Overnight floods in areas around Cape Town have temporarily displaced about 600 people, an emergency services spokesperson said on Wednesday. Geoff Laskey said heavy rains had affected about 20 shacks in Khayelitsha and about 100 shacks in Freedom Park in Mitchells Plain.
The African National Congress has denied claims that the loan of trucks and buses for its election campaign last year was irregular. The ANC said in a statement ”for the record” that the ANC was loaned 10 trucks and two buses by the MAN Truck and Bus South Africa during its election campaign.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) wants at least 200Â 000 people on anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment by 2006, thereby holding the government to its own commitment in the operational plan. Of the proposed figure, at least 20Â 000 should be children, the TAC said.
Civilisation has outgrown animal bounties, an oceanographic scientist said on Monday following calls to hunt down sharks after an attack on a Cape spear-fisherman. ”Bounties come from the Dark Ages,” said the director of the Oceanographic Research Institute in Durban.
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor’s assurances to whistle-blowers are hollow if her department cannot take the minor administrative steps needed to protect them, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. A teacher from the Kamhola school in Barberton — one of the schools implicated in the cheating — was dismissed last week.
The car keys of the Durbanville scuba diver feared to have been taken by a shark in False Bay on Saturday were found on a beach at Fish Hoek on Sunday, the National Sea Rescue Institute said. The diver was apparently attacked by the shark about 200m to 300m off Millers’ Point, near Simon’s Town.
In his regular internet column on Friday, ANC Today, President Thabo Mbeki said he is inspired by United States President George Bush’s determination to help ensure that the upcoming Gleneagles Group of Eight summit in Scotland will produce a positive outcome for Africa.
Practical outcomes, such as supporting peace initiatives in Africa, are expected from the forthcoming Group of Eight (G8) heads-of-government summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, President Thabo Mbeki told the World Economic Forum’s Africa Economic Summit in Cape Town on Friday.
Organisers at the World Economic Forum meeting in Cape Town were tallying up on Friday morning the number of signatures of business leaders endorsing the recommendations of the Commission for Africa. "It’s looking good," said Africa Economic Summit spokesperson Matthias Luefkens.
It is possible that Pretoria will not be renamed Tshwane, Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan said in Cape Town on Thursday. He said he was still awaiting a recommendation in favour of the re-naming from the South African Geographical Names Council.
It is inevitable that poor countries will compete for donor aid, Tanzania’s President Benjamin Mkapa told delegates at the World Economic Forum’s Africa Economic Summit in Cape Town on Thursday. Steve Booysen, chief executive of Absa, said business has been slow to take advantage of the changing political landscape in Africa.
Leading industrial countries should look at the positive examples elsewhere in Africa and not concentrate solely on the crisis in Zimbabwe, British high commissioner designate to South Africa Paul Boateng told the World Economic Forum’s Africa Economic Summit in Cape Town on Wednesday.
With Africa expecting $25-billion by 2010 if the Commission for Africa’s recommendations are implemented, Tanzania’s President Benjamin Mkapa said each country should be assessed individually to see if previous aid was misused. Mkapa was part of a panel that spoke on how aid can be allocated and used effectively.
In a bid to attract more direct foreign investment into Africa, the Nepad Business Foundation (NBF) has committed itself to two ”covenants” — anti-corruption and corporate governance. NBF chairperson Reuel Khoza was addressing the World Economic Forum meeting in Cape Town on Wednesday.
International business and political leaders have a unique opportunity to recognise the ”moral reprehensibility” of what is allowed to happen in Africa, Reuters chairperson Niall FitzGerald said on Wednesday. He addressed media at the World Economic Forum’s Africa Economic Summit in Cape Town.
The World Economic Forum’s 15th annual Africa Economic Summit has opened in Cape Town with a strong call by business to support the proposals contained in the recent Commission for Africa report for promoting economic growth and development across the continent.
South Africa’s Black Management Forum wants the government to set up a commission of enquiry into racism and unfair discrimination in the workplace. Such a commission should be given a one-year mandate "to review incidents and cases of racial discrimination in the workplace", it said.
