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.
South Africa’s fight against money laundering and terrorism financing needs tough new laws to close regulatory loopholes and give authorities more power to crack down on crime. Murray Michell, the head of South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre, said draft laws would also help unclog an overburdened judicial system and streamline oversight.
The Cape High Court on Monday heard a graphic account of how Najwa Petersen stabbed her husband, Taliep, in the neck one night, eight months before he was murdered. It also heard that the theatre personality’s life was insured for R5,3-million, and that Najwa tried after his death to have the money paid into a Namibian bank account.
The government is looking at giving food vouchers or cash to poor households to help them cope with spiralling food prices. ”We’re looking at a range of options … such as food vouchers, [as well as] increasing cash transfers in the case of people already on the social-assistance programme,” Social Development Director General Vusi Madonsela said on Monday.
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma on Sunday urged communities to take more responsibility for education, health, and fighting crime. ”This is not the time to rest. This is the time to intensify the fight for a truly united, non-racial, non-sexist, and democratic South Africa,” he said in a speech prepared for delivery in Khayelitsha.
The Stormers climbed to fourth in the Super 14 with a 20-10 victory over the ACT Brumbies on Saturday. The South Africans scored all their points in a 15-minute purple patch in the first half before holding on as the Brumbies hit back with two tries in the second period
A hacker has allegedly gained access to suspended National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli’s computer and is attempting to blackmail him, his attorney said on Friday. ”An individual is claiming to have hacked Mr Pikoli’s system. The hacker is threatening to release Mr Pikoli’s documents to the press, if he is not paid,” said his attorney Aslam Moosajee.
Australia’s Brumbies will not to be sidetracked by history or the widely acclaimed Stormers injuries in the run-up to Saturday’s make-or-break Super 14 clash at Newlands. The history books will show that the last time the Brumbies lost at Newlands was in 1998, and apart from one draw in 2006, they’ve always defeated the Stormers in the Mother City in a decade of clashes.
British actress Teresa Norton was arrested at Camps Bay beach for refusing to put her dog on a leash and to give her name and address to a law enforcement officer, the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court heard on Tuesday. Officer Willem Boonzaaier is charged before magistrate Alta Fredericks with assaulting Norton.
South Africa’s international land borders are as porous as the proverbial sieve, with tens of thousands of refugees streaming into the country each week, alongside gun-smugglers and drug-traffickers, says the Democratic Alliance (DA). The party called for the deployment of South African National Defence Force troops to the worst-affected border regions,
The Robben Island Museum has rejected a report that wild animals on the 574 hectare island are starving to death because of poor environmental management. A media report said the problem was mainly the result of an explosion in the wild rabbit population, which were ”eating everything in sight”.
South African President Thabo Mbeki’s failure to criticise neighbouring Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe has weakened his international stature, analysts said. Once hailed as a leader focussed on Africa’s revival, Mbeki’s silence on Zimbabwe has been blamed either on misplaced loyalty or crippling deference.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu urged world leaders on Sunday to stay away from the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August. South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate lit a ”Tibetan” Olympic torch, which was kindled in Delhi on January 30 and will travel to cities on five continents before arriving in May back in Dharamsala, India.
There was a need for a ”new South African” who embodied everything that was morally good, President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday. He was addressing several thousand people at the national Freedom Day celebrations at a blustery Turfhall Stadium in Cape Town.
The Stormers picked up two second-half tries to keep their hopes of reaching the Super 14 semifinals alive with a 26-16 victory over the Otago Highlanders on Saturday. Hooker Tiaan Liebenberg and his replacement Schalk Brits scored in the space of 10 minutes to break open a game that was deadlocked 9-9 at halftime.
Najwa Petersen’s legal team is fighting a bid by the state to lead evidence on what her husband, Taliep, told a sister about the state of their marriage, and how Najwa stabbed him. Najwa is in the dock in the Cape High Court along with three men she allegedly hired to murder Taliep on the night of December 16 2006.