Cape Town

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has been urged by the official opposition Democratic Alliance to focus his Budget — on Wednesday — on job creation. The DA said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon that the national Budget "should be the most important job-creation tool in government’s box".

The African National Congress has launched a series of well-planned attacks on the independence of the South African judiciary, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon warned on Monday. He said the ruling party is ”using charges of real or imagined racism to intimidate the judiciary and create a more executive-minded bench”.

An article in <i>Business Day</i> on Monday conformed "to the time-honoured practice within the South African media, stretching back to the disinformation campaigns of the 1980s, of depicting an African National Congress consumed by factionalism and conflict", says the ANC’s Smuts Ngonyama.

South Africans have every reason to be confident of a bright future for their country, says President Thabo Mbeki. Writing in the African National Congress’ on-line publication, ANC Today, on Friday, he compared the transition period in South Africa with that in former communist East European states.

The case involving 23 MPs accused of misusing travel vouchers was postponed for further investigation in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Earlier, Scorpions spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said he was hoping for a postponement because further investigation is needed.

British businessman Mark Thatcher answered two lists of questions from Equatorial Guinea prosecutors on Friday about his involvement in a botched coup attempt in the Central African country. A relaxed-looking Thatcher appeared before a Cape Town magistrate in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court to give his replies to the 43 questions.

The head of communications in the Presidency, Murphy Morobe, has urged the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) to continue to speak out on the issue of HIV/Aids. ”You are our conscience,” he told several thousand TAC supporters who marched on Parliament on Wednesday to hand him a memorandum of demands.

A Cape High Court judge on Tuesday dismissed an urgent application by former Beaufort West mayor Truman Prince seeking to prevent the broadcast of a television programme allegedly implicating him in child prostitution. The programme deals with prostitution in rural areas and specifically young women who ply their trade to truck drivers.

Speaking on Tuesday in the debate on President Thabo Mbeki’s State of the Nation speech delivered on Friday, official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon mentioned ”many examples of DA warnings that have proved correct”, regarding labour, Zimbabwe, Aids and anti-retrovirals, and the racial transformation of the public service.

”Hey waiter, there’s a fly in my soup!” These are words the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa hopes not to hear again. The country’s restaurant sector now has its first-ever grading system specifically designed for the industry. The grading is voluntary, and intends to assure quality in the food and beverage sector.

Against the backdrop of increased unemployment in the past 10 years in South Africa, the country needs a "green revolution" in which the government plays a key role in branding and promoting South African produce and products, says Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi. He was speaking in the debate on Tuesday on Friday’s State of the Nation address by President Thabo Mbeki.

Businesses could be denied government contracts if they are known to donate money to opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. This was one of several objections the DA made on Monday in response to a Cape High Court application seeking to compel four political parties, including the DA, to disclose the identities of private donors.