Test cricket needs a radical overhaul to ensure its continued existence in the face of the Twenty20 revolution, India coach Gary Kirsten said. Kirsten suggested in an article on his personal website that there should be a one-year cycle of Test matches with an annual champion.
Arms-deal activist Terry Crawford-Browne on Thursday denied that he was waging a personal vendetta against Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. Addressing the Cape High Court, where he has applied for a contempt-of-court ruling against the minister and former finance director general Maria Ramos, he said: ”The arms deal is not some Trevor/Terry saga.”
A national electricity emergency programme management office (PMO) will be established immediately, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday. The office would be responsible for coordinating all efforts to deal with an emergency, Maseko said at a media briefing following Cabinet’s regular meeting on Wednesday.
A special task team will investigate the cause of the recent xenophobic attacks in Alexandra and elsewhere in the country, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday. The team will make recommendations about steps required to prevent a recurrence of this ”negative tendency”, he told a media briefing.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that the Bill abolishing the Scorpions and amalgamating them into a police directorate will dramatically undermine the fight against crime, and against organised crime in particular. ”As such, the DA will do all in its power to ensure that the Bill does not become law,” the party said on Wednesday.
The blackened fragments spread out on the table look at first glance like no more than a scattering of charcoal, left over from a long-dead fire. But on closer examination one sees that the fragments are grouped, and that each group has its own printed label. In one corner, in a plastic lunchbox-type container, are the smallest fragments of all.
Demands from various quarters that South Africa stop its electricity exports to neighbouring countries amounted to ”economic xenophobia”, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Wednesday. Eskom’s customers outside South Africa would be treated exactly like any other customer with the same rights, and this would remain so.
The Democratic Alliance has called on the Speaker of Parliament to explain why a decision has been made to stop further investigations into MPs implicated in the Travelgate scandal. This follows publication of a notice directing liquidators ”not to pursue any action as against the various members of Parliament in relation to the un-invoiced tickets, levies and/or services”.
Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool has proposed community food gardens on state land as one solution to rocketing food prices. ”Government and society cannot close our eyes to the increasing hardship and the struggle of many families to put food on the table,” he told the provincial legislature on Tuesday.
The Directorate of Special Operations, or the Scorpions, had another nail hammered into its coffin on Tuesday, with the tabling of the General Laws Amendment Bill in the National Assembly. The draft legislation, now headed for the committee stage, provides for the establishment of a new division in the South African Police Service.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula on Tuesday gave the assurance that all cases currently under investigation by the Directorate of Special Operations, or Scorpions, will be finalised. ”There is not a single case that was investigated by the Scorpions, which is under investigation now by the Scorpions, that will not be finalised.
Efforts to determine why crime in South Africa is often accompanied by excessive violence will soon bear fruit, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Tuesday. The justice, crime-prevention and security cluster of ministers will present a progress report to the Cabinet at a July lekgotla (meeting).
The Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday remanded in custody Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown for a week, following his arrest last Friday on charges of fraud, theft and money laundering relating to the company Antheru. The charges involve about R800 000.
”Good golly, it’s Ollie,” exclaimed one excited Stormers supporter on arrival at Monday’s training session in Durbanville. There he was, Ollie le Roux, the 128kg prop who had finally appeared after much speculation in the past week that he would be joining the Stormers. ”He’s been running like a spring chicken,” said Frikkie Erasmus, the Stormers media manager.
The sudden disappearance last month of the wife of Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown had destroyed the good faith between the couple and the Scorpions, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court heard on Monday. Scorpions senior counsel Bruce Morrison told the court: ”She’s not coming back.”
The government has set aside millions of rands to assist the poor cope with harsh economic conditions, the Department of Social Development said on Monday. Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya appealed to churches and community-based organisations to help the department in creating awareness around the relief.
Unionist Willie Madisha has been expelled from the South African Communist Party (SACP), of which he was a central committee member, the organisation announced on Monday. It said the move followed a recommendation by a disciplinary committee that found he never disclosed a supposed R500 000 donation, and that he brought the party into disrepute.
