Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu may need further cancer treatment, a statement issued on his behalf said on Tuesday. ”I am fit and healthy at present and my doctors will monitor my condition closely. They may need to introduce further treatment in the future,” the cleric said in the statement.
The wide-ranging black economic empowerment (BEE) transactions unveiled on Tuesday by Old Mutual involving the sale of an overall 12,75% stake in its South African operations to BEE participants will be the "full arrangements" that will be made by the group in terms of BEE ownership.
South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sue van der Merwe on Monday officially congratulated Zimbabwe on its 25th year of independence from Britain, praising it for its role in fighting apartheid. She did not mention the concerns of Zimbabwe’s official opposition about the fairness and freeness of the March parliamentary election.
Listed supermarket group Pick ‘n Pay is expected to report a 21% increase in its headline earnings per share for the year to the end of February this year, to 135 cents from 111,6 cents the previous year, when it announces its final results on Tuesday morning, according to a consensus of seven investment analysts.
Feuding taxi organisations in the Western Cape have pledged peace as provincial transport minister Mcebisi Skwatsha announced the reopening of violence-racked taxi ranks closed a week ago. Skwatsha also said he has not been facilitating negotiations with a gun against his head.
Three yacht crew members on a pleasure cruise had a lucky escape when a container ship weighing more than 13Â 000 tonnes grazed their vessel. The incident on Sunday occurred in clear weather about 10 nautical miles north-west of Robben island, said National Sea Rescue Institute spokesperson Craig Lambinon.
The Crusaders turned in a powerful second-half performance to humiliate the Stormers 51-23 in their Super 12 clash at Newlands on Saturday evening. After trailing 6-3 at the break, the New Zealanders rattled in seven second-half tries to leave home fans dumbfounded.
Kaizer Chiefs kept up the pressure on Orlando Pirates when they beat Ajax Cape Town 2-1 after leading 2-0 at the interval in a Castle Premier Soccer League game played at Newlands on Sunday afternoon. Chiefs are now six points behind the log leaders with a match in hand.
Common roots tying them to Africa with an emotional bond make it possible for the ANC and the Afrikanerbond to work together, and for members of the New National Party to join the ANC, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Mbeki said the decision to dissolve the New National Party and the meeting between the ANC and the Afrikanerbond constituted an important stride forward.
Former Independent Democrats Western Cape leader Lennit Max on Thursday sought to link the party’s national leader, Patricia de Lille, to the Travelgate affair. De Lille heatedly denied any wrongdoing, and said that as one of a number of clients of one of the implicated travel agencies, she had given her full co-operation to investigators.
A planned media briefing on Friday morning to articulate the latest developments surrounding taxi violence in the Western Cape was called off at the last minute to accommodate a march by one of the protagonists, Codeta. Provincial transport minister Mcebisi Skwatsha decided to postpone the meeting to allow all parties a chance to express their concersn.
International adoptions of South African children are in a state of legal limbo, with legislation to give effect to an international convention signed in 2003 not yet enacted. ”In effect, we have a legal anomaly. We have acceded to a legal convention, but everything that we are doing is ultra vires because it’s not part of our law … We are operating extra-judicially, can you imagine the implications?” asked a family-law specialist.
A goal in each half by Brent Carelse saw Ajax Cape Town defeat Wits 2-1 in their Castle Premier League match at Newland on Wednesday. Ajax led 1-0 at the break. Wits came back strongly in the second half, but solid defence by the Ajax defenders kept them out.
Campaigners wanting to see lower fuel prices in South Africa should call on the public to use fuel more efficiently, rather than inviting the public to join a "national campaign to reduce the petrol price" by boycotting certain petrol products, according to the South Africa Petroleum Industry Association.
Child-rights activists on Wednesday called on Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool to ensure controversial Central Karoo municipal manager Truman Prince is removed from office. Prince, who has been embroiled in a series of controversies, including involvement with child prostitutes, was suspended and then reinstated last month.
Stormers coach Gert Smal is giving Schalk Burger until Friday to prove his match fitness for Saturday’s Super 12 clash against the Crusaders at Newlands. The 2004 International Rugby Board player of the year strained a calf muscle in last week’s 15-13 win over the Reds. Smal wants to play him at number eight.
