Sporadic incidents of ill-discipline, including the hurling of glass bottles at Cape Town city manager Wallace Mgoqi, marred an SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) march on Wednesday. The march follows a deadlock in wage negotiations between the SA Local Government Association and Samwu.
South Africa’s municipal debt jumped about R4-billion from R31,8-billion in 2002 to R35,9-billion in 2003, while figures for 2004 are not yet available, said Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi. The figures show that Durban/eThekwini — once a shining light of budgetary prudence — has grown its debt from R2,8-billion to R3,2-billion.
Sanlam, South Africa’s second-largest life assurer, has finalised the sale of its entire 21,3% stake in banking group Absa to the United Kingdom’s Barclays Bank for R10,3-billion, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The group sold all of its 124,3-million Absa shares for R82,50 per share in the transaction.
The Inkatha Freedom Party Youth Brigade has officially denounced, ”with contempt”, utterances made by the party’s national chairperson, Dr Ziba Jiyane, at a weekend IFP rally. The action is expected to be among a variety of personal attacks engineered by the party’s spin doctors.
Listed hotel and gaming group Sun International will proceed with the sale of its entire 38,6% stake in City Lodge Hotels to Sun International shareholders for a total of R627-million, in exchange for repurchasing its own shares from them, the company said on Tuesday.
More than two dozen ecumenical bodies across the world on Tuesday called for an investigation into the shooting by police of Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) protesters, the same day the organisation marched in Queenstown to hand over a memorandum deploring alleged police brutality.
Thousands of municipal workers will start a three-day strike from Wednesday in a push for a decent wage increase, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Tuesday. Samwu wants a wage increase of the greater of 9% or R400 and a minimum wage of R3 000 per month. Salga is offering a 6% increase.
South African retailer Pick ‘n Pay has experienced a total turnover loss of just less than R50-million over the four days since Friday, when approximately 20 000 staff, members of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union, began their strike over higher wages, according to CEO Sean Summers.
Opposition parties have strongly criticised President Thabo Mbeki’s announcement that the government is considering bringing in skilled foreigners to help get South Africa’s moribund municipalities up and running. In separate statements, three opposition parties blamed affirmative-action policies for the lack of skills at local government level.
Transformation and black economic empowerment (BEE) in South Africa’s financial sector must not jeopardise ongoing financial stability, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel cautioned on Monday. He was speaking at the start of the Financial Sector Campaign Coalition Conference in Cape Town.
The Democratic Alliance on Monday announced it has ”declared war” on tik, the highly addictive methamphetamine drug. DA leader Tony Leon said his party has developed a five-point plan to rid communities of the drug. On the Cape Flats, tik is responsible for some of the fastest addiction rates ever seen among youngsters.
Six people died and 42 were injured when two trucks collided in thick fog along the N7 near Malmesbury on Monday, emergency services said. A doctor at the scene said an articulated truck collided at about 7am with a smaller seven-tonne truck, which rescuers believe was carrying farm labourers.
From Tuesday, train commuters in the Western Cape can breathe a little easier — it will be the first day on the job for 400 railway police constables whose duty it will be to reduce crime on trains. ”We are saying that we are serious about rooting out crime committed on trains,” said Western Cape provincial commissioner Mzwandile Petros.
The selection of nine black players in the 22-man Springbok rugby squad and six in the starting line-up shows South Africa is moving towards ”normal sport in a normal society”, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Mbeki wished the Springbok team success in their clash against the Australian Wallabies at Ellis Park on Saturday.
Recently-appointed Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka needs to ”come clean” about her role in the Oilgate scandal, Strategic Fuel Fund tenders and related matters, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.
About 50 Pick ‘n Pay employees at one of the retailer’s flagship stores on the V&A Waterfront were arrested and later released for riotous behaviour and trespassing on Friday, Western Cape police said. At a Johannesburg store, customers complained about being kicked and strikers barricading the store entrance.
Picketing and toyi-toying Pick ‘n Pay workers at the retailer’s high-profile store at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, as well as at its main Claremont headquarters, are disrupting shopping at the venues, reports said on Friday. South Africa’s largest food retailer confirmed earlier that the strike is affecting 150 stores countrywide.
The South African government needs to take a ”tough love” approach to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s outrageous and unprecedented appeal for a R6,5-billion loan, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Thursday.
The government is being asked to consider a new deal for South Africa’s 1Â 240 public libraries, currently floundering in the no-man’s-land of an ”unfunded mandate”, meaning provinces do not get money from the national government to meet this responsibility, according to the head of the Centre for the Book.
As the Aids pandemic cuts a deadly swathe across Southern Africa, a multidisciplinary research team is looking at developing intervention strategies to care for affected children and orphans. The five-year, donor-funded project is concentrating its work on Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe at first.
Attempted murder and rape cases will have to be reinvestigated after a probe by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) into the activities of police in Kensington, Cape Town, found four police officers guilty of corruption. These are among the findings of an ICD investigation into alleged corruption at the Kensington police station.
The African National Congress in the Western Cape on Monday plastered over its cracks with an announcement that provincial transport and public works minister Mcebisi Skwatsha is to quit his post on July 27. This followed a politically damaging dispute between Premier Ebrahim Rasool and the recently elected ANC provincial leadership.
South African investors should put some of their savings in offshore markets in order to take advantage of the opportunities not available in South Africa, as well as for diversification and risk reasons, it emerged at Stanlib’s second investment cnference in Cape Town on Monday.
Embattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has appealed to South Africa for a loan of several hundred million rands to buy fuel, food, seed, and fertiliser. According to media reports, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are preparing to call in Zimbabwe’s debt of R4,5-billion next week.
Uncertainty over the position of Western Cape public works minister Mcebisi Skwatsha continued on Friday, the day he was supposed to — according to his premier — quit the post. Provincial African National Congress chairperson James Ngculu said on Friday that as far as he is aware, Skwatsha is still a provincial minister.
The Western Cape education department will not take the Mikro school language case to the Constitutional Court, provincial minister of education Cameron Dugmore said on Friday. He said this decision was taken after consultation with both provincial Premier Ebrahim Rasool and the national Department of Education.
Decisions made at the G8 Gleneagles Summit last week mark an historic new step in fundamentally redefining the relationship between Africa and the countries of the North, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Mbeki said the discussions on African development focused on the interlinked obligations of Africa and the G8 arising out of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).
A significant proportion of the planned R180-billion in South African government and parastatal spending on infrastructure projects over the next five years is destined to go overseas due to the lack of workers qualified to implement these projects, according to Frater Asset Management analyst Matthew Kreeve.
Elisabeth Anderson is passionate about books and reading, which is perhaps no more than one would expect from the head of Cape Town’s Centre for the Book. But she also burns with an almost missionary zeal to infuse this passion into others. And if there is for this champion of the written word a force of darkness that has to be beaten back, it is South Africa’s massive illiteracy rate.
Edgars Consolidated Stores (Edcon), one of South Africa’s largest retailers, will see its shares split in a ratio of 10 new shares for every one existing Edcon share at the beginning of trade on Monday July 25, the company said on Wednesday. The share split will facilitate a staff empowerment transaction.
The Cape Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry has asked the government for a moratorium to be placed on a new requirement that all companies submit annual returns and pay fees to the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office.
Governments succeed only if they use public service delivery to structure a society in which social justice can prevail, Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Wednesday. She was addressing public-sector managers at the fourth annual Service Delivery Learning Academy in Cape Town.