South African satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys was on Monday night awarded a prestigious Obie at the 49th Annual Village Voice Obie Awards held in New York. This coveted Off-Broadway accolade was presented to Uys for his one-man show Foreign Aids that he performed at the legendary La Mama Theatre last year.
The likelihood of sharpshooters achieving clean and humane kills of Table Mountain tahr is more a matter of luck than good judgement, according to an affidavit by a firearms expert. ”It can be expected that a great many will be injured or wounded, although they may later die from blood loss from wounds or from infections,” said Cape Town security consultant Francois van der Merwe.
As the government’s national roll-out of anti-retrovirals (ARVs) intensifies, there is growing concern that the available sources of supply — including the only South African company manufacturing generic ARVs, Aspen Pharmacare — could be pressurised by the demand.
Two of South Africa’s biggest employers have committed themselves to supporting HIV/Aids vaccine research and development by collectively donating R4-million to the South African Aids Vaccine Initiative. Impala Platinum Holdings will invest R2,5-million over five years while Transnet donated R1,5-million.
With almost 1 900 tons of bunker fuel removed from the holed bulk carrier Cape Africa, salvors are expecting the vessel to enter the safety of False Bay by Tuesday. The vessel was on Monday morning still under tow, stern first, by the salvage tug Smit Amandla.
The eThekwini (Durban) municipality is planning a national conference on cemeteries and land to address the shortage of space for burial grounds, the head of cemetery services said on Friday. The municipality is also looking at alternatives to cremation, even freezing and shattering bodies.
Reflecting on worldwide celebrations that marked South Africa’s 10 years of democracy, President Thabo Mbeki said the world must unite to give meaning to the concepts of humanity and hope. He said South Africa’s past and present challenges are ones that many other countries around the world are also facing.
South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has launched the government’s Domestic Tourism Growth Strategy, a three-year plan aimed at encouraging South Africans to travel more frequently in their own country. The strategy was unveiled at the Tourism Indaba 2004 in Durban this week.
The draft information communications technology (ICT) empowerment charter needs substantial changes to prevent significant additional costs to foreign investments in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. Stakeholders are to meet on Friday to finalise black empowerment goals in the ICT sector.
Three Cape Flats community leaders, including former gangster Rashied Staggie, were effectively jailed for 13 years on Wednesday for a burglary at the Faure police armoury six years ago. Staggie’s sentence will run concurrently with the 15 years he got last year in the Cape High Court for rape.
The Food and Allied Workers Union will meet Parmalat South Africa management next week to get clarity on a plan designed to restructure the Italian diary giant, brought to the brink of liquidation by allegations of fraud and corruption. Parmalat was last year declared insolvent and placed under supervision of turnaround expert Enrico Bondi.
South African Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin has been urged by the official opposition to break his silence on the government’s privatisation plans. A Democratic Alliance spokesperson said: "Too many contradictory messages have been sent into the market place and investors are rightly feeling confused and uncertain."
The health-care industry in South Africa is in a similar position to commercial farming in Zimbabwe, the Board of Healthcare Funders conference was told on Monday. Sunter said private health care in South Africa is at present ”exclusive and efficient”, meaning that only a small percentage of the population receives efficient health care.
The first phase of a precarious salvage operation commenced at first light on Tuesday, with bunker fuel being pumped from the holed bulk carrier Cape Africa to the tanks of the salvage tug Nikolay Chiker. ”A pumping rate of approximately 50 tons per hour is currently being achieved and the operation will continue day and night, weather and swell permitting,” the joint operations committee said on Tuesday.
As part of the unbundling of listed black empowerment group New Africa Investments, its subsidiary New Africa Publications Magazines Limited has been sold to unlisted publishing house Cape Media for an undisclosed sum. Announcing the sale on Tuesday, Nail said the main asset in the company is business publication, <i>Leadership</i>.
Ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide has asked to visit South Africa ”until his personal situation normalises”, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced on Monday. Dlamini-Zuma said she would, this week, table the request at the first session of the Cabinet.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela said it was his wish that South Africans never gave up on the belief in goodness.
