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.
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.