The ambiance at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 14th annual Africa Economic Summit, which took place in Maputo last week, was markedly more relaxed than previous gatherings in Durban, as participants and the media fell under the spell of the Mozambicans’ slower but friendly pace of life and took advantage of the city’s excellent food and nightlife.
As Venus tracks slowly across the face of the Sun on Tuesday, it may be fitting to remember one of the most unlucky astronomers in the history of the science. The Frenchman Guillaume Joseph Hyacinthe Jean-Baptiste Le Gentil de la Galaisiere risked death in the 18th century to travel half way across the world to observe a pair of transits of Venus.
A claustrophobic aircraft passenger consumed liquor with a tranquilliser before causing mayhem on an South African Airways flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town, the Bellville Magistrate’s Court heard on Friday. Defence counsel Charles Simon told the court his client, Colin Barnett (29) of Milnerton near Cape Town, consumed the liquor and tranquilliser because of his fear of flying.
The affair of the mystery donor Hans that has plagued the Democratic Alliance for two years was ”100% unsatisfactory”, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Helen Zille said on Friday. She was speaking on Cape Talk radio after the announcement earlier in the day of a secret settlement with the trustees of fraudster Jurgen Harksen’s estate.
The success of the Democratic Alliance and its emergence as South Africa’s second-largest party is partly attributable to the fact that the New National Party, the architect party of apartheid, has embraced the liberation of all South Africans, said President Thabo Mbeki on Friday.
Both the ruling African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance have named their members who will serve on an ad hoc committee to consider the public protector’s probe into a complaint against the national director of public prosecutions.
The Democratic Alliance has agreed to make an undisclosed payout to the trustees of convicted fraudster Jurgen Harksen’s estate to settle a donation to the party by the mysterious ”Hans”. The trustees were to have taken the DA to the Cape High Court next week over the DM99 000 (about R450 000) which they claimed was part of more than R1-million Harksen said he gave to the party and its former Western Cape leader Gerald Morkel.
The National Prosecuting Authority is guilty of discrimination if it does not prosecute the 37 African National Congress leaders who were refused amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but continues to prosecute other citizens, says the Freedom Front Plus.
Total South Africa has issued a warning to its dealers nationwide over the sale of loose cigarettes, telling them they could face heavy penalties. The Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act bans the sale of any tobacco product not ”in a package” with the mandatory health warning and tar and nicotine content.
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota’s views on the difficulties of achieving racial representivity were both welcomed on Wednesday and dismissed as having missed the point. Lekota told the National Assembly’s defence committee on Tuesday there would have to come a point when South Africans stopped being black, white, Indian and coloured and were merely South Africans.
‘It’s a difficult thing, transformation’
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) customs division has raked in R200-million in extra revenue from the oil industry in the past financial year, MPs were told on Wednesday. There has been limited auditing of the oil industry’s accounts but this has now changed considerably.
One of the major issues holding up the announcement of South Africa’s much-delayed taxi recapitalisation programme is an assessment of the costs of the subsidy scheme, which applies to the purchase of the envisaged new 18- and 35-seater taxis. The government has for five years been struggling to implement the programme.
Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana is studying media reports and footage from the South African Broadcasting Corporation in which comments about his office were allegedly made by National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka and former justice minister Penuell Maduna.
‘Internecine warfare’
Public protector a ‘liar’ and ‘sad case’
The Western Cape’s head of housing has had his employment contract suspended following an internal investigation into alleged malpractices and irregularities within the department, the MEC for housing said on Sunday. The audit was completed in March this year and brought to light underspending of R144-million in the delivery of housing during the 2003/04 financial year.
The rise of ”modern individualism” had helped destroy the family values that were the foundation of society, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said in Cape Town on Friday. He was addressing the annual ceremonial opening of the National House of Traditional Leaders.
Taking his cue from President Thabo Mbeki, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool — while delivering his maiden premier’s speech in the provincial legislature — committed his government to implementing 20 ”measurable actions” within the next 100 days, including training 515 new railway police.