The creditworthiness of the South African banking system as a whole remains stable despite the socio-economic pressures it faces, global rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P) has concluded in its latest report on the country. At the end of 2004, South Africa had 21 registered banks, two mutual banks and 15 local branches of foreign banks.
Water restrictions will remain in place in the Cape metropolis where dams were below their normal levels because of drought when torrential rains struck at the weekend, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio reported on Wednesday. This is in spite of good rain in the catchment areas of major dams.
The Western Cape transport department is open to resolving the taxi conflict in the region amicably, provincial transport minister Mcebisi Skwatsha said on Tuesday. He was responding to a memorandum handed over after a march earlier in the day by disgruntled taxi operators and drivers.
Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo complained on Tuesday that she has been the victim of racial profiling by immigration officers at the city’s international airport. She made the claim at the launch in Cape Town of the Department of Home Affairs’ immigration branch, an upgrading of what was previously only a chief directorate.
A crowd of taxi drivers and operators besieged the Western Cape transport ministry building on Tuesday to protest against a proclamation closing several violence-wracked taxi routes. The proclamation, in effect since midnight on Monday, was issued by the provincial transport minister after months of shootings between rival taxi associations.
The Western Cape government has been asked to airlift food parcels to thousands of families affected by torrential rains in the Overberg region, particularly Arniston and Napier. Rivers burst their banks and towns were cut off from the outside world in Sunday and Monday’s deluge, with Bredasdorp among the worst hit.
Jazz musician Robbie Jansen was in a critical but stable condition on Tuesday after he collapsed at home last week from lung problems, his brother said. ”They have been trying to wean him down [from the ventilator] from Saturday, but they put him back on it last night because he is still too weak,” he said.
Several Stormers are recovering well from injury. Hanyani Shimange, who has a rib cartilage injury, is expected to be fit for the match against the Blues on April 23. Joe van Niekerk, who has an injury to the cartilage in his left knee, is expected to be fit for the Crusaders game on Saturday.
Jazz saxophonist Robbie Jansen is still in a critical condition in a Cape Town hospital following his collapse last week, Mountain Records MD Patrick Lee-Thorp said on Monday. ”He is slipping in and out of consciousness. But some eye movement last night was a big breakthrough. It put our hopes up,” Lee-Thorp said.
Prices commanded by some of South Africa’s top wines at the 2005 Nederburg auction, which took place in Paarl on April 9, have skyrocketed by 90%, boosted by a more restricted, higher quality offering, with the average price per nine-litre case of wine rising to an all-time high of R2Â 145 from R843,36 in 2004.
A deluge in the drought-stricken Western Cape has been both welcomed and cursed, as early-morning traffic was severely disrupted on Monday. A weather forecaster said a black south-easter, caused by a ”cut-off low pressure system”, had brought heavy rainfall to the region over the 24 hours to 8am on Monday.
In an attempt to quell violence, the Western Cape transport department will close certain taxi ranks and routes in the Cape Town area from 4pm on Monday. The measure follows unsuccessful attempts at resolving a dispute between rival taxi associations. At least three people have died in shootings related to the dispute.
Saxophonist Robbie Jansen is in a stable but critical condition in the Tygerberg hospital after collapsing into a coma on Monday. Jansen, considered by many to be a guru of Cape jazz, is affectionately known as the Cape Doctor — after the south-easter — for his blowing skills.
President Thabo Mbeki called on South Africans on Friday to ”declare war against these parasites” guilty of social grant fraud and corruption. Writing in the African National Congress’ online publication, ANC Today, he referred to Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya’s announcement that more than 37Â 000 civil servants were already under investigation.
The health department met its target of establishing at least one service point for HIV and Aids care in all 53 districts in the country by the end of March, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday. The department had also appointed seven companies to provide sustainable supplies of anti-retroviral drugs over the next three years.
A now cash-flush South African National Treasury may well decide, as one of the options available to it, to reduce the amount it planned to borrow offshore this year given that it has a much lower Budget deficit to fund after getting an extra R10-billion in the tax coffers than expected.