Service VIP protection unit at the home of former deputy president Jacob Zuma on Thursday is ”cause for great concern”, said the official opposition Democratic Alliance on Friday.
A bid by the state to view an e.tv documentary on the murder of baby Jordan Norton before it is broadcast is nothing less than censorship, the station’s advocate told the Cape High Court on Thursday. The Western Cape directorate of public prosecutions is seeking an order that will allow it to preview the documentary.
Listed fashion retailer Truworths International has reported a 31% rise in its fully diluted headline earnings per share for the year to the end of June 2005, to 140,8 cents from 107,4 cents a year earlier. The company declared a final dividend of 37 cents per share, which brings the total dividend for the year to 69 cents.
Listed fashion retailer Truworths International has reported a 31% rise in its fully diluted headline earnings per share for the year to the end of June 2005, to 140,8 cents from 107,4 cents a year earlier. The company declared a final dividend of 37 cents per share, which brings the total dividend for the year to 69 cents.
The latest data on building plans passed and residential buildings completed for the first six months of 2005 point to a sharp 43,5% drop in the number of lower-income, smaller houses completed and a 10% fall in the number of plans passed for such houses, according to Absa senior economist Jacques du Toit.
Did it snow in Cape Town’s city centre on Wednesday? Yes, say office workers. Unlikely, says the South African Weather Service. As the city shivered under a biting north wind and squalls of driving rain, callers to a local radio station reported seeing snowflakes falling in the city centre.
It is hard to know whether to be appalled or amused by the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) recent about-face on former deputy president Jacob Zuma, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the government says it will await a formal submission from Cosatu on Zuma.
Distell, South Africa’s largest listed wine and spirits producer, has reported a 34,1% increase in its headline earnings per share for the year to the end of June 2005, to 245,8 cents from 183,3 cents a year earlier. The company declared a final dividend of 67 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 123 cents per share.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has blasted the government over its claim that the crime rate is stabilising. He repeated his party’s assertion that the murder rate is roughly the same as the death rate from terror attacks on civilians in Iraq, and further accused the government of failing to make crime a priority issue.
Vodacom has led the charge in Parliament among cellular network companies arguing before a parliamentary committee that the National Credit Bill should not be made applicable to cellular telecommunication service contracts. Vodacom said the respective rights and negotiating powers between cellular operators and consumers are "to a considerable extent" balanced.
South Africa could be spending up to R200-million a year on treating people with serious abdominal gunshot wounds, researchers say in the latest SA Medical Journal. The researchers made the estimate on an extrapolation of a study of wounds at the GF Jooste state hospital on the violence-wracked Cape Flats.