President Thabo Mbeki must go, and he must go now, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille said on Monday. ”In a constitutional democracy such as ours, it is untenable for a president with his track record to remain in office,” she said in a statement. It is ”in the interests of South Africa” that Mbeki step down as president.
Tens of millions of rands of Lotto money earmarked for charities and good causes is lying undistributed in the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. Over a 100 non-profit organisations were affected, DA social development spokesperson Janet Semple told a parliamentary media briefing.
As the state wrapped up its case in the Najwa Petersen murder trial on Monday, Najwa’s advocate said no decision had been taken on whether she would testify in her own defence. ”I’ve still to consult with Mrs Petersen,” said senior counsel Klaus von Lieres und Wilkau. ”We will make up our minds in the course of the coming week.”
Travelgate MP Mnyami Booi has been granted a postponement of his trial, which was to have started in the Cape Town Regional Court last week. The postponement is to allow him to use the services of his advocate of choice, senior counsel Jan Heunis, who is not available now.
The Stormers and Waratahs played out a pulsating 13-13 draw in a 12th-round Super 14 match in Cape Town on Saturday. The visitors led 6-5 at the break in pouring rain, which negated any chance of this being an exciting, try-scoring feast. And both captains felt the two points earned for the draw could be costly in their challenge for semifinal berths.
One of the key motives behind the Erasmus commission was to stop the realignment of South African politics, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille said on Friday. The commission was set up by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool in December 2007 to investigate the City of Cape Town’s probe into controversial councillor Badih Chaaban.
Former Springbok centre and current Sharks coach Dick Muir and Stormers assistant Gary Gold were on Friday named as new South African coach Peter de Villiers’s right-hand men. Muir, who led the Sharks Super 14 team to the final of the southern hemisphere inter-provincial competition last year, will take charge of the Springbok backs.
<i>Payback</i> by Mike Nicol (Umuzi) and <i>Dead Point</i> by Peter Temple (Quercus) are reviewed by Barbara Ludman.
A funding crunch could delay South Africa’s plans to have digital broadcasting in place for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the chief executive of state-run telecommunications firm Sentech said on Thursday. World soccer governing body Fifa has demanded that South Africa use a high-definition digital format when it begins broadcasting the World Cup matches.
Power cuts in the winter months ahead are unlikely if the present power-saving trends continue, according to Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin. The overall savings target remains 10%, and the key factor is the behavioural changes that are crucial in the short-term, he told a media briefing at Parliament on Thursday.
Murder accused Najwa Petersen claimed repeatedly she had ”nothing to hide” when she made her first formal statement to police about her husband’s death, the Cape Town High Court heard on Thursday. She also said there had been no bad feelings between and her and her husband, Taliep, investigating officer Captain Joe Dryden said.
Ajax Cape Town have opened up a two-point gap over SuperSport United at the top of the Absa Premiership log following their 3-0 trouncing of AmaZulu at the Athlone Stadium on Wednesday night. SuperSport, however, have a game in hand — they meet Moroka Swallows on Saturday evening in a must-win match.
He’s been described as science’s first real rock star and the most famous physicist never to win a Nobel Prize. He knows black holes and p-branes inside out and he’s headed for South Africa. Cambridge Professor Stephen Hawking, author of the best-selling A Brief History of Time, arrives in Cape Town this week to deliver a public lecture, his first on the African continent.
Public servants may be in line for a double-digit pay increase this year. Briefing the media at Parliament on Tuesday, Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said the current wage agreement stipulated an increase of CPIX plus 1%.
It was a clumsy attempt by Najwa Petersen to cover up her cellphone tracks that gave police a vital lead in solving the murder of her husband, Taliep, a police officer told the Cape High Court on Tuesday. Superintendent Piet Viljoen was testifying in the trial of Najwa and the three men she allegedly hired to kill Taliep on the night of December 16 2006.