AltX-listed branded food producer All Joy Foods has reported a dip in its headline earnings per share for the year to the end of February 2005 to 6,3 cents, from seven cents a year earlier. No dividend was declared for the year. At the same time, All Joy said it has agreed to acquire 100% of the operations of Retailer Brands.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) begins its 15th annual Africa Economic Summit in Cape Town on Wednesday with leaders from some of Africa’s top companies and multinationals calling for the strong voice of business to be heard in the flow of targeted aid and investment on the continent.
For growing numbers of South African women, pregnancy is not something to celebrate — it is a desperate descent into depression and anxiety. ”In the South African setting, we have a recipe for an epidemic of perinatal mental health problems,” said Dr Simone Honikman, director of the Perinatal Mental Health Project at Liesbeeck midwife obstetric unit.
The Democratic Alliance has accused minerals and energy committee chairperson Nathi Mthethwa of assisting the government to hide alleged irregularities concerning a donation to the ruling party. This follows a court decision to interdict the Mail & Guardian from running a follow-up to its ”Oilgate” report last week.
The government on Monday unveiled its final policy on the allocation of long-term marine fishing rights, despite trade-union calls for a moratorium on issuing it and threats of strike action. The document’s release comes after a night in which a group of about 50 trade unionists and fishermen chained themselves to the gates of Parliament.
South African Airways’ CEO has evoked the ire of two opposition parties — with the Democratic Alliance calling for an SAA board enquiry. The DA and Inkatha Freedom Party were reacting on Monday to a <i>Sunday Times</i> report that the CEO, Khaya Ngqula, has been running up bills flying to meetings by private helicopter.
The African National Congress’s disciplinary hearing of embattled Beaufort West politician Truman Prince has been postponed to June 6. Prince’s advocate, Charles Simon, said his client pleaded not guilty to all charges, including alleged intimidation and death threats.
The national executive committee of the African National has resolved to "act with firmness and resolve" against corruption in the party’s ranks. In a statement on Monday following a meeting of the committee at the weekend, the organisation said it act "against any members of the ANC found guilty of any misdemeanour".
The disciplinary hearing of disgraced Beaufort West politician Truman Prince will resume on Sunday morning when the African National Congress will call its last two witnesses to testify. The hearing arises from a documentary on SABC3 on child prostitution that showed Prince flirting with under-age girls.
Peddlers of doom for South Africa remain hard at work, but the real story of South Africa is one of hope, South African President Thabo Mbeki argued on Friday in his weekly online column, <i>ANC Today</i>. The reality in the country is a story "of a growing and resilient economy", said the president.
Too much is being made of claims that there is resistance to transforming the judiciary, Justice Dikgang Moseneke told members of the Judicial Services Commission in Cape Town on Thursday. ”I don’t think so,” said Moseneke of the resistance claims, adding that most judges embraced the Constitution, its values and the ”constitutional injunctions”.
Vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath should not be deprived of the chance to debate with the Treatment Action Campaign even if he hits ”under the belt”, his advocate told the Cape High Court on Thursday. Even unfair debate should not be restrained, advocate John van der Berg told a full bench of judges.
Old Mutual, South Africa’s largest financial-services group, made good progress in the area of black economic empowerment (BEE) last year, it has emerged from the company’s <i>2004 Old Mutual Corporate Citizenship Report</i>, released on Thursday. During 2004, Old Mutual facilitated empowerment deals worth R500-million.
The Cape Town municipality has given rugby boss Brian van Rooyen’s company another chance despite its role in a recent fiasco with traffic fines, the Cape Times website reported on Thursday. It said the municipality had decided to re-assess its contract with Labat Traffic Solutions only at the end of August.
In the high-stakes nuclear game, will a radioactive waste-management policy be foisted on an unsuspecting public or will ”transparency, consultation and stakeholder participation” be a reality? A draft policy containing those words remains ungazetted while the government looks at prototype pebble-bed nuclear reactors for commercial use.