Springbok coach Jake White played down the ecstasy in the aftermath of his team’s nerve-racking Tri-Nations victory over the All Blacks at Newlands on Saturday. While the 49 118 fans crammed into Newlands erupted at the final whistle to celebrate one of the Boks’ finest performances in recent memory, White preferred to remain focussed. After failing to gain a bonus point from their two home matches, the Boks will, in all likelihood, need a rare away victory if they hope to retain the trophy — a point that is not lost on the coac
The Freedom Front Plus has raised concerns about falling standards in the training of pilots in the South African Air Force, saying this may lead to accidents. ”Earlier the minister said trainee pilots are allowed to fail all their exams and to fail two repeat exams. Previously trainee pilots were allowed to only fail three subjects and then to pass a repeat exam with a pass mark of 60%,” said a spokesperson.
Another round of talks between the South African Local Government Association (Salga) and municipal unions is scheduled to take place on Monday in an attempt to reach a wage agreement and stave off a national strike. Unions are scheduled to embark on a second week of protest action on Monday.
Estimates of the number of black South Africans who want to become farmers may have been exaggerated, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday. Joining the racially charged debate over land ownership in South Africa, he said recent research indicated only 9% of black people who are not currently farming wish to do so.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa has suspended eight of his top elected officials with immediate effect following fears that they were intending to cross the floor next month. Holomisa would not supply details, claiming it is an internal matter, but denied they were asked to leave, as was previously stated.
Springbok rugby is set to be thrown into more turmoil on the eve of the crunch Tri-Nations Test against the All Blacks with a potentially divisive power struggle between SA Rugby vice-president Andre Markgraaff and Bok coach Jake White.
Ajax Cape Town opened the 2005/06 Premier Soccer League (PSL) season with a victory over Jomo Cosmos when they ran out 2-1 winners at the Athlone Stadium on Wednesday. The teams were level on one all at the interval. Ajax were the better side and were in complete control, but could not penetrate a solid defence.
The International Rugby Board (IRB) announced in Cape Town on Thursday that it has approved an unprecedented £30-million (R343,5-million), three-year programme of strategic development investments designed to improve the competitiveness of rugby worldwide.
The Cabinet’s unconditional endorsement of Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana’s report into the so-called Oilgate scandal comes as no surprise, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday. Mushwana said in his report that he found no evidence of wrongdoing in the Oilgate scandal.
Western Cape police are investigating necrophilia and the illegal amputation of body parts at the Salt River mortuary. Superintendent Rian Pool said a pathologist took fluid and tissue samples from a body as a ”precautionary measure” to determine whether the corpse had been sexually violated after death.
Financial-services groups Old Mutual and Nedbank on Thursday announced one of South Africa’s biggest information and communications technology (ICT) deals to date, which will enable both companies to achieve collectively cost savings of more than R1-billion over the next five years.
Nedbank, one South Africa’s top four commercial banks, has reported a 44,5% rise in its headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of June to 354 cents, from 245 cents a year earlier. The group declared an interim dividend of 105 cents per share, representing a 139% increase on the 44 cents declared at the halfway stage last year.
A Cape Town magistrate on Thursday authorised a warrant of arrest for Pan Africanist Congress leader Motsoko Pheko. The move followed a request by Bernhard Kurz, the attorney acting for the liquidators of Star Travel, one of the companies involved in the parliamentary travelgate saga.
Opposition parties have strongly rejected the idea of a South African loan to Zimbabwe without any conditions attached. The Democratic Alliance said the conditions attached to the loan had to be debated in Parliament as a matter of urgency.
The so-called Oilgate scandal has been laid to rest as it relates to the government, government communications head Joel Netshitenzhe said on Wednesday. He said the Cabinet noted and accepted Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana’s report on the matter, in which Mushwana said he found no evidence of wrongdoing in the Oilgate matter.
The Cabinet has confirmed South Africa’s willingness, in principle, to assist Zimbabwe, including providing a loan facility in relation to Zimbabwe’s obligations to the International Monetary Fund. Such assistance should benefit the Zimbabwean people as a whole, said government communications head Joel Netshitenzhe.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the establishment of the National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency, aimed at ensuring long-term water security for South Africa. The agency will take responsibility for developing and operating South Africa’s major national dams and water-transfer schemes.