South Africa’s public protector has rapped the National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka over the knuckles for announcing last year that Deputy President Jacob Zuma would not be charged. Ngcuka had issued a press statement on August 23 last year which said that there was ”a prima facie case of corruption” against Zuma but that he would not be prosecuted.
New Minister of Education Naledi Pandor has acknowledged that it going to take a little longer than the end of the financial year to ensure that there is no longer a school pupil learning under a tree. She was referring to President Thabo Mbeki’s promise that the problem will be eradicated by the end of the financial year.
The South African government is looking into ways of cushioning the anticipated price rises for petrol and diesel in June, Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena said on Friday. Given the sharp increases in the global price of oil, the retail price of petrol will need to rise by 38 cents a litre on June 2.
South Africa’s nine major cities have not fully recognised the importance of ”systematically” managing built-up areas and critical stresses have been placed on natural resources, the first State of the Cities report warns. The report brings together detailed empirical data about the country’s nine largest cities.
National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi may have been "grandstanding" when he told Parliament’s safety and security portfolio committee that several al-Qaeda operatives were arrested in South Africa ahead of the April 14 elections, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66946">SA arrests lead to al-Qaeda: Selebi</a>
South African Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang took aim on Thursday at doctors for holding protests against legislation regulating their dispensing of medicines. Doctors marched on Parliament earlier this year in protest. About 500 doctors — of about 8Â 500 involved — have completed dispensing courses and obtained licences.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66984">’Hey Manto, get off drugs'</a>
The City of Cape Town unveiled details of its 2004/05 budget on Wednesday, hailed by some as a complete paradigm shift. The 12,8-billion budget is a six percent increase on last year’s budget of R10,6-billion. ”The breakthrough budget… is [one that is] balanced, that is sound and based on the principles of sustainability and investment in our medium-and long-term future,” said city Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo.
South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma — facilitator of the Burundi peace process — on Tuesday welcomed the United Nations Security Council’s resolution to deploy 5 650 military personnel and 120 civilian police in Burundi for an initial period of six months, beginning from June 1.
Setting aside parts of Cape Town’s controversial new municipal rates system will prove ”catastrophic”, the city’s legal counsel argued in the Cape High Court on Tuesday. The Rates Action Group has challenged the validity of the city’s sewerage and refuse charges, which are linked to the market value of a ratepayer’s property.
Long-serving Pick ‘n Pay director and disabled rights champion Martin Rosen, who was also managing director for group enterprises, has retired from the group after 33 years with the company. Pick ‘n Pay said Rosen, who was also a member of the chairperson’s executive committee, started at Pick ‘n Pay in 1971 as a trainee manager.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has vigorously rejected a claim that her department is delaying distribution of donor money to fight Aids. Richard Feacham, director of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria, made the claim this week, saying his organisation might look at other distribution mechanisms than the central government.
Alluvial and marine diamond mining group Trans Hex has no plans to reduce jobs at its mining operations across South Africa, Namibia and Angola despite pressure on its earnings stemming from the strong exchange rate of the rand against the United States dollar, according to deputy chairperson Bernard van Rooyen.
South Africa’s Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Sydney Mufamadi, says R5,9-billion has been spent on rural upliftment nodes and R4,2-billion on their urban counterparts in the past financial year. The upliftment involves the provision of housing, free basic service delivery as well as food security and land restitution.
New Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk says he has no doubt that the decision to cull Table Mountain’s alien tahrs is the right thing to do. ”I think it’s the right thing to do. We have to protect Table Mountain as one of our heritage sites,” he said in Cape Town on Monday.
New South African Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe, speaking on Monday at a media briefing, has pledged an institutional change of public transport and a review of the subsidy system applying to rail and buses. This includes the possibility of extending a state subsidy to taxis.
Large Durban taxi protest dispersed
Nine people were injured at Brenda Fassie’s funeral at the Langa stadium in Cape Town on Saturday when fans surged into the VIP area where Fassie’s body lay in a gold-coloured coffin. Three had to be taken to hospital and the remaining six fans were treated at the scene.