A heavy swell of about 4m, predicted for Saturday as well, hampered salvage efforts on Friday to start a ship-to-ship oil transfer from the stricken bulk carrier Cape Africa off the coast of Cape Town. Earlier the day, salvage personnel prepared for the transfer to start during the daylight hours of Friday or Saturday.
The removal of Himalayan tahrs from Table Mountain National Park will go ahead following the end of a legal challenge, park manager Brett Myrdal said on Thursday. ”In order for klipspringers to come back onto Table Mountain we do need to remove tahrs,” he said.
Former state president PW Botha has rejected a claim that he encouraged a right-wing coup plotter to leave politics and "get a movement with an iron fist". State witness Lourens du Plessis earlier testified at the Boeremag treason trial in Pretoria that he had visited Botha in 2001 to discuss the political situation in the country.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=65906">PW Botha ‘advised right-wingers'</a>
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has appointed a member from its own ranks to fill the post of chairperson of the key parliamentary watchdog committee, the standing committee on public accounts. Traditionally the public accounts committee has been chaired by a member of an opposition party.
The Democratic Alliance is facing a court challenge from the trustees of German fraudster Jurgen Harksen’s estate over a donation to the party from the mysterious ”Hans”. The trustees say Hans, who according to evidence before the Desai Commission gave 99 000 Deutschmarks to the DA, was in fact Harksen.
A leading climatologist has warned that the government should take a long-term view of changing climate conditions, or face potential consequences that could ”seriously compound” the existing challenges facing South Africa. Government is aware of it, but needs to recognise this as a long term issue of seriousness,” said Professor Bruce Hewitson.
The Cape High Court on Wednesday handed down 19 life sentences for self-confessed serial killer Asande Baninzi. He was convicted of 14 murders, four rapes of hijacking victims and two armed robberies. In addition to the 19 life sentences, Baninzi was further sentenced to 189 years of imprisonment.
The new international La Mercy airport project needs to be driven as expeditiously as possible and the new African National Congress provincial government would like to see the first bricks laid by April 2005 and the project completed by 2009, says new KwaZulu-Natal finance minister Mike Mabuyakhulu.
South African financial services specialist Sterling Waterford Securities is breaking new ground in the international investment field with the planned launch of environmentally linked derivatives. The group’s upcoming carbon credit note issue will be a world first, while also providing the first formal trading facility for environmental derivatives.
The Dutch slave ship Meermin ran aground off the southern Cape coast 236 years ago after an on-board rebellion was almost victorious — now researchers are poised to find her secrets. ”It is the beginning of a larger project to find different slave wrecks around the South African coastline,” said project manager Jaco Boshoff.
A Russian salvage tug was making ready on Tuesday evening to head out to the stricken bulk carrier Cape Africa, which is currently lying 200km west of Hout Bay with a huge tear in her hull. A source in Cape Town harbour said the Nikolay Chiker was discharging 1 000 tons of bunker oil — presumably to make space to take fuel off the Cape Africa.
Salvage experts are hoping that the stricken bulk carrier Cape Africa, currently lying 200km west of Hout Bay, will remain afloat long enough for them to pump out the 1Â 900 tons of heavy fuel oil the ship is carrying. The vessel has a tear 23m long and between 5m and 7m high in her hull.
After weeks of negotiations with the African National Congress, the Inkatha Freedom Party has accepted three ministerial positions in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government. The IFP originally withdrew two of its officials from the provincial executive, announced at the end of April.
New African National Congress Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool has pledged to lobby national government to review the system of political defections — also known as party jumping between elections — which he believes the electorate views with distaste.
Shareholders representing 37,6% of short-term insurer Mutual & Federal’s issued share capital have accepted the R17,02 per share offer from parent Old Mutual plc, far short of the 90% Old Mutual required to succeed in its minority buyout. Old Mutual announced the results of the offer on Monday