The 250-million-year-old galesaurus on Annelise Crean’s workbench at the South African Museum is a superbly prepared fossil, its tracery of delicate off-white bones standing out from a matrix of fine grey sandstone. But where the dusty eye sockets should be, there is a surprise: the creature has protuberant, glistening and definitely not prehistoric brown eyeballs.
The Springbok management breathed a collective sigh of relief as veteran loosehead prop Os du Randt passed a fitness test and was included in the Bok starting line-up announced by coach Jake White on Wednesday for their Tri-Nations rugby match against the All Blacks at Newlands on Saturday.
World Cup-winning loosehead prop Os du Randt could miss the Springboks’ crunch Vodacom Tri-Nations Test against New Zealand this weekend after picking up a knock during a training session at Bishops College on Tuesday afternoon. Du Randt was struck down during a move early in the session on Tuesday.
Police on Tuesday seized more documents in their continuing probe into claims of tender irregularities in Cape Town, this time from offices in the Civic Centre. Last week detectives raided the offices of procurement director Mabela Satekge in Wale Street in the city centre, as part of what mayoral spokesperson Mandla Tyala said was an investigation into security tenders awarded by the city.
Valuable South African cultural treasures, including art works, firearms, furniture and archaeological artefacts, are being smuggled out of the country for foreign collectors. According to South African Heritage Resources CEO Phakamani Buthelezi, the value of objects taken ”ranges between R500 to R50 000, even to R100 000”.
Opposition parties on Monday stepped up their attack on individuals allegedly involved in the Oilgate scandal. The Freedom Front Plus laid charges against Imvume Management, the company at the centre of the scandal, on Monday and the Democratic Alliance is to meet the National Prosecuting Authority about the matter.
The controversy over the leadership of the Inkatha Freedom Party is a storm in a teacup, the party’s president, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, said on Saturday. In a speech prepared for delivery at an IFP rally in Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal, he said some people are waiting ”with bated breath” for the ”explosion of our party, and even its burial”.
While opposition parties have questioned Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana’s report on the Oilgate scandal and pledged to take up the issue with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the African National Congress says it accepts his findings. Mushwana said he found no evidence of wrongdoing in the scandal.
South African authorities on Friday declined to comment on a report that a suspected organiser of the London bomb attacks, Haroon Aswat, was under surveillance in this country before he was detained in Zambia. Aswat is suspected of playing a role in organising the July 7 suicide bomb attacks in London that killed 52 people.
The City of Cape Town, rocked by allegations of corruption and tender irregularities, is a target for fraudsters, a leading forensic investigator said on Thursday. Steven Powell, a director at Sonnenberg, Hoffmann and Galombik forensics, spoke on corruption and white-collar crime at a Cape Press Club function.
Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana is expected to release his findings on the probe into the so-called Oilgate affair on Friday. The investigation into claims about the alleged misuse of public money involving state oil company PetroSA — reported by the Mail & Guardian — was launched last month.
The 19 current and former African National Congress MPs in the Travelgate case are to ask the national director of public prosecutions to drop the charges against them, their lawyer said on Thursday. He told Cape Town magistrate Hennie le Roux that plea-bargain negotiations with the Scorpions have reached a dead end.
There was uncertainty on Thursday on whether Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool had ordered a raid on the city of Cape Town’s procurement offices targeting tender documents relating to his former transport MEC Mcebisi Skwatsha. Rasool and Skwatsha have been at loggerheads in a bruising leadership battle, which led to Rasool being deposed as provincial leader.
Shares in listed airlines group Comair, the British Airways operator in South Africa, continued to gain ground in early trade on Thursday, climbing 4,2% or seven cents as the company continued to reap the benefits of the damaging six-day strike at rival South African Airways (SAA), despite news that the strike is set to come to an end.
The African National Congress must break its silence over the so-called Oilgate scandal, and explain how millions of rands of taxpayers’ money ended up in the ruling party’s coffers, says the Democratic Alliance. ”The exact nature and purpose of that transaction needs to be explained to the public,” the DA said on Wednesday.