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/ 1 September 2004
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille has sent out 6Â 500 SMSes to councillors across the country urging them to defect to her party, according to one of her MPs, Avril Harding. The defection window starts for municipal councillors runs until September 15.
No image available
/ 1 September 2004
The African National Congress has snatched an overall majority in the 200-member Cape Town Unicity Council following the defections of 23 of the 32 New National Party councillors. Among the councillors to cross was Cape Town deputy mayor Gawa Samuels.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=121445">Freedom Front Plus scoops 10</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=121453">De Lille welcomes floor-crossers</a>
Local councillors in the Western Cape claim they are victims of ”widescale intimidation” as the opportunity for them to cross the floor without losing their seats approaches. A Democratic Alliance councillor ”has 24-hour protection following [unspecified] threats. He is not sleeping at his own place.”
No words can fully describe the contribution women have made to ensure freedom in South Africa, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday. In a speech to commemorate the 1956 women’s march, he paid special tribute to those women involved in one way or another in the struggle against apartheid.
South Africa is considering a request by Equatorial Guinea to question Mark Thatcher about his alleged involvement in a foiled coup plot in the oil-rich west African nation, a spokesperson for the Justice Department said on Monday. South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs received Equatorial Guinea’s request to question Thatcher on Friday and conveyed it to the Justice Department on Monday.
Shocking new research exposes some of the South Africa’s drug rehabilitation centres as poorly run institutions where physical and psychological ill treatment of patients is rife. ”The government needs to take responsibility. They need to pay attention to the programmes that are offered at the centres and not just concentrate on clean kitchens and toilets as some of the main criteria,” says a researcher.
Government’s regulations concerning black economic empowerment (BEE) policies have made investment in South Africa unattractive for both foreign and local investors, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday. Leon said he had recently returned from a visit to the United States, where he was surprised by the frequency and urgency with which American business leaders and politicians raised concerns about BEE in South Africa.
A senior health official welcomed the Cape High Court’s decision on Friday to dismiss an application aimed at overturning the medicine-pricing regulations, saying it will benefit the South African consumer. He said the judgement means that savings realised from the manufacturing side will now be passed on to the consumer.
The United Kingdom would continue to encourage investors to take advantage of the opportunities offered by black economic empowerment, a ministerial delegation led by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Thursday. In a joint communiqué at end of the sixth meeting of the South Africa United Kingdom Bilateral Forum, the two countries welcomed the continuing increase in trade.
The minister of communications has announced that the licence to provide public switched telecommunications services — the second national operator (SNO) — will be granted on September 17. WIP Investments Nine and Two Telecom Consortium will each hold 24,5% of a new company, SepCo, which will hold 51% of the equity share capital of the SNO.
South African Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has been urged not to wait until the medium-term budget policy statement in October to announce a relaxation of exchange controls. Democratic Alliance finance spokesperson Raenette Taljaard said important initiatives "should be announced when the market is ready for them".
The official opposition Democratic Alliance has been defeated in Vanderbiljpark — until now regarded as a safe seat — where it put up a ”test case” black candidate in a overwhelmingly white municipal ward. The seat — fought in a by-election on Wednesday — was won by Cobus Cato of the conservative Freedom Front Plus.
Plans to establish a Great Limpopo Transfrontier Area — almost trebling the area of land currently protected by the transfrontier park of the same name — are moving ahead, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Thursday. He was speaking at the launch of this year’s National Tourism Month.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has dismissed claims that his government supported the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the main opposition party in Zimbabwe. Straw said a total of 45-million pounds (about R539-million) was available to fund land reform in Zimbabwe should a solution be found to the political and economic crisis in that country.
The minister of health has played down the target of rolling out anti-retroviral treatment for HIV victims by the end of the year — saying most South Africans prefer to consult traditional healers first before going to a Western health facility. The government had set itself a target of treating 53 000 Aids patients this year.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which has been meeting with African National Congress representatives in Cape Town, says it virulently opposes relaxation of exchange controls — and "speed bumps" should be put in place to protect the economy.
Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, was released on R2-million bail in the Wynberg Regional Court on Wednesday. Thatcher was arrested earlier on Wednesday by the Scorpions in connection with his alleged role in an alleged aborted coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.
After successfully campaigning to have an ”immoral” Axe deodorant advert banned from television because it was too risqué, a Christian lobby group has now set its sights on an Elastoplast advertisement. According to ChristianView Network, a new Elastoplast advert promotes adultery and/or infidelity.
South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says the burden of the funding for the African Union — including the Pan African Parliament — will fall on the biggest economy in Africa, South Africa. Asked about funding problems for the Pan African Parliament, she said there is "always a shortage of funds".
The fire that claimed the lives of three Pollsmoor inmates is only part of a cycle of violence that prison staff fear has yet to reach its bloody climax. That climax, they say, may be the stabbing of one of their own colleagues. There have been three fires in the prison’s cavernous admissions centre over the past three days, the first on Sunday and the others — including the fatal one — on Monday afternoon.
Parliament started to suspect that something was wrong with the travel-voucher system at the end of 2002 when its finance staff realised that one MP, whose home was in Vrede, was "supposedly" repeatedly travelling to Umtata, said Speaker Baleka Mbete on Tuesday during the debate on the so-called Travelgate scam.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=121014">Scam probe ‘taking too long'</a>
Noisy, low-flying helicopters, the bane of weekend walkers seeking a little peace and tranquillity within the borders of the Table Mountain National Park, may soon be a thing of the past. Draft legislation currently before Parliament aims to limit the height at which an aircraft can fly over the park, or any other protected area in South Africa, ”to a level of 2 500 feet above the highest point”.
Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour has ordered steps be taken to minimise the risk of a repeat of Monday’s fatal cell blaze at Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town. He visited the prison on Tuesday morning to inspect the cells where six awaiting-trial inmates set fire to mattresses and bedding on Monday afternoon.
Three municipal by-elections that will test the resilience of South Africa’s key opposition parties, are to be held on Wednesday. With the United Democratic Movement having recently lost control of the city of Umtata — as a result of the loss of municipal by-elections — General Bantu Holomisa’s party will be looking to poll well in a seat in Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal, where it is standing for the first time.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance says the near-record current account deficit recorded in the second quarter of 2004 of R49-billion — 3,7% of gross domestic product — "is cause for concern". Shadow finance minister Raenette Taljaard said there are at least four reasons for this jump in the figures.
President Thabo Mbeki on Friday called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the Gatumba massacre in Burundi and prosecute those responsible. Writing in the African National Congress’s online publication, he urged the African Union and United Nations to declare Burundi’s rebel Palipehutu-FNL a terrorist organisation.
While the government speaks nobly about transparency and good governance, there is an enormous gap between its words and its deeds, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon in his weekly SA Today newsletter. Leon also commented on the minister of defence’s signing of a new trade agreement with Iran.
The South African Reserved Bank (SARB) will be watching carefully the impact of the high oil price on inflation in the country, SARB Governor Tito Mboweni said on Friday at a meeting of Parliament’s joint finance committees. He acknowledged that there is nothing to be done to influence high oil prices.
Although "carry trade" has played a role in the strength of the rand, the activities of exporters and importers have the biggest impact on the rand’s exchange rate, according to South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni, who was addressing a meeting of Parliament’s joint finance committees on Friday.
A Corporate Law Reform Bill is scheduled to be put to the South African Cabinet for approval by September next year, while the drafting process is expected to be completed by the end of this year. It is expected that a single corporate entity will replace distinctions between close corporations and public and private companies.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma has condemned the carrying-out of a witchhunt against MPs allegedly involved in the Travelgate scam. The deputy president told MPs: ”I will never participate in the campaign against people when they are not found guilty … if there is no evidence conclusively that says, yes, they have erred.”
The head of a suspected mercenary recruitment agency, one other man and a two women were released by the Scorpions in Cape Town on Thursday after being questioned about possibly illegal military activity. A spokesperson for the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions said the investigation is not over.