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/ 1 September 2005
Cape High Court judges worked overtime on Wednesday to deal with a barrage of legal action ahead of the midnight opening of the political floor-crossing window. The United Democratic Movement on Wednesday expelled six MPs and MPLs from the party, and the Independent Democrats gave the boot to its deputy leader and Gauteng MPL Themba Sono.
The Zimbabwean Parliament’s approval of constitutional restrictions on civil liberties has fuelled calls for President Thabo Mbeki to reconsider his policy of gentle diplomacy with his northern neighbour. Some even suggest Mbeki withdraw an offer of a loan aimed at keeping Zimbabwe from being kicked out of the International Monetary Fund.
The United Democratic Movement has expelled six of its senior members, including deputy leader Malizole Diko, with immediate effect. On Tuesday, Cape High Court Judge Basheer Waglay reversed the suspensions of the six, saying the party had not followed its own constitution in suspending them.
The Independent Democrat’s Lennit Max won another round of his marathon legal battle with the party on Wednesday afternoon. However, the way is not yet clear for him to cross the floor to the Democratic Alliance at midnight. Earlier, he won a court order barring the ID from filling his seat in the Western Cape legislature.
The Democratic Alliance has threatened legal action if the uniform patient fees system is not urgently reviewed, because many patients cannot afford it. Unaffordable fees imposed on patients at state hospitals by the Department of Health are causing a horrifying decline in the number of patients able to obtain treatment, it said.
Parliament’s minerals and energy committee on Wednesday adopted the public protector’s report on the alleged irregular payment of R15-million by PetroSA to Imvume Management — the backbone of the so-called Oilgate scandal. This was despite objection from opposition parties.
South African financial institutions doing business with Nigeria run the risk of tarnishing their reputations, Parliament’s finance portfolio committee heard on Wednesday. The West African country was on the blacklist of the international Financial Action Task Force, the director of South Africa’s Financial intelligence Centre, Murray Michell, told members.
Collins Chabalala was both hero and villain in the Castle Premier Soccer League 1-1 draw between Ajax Cape Town and Bloemfontein Celtic at the Athlone Stadium in Cape Town on Tuesday evening. Chabalala scored the visitors’ first-half goal and then gave away the penalty that allowed Ajax to equalise.
The former Western Cape leader of the Independent Democrats, Lennit Max, won a high court order on Wednesday preventing the party from filling his seat in the provincial legislature. Judge Dennis Davis also declared that Max’s expulsion from the party, ordered after an internal disciplinary hearing, be suspended until his appeal is finalised.
Refugees attending a Parliamentary session on Wednesday urged the government to recognise their talents and use them to develop the country. ”Give these people a chance to use their skills to help build this country and teach South Africa how to walk,” said Ami Bomoka, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Western Areas has announced the resignation of Brett Kebble as CEO of the company with effect from August 24, while also unveiling the details of its rights offer. Kebble has also resigned as CEO of fellow mining group JCI, but will remain on the JCI board as a non-executive director.
Genetically modified organisms (GMO) food production is growing worldwide despite vigorous anti-GMO campaigning, according to major agricultural seed and pesticide company Monsanto. South Africa planted 400 000 hectares of GM crops, and a large percentage was grown by smallholder emergent farmers.
Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s son, Tutu Buthelezi, is to stand against his father’s party in an upcoming municipal by-election in the Inkatha stronghold. Tutu Buthelezi announced this week that he had joined former Inkatha Freedom Party national chairperson Ziba Jiyane in his new National Democratic Convention party.
A Cape High Court judge on Tuesday reversed the suspensions of six senior members of the United Democratic Movement, saying the party had not followed its own constitution. The six, two MPs and four members of provincial legislatures, include the deputy president of the party, Malizole Diko.
Floor-crossing battles kept two Cape High Court judges busy for the better part of the day on Monday. At stake in two cases involving the United Democratic Movement and the Independent Democrats are two seats in the National Assembly, one in the National Council of Provinces and five in various provincial legislatures.
Ziba Jiyane, founder of the newly established National Democratic Convention, paid a visit to former National Party leader FW de Klerk on Monday to inform him ”of his plans to establish a new centre-right party based on Christian family values, participatory democracy and free-market principles.”
The CEO of the state broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), has initiatied "an internal process" to review all facts and events surrounding the August 9 footage and news coverage of the booing incident involving Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The United Democratic Movement hatched a deplorable scheme to oust six of its public representatives before the floor-crossing window opens, the Cape High Court heard on Monday. Advocate Jan Heunis was arguing on behalf of the six, who include UDM deputy president Malizole Diko.
Despite international oil prices having surged to fresh record highs on Monday, the situation is not yet a cause for panic, according to Absa industry analyst John Loos. He said petrol prices in Gauteng could reach R6 per litre by October, thus pushing CPIX inflation higher to around 5% in October.
The Cape High Court was set to be busy on Monday dealing with a wave of legal action ahead of the floor-crossing window that opens on Thursday. The court will hear argument on a bid by United Democratic Movement deputy president Malizole Diko and five other party officials to have their suspension from the party reversed.
The board of Swedish financial-services group Skandia has reportedly rejected as being too low an offer by South Africa’s Old Mutual to acquire the company, according to reports by Swedish newspapers on Monday. Skandia is set to make an announcement on the issue on Monday, the newspapers said.
The African National Congress’s political philosophy, which sees no distinction between the state and party, is partly to blame for its stance on the Oilgate saga, says opposition leader Tony Leon. He said the ANC’s mix of constant financial problems, on the one hand, with Jacobinic political ideology and pure greed on the other is a deadly combination.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>President Thabo Mbeki has bluntly given his support to a Congress of South African Trade Union campaign to protect former deputy president Jacob Zuma, and pledged on Friday to unite "the entirely of our movement in a determined offensive" to defeat any conspiracy to discredit him.
The Cape High Court has ordered e.tv to show prosecutors a programme on the murder of baby Jordan Norton before it goes on air. Acting Judge Dumisani Zondi made the ruling on Thursday after an application by the Western Cape directorate of public prosecutions to block the broadcast of the documentary.
Brett Kebble may be preoccupied with the loss of his mining empire, but his venture into fishing is looking even shakier. Allegations of broken promises, dodgy licence applications and attempts to use political influence swirl around the South Atlantic Fishing Company, an empowerment firm set up by Kebble’s JCI to hunt tuna and swordfish off the west coast.
A 50-year-old tree tumbled across a road in Newlands, Cape Town, on Friday as gale-force winds, driving rain and bitter cold hit the city in the early hours of the morning. The Elsieskraal River flowing through Pinelands had apparently burst its banks, but there was no major flooding reported so far, said senior traffic officer Lyndon Herbert.
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.