The Gautrain’s management on Thursday rejected suggestions that the project’s costs will rise to R35-billion. The project was well within budget, Gautrain Management Agency CEO Jack van der Merwe said. He was reacting to statements made by National Assembly transport committee chairperson Jeremy Cronin during a debate on Tuesday.
Two Cape Flats men were on Thursday each given two life sentences for the murder of a man in an argument about a baseball cap and for the later murder of a police detective who investigated them for the first murder. The judge said the murders showed that the two men had no respect for human life.
South African legislators have recommended that Parliament revise laws to give it more oversight over the Reserve Bank, raising concerns of political interference in monetary policy as inflation soars. The Reserve Bank has raised its repo rate by 400 basis points to 11% since June 2006 to try to tame inflation.
African National Congress (ANC) MPs with disabilities have threatened to embark on protests if the quality of service rendered to disabled people at South African airports is not improved. Briefing the media on Thursday, ANC MP Maxwell Moss said the Airports Company South Africa, as well as airlines, had failed to attend to the needs of disabled passengers.
South Africa will send a delegation of 55 observers to Zimbabwe’s general elections, the government said in Cape Town on Thursday. ”The South African contingent will comprise representatives from civil society, business, religious leaders, members of Parliament and government officials,” spokesperson Themba Maseko told journalists.
Low-income households and small-to-medium enterprises will be shielded from proposed electricity tariff hikes of up to 60%, the government said on Thursday. A differentiated tariff structure would be put in place to ensure that these sectors of society were protected, government spokesperson Themba Maseko told journalists in Cape Town.
The Cabinet has dismissed renewed allegations of President Thabo Mbeki’s involvement in arms-deal corruption as baseless and mere speculation. Wednesday’s fortnightly Cabinet meeting had noted media reports regarding the investigation by German authorities into the allegations of corruption in the arms deal.
Ajax Cape Town dropped two points as they were held to a 1-1 draw by a stubborn Platinum Stars side in an Absa Premiership clash at the Athlone Stadium on Wednesday night. Ajax started the game well and had an early chance when Russell Mwafulirwa fired in a volley from the edge of the area, which drew a good save out of Stars keeper Wayne Sandilands.
South Africa is well positioned to weather the current global economic turmoil, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. While a difficult set of challenges lay ahead, he was confident that ”our ship is strong [and] that we will weather the present storms that are raging worldwide”, he told the National Assembly.
The government will not abandon its inflation-targeting policy of between 3% and 6%, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. ”Our adoption of inflation targeting in the late 1990s has enabled our economy to grow and to become more competitive,” he told the National Assembly. ”We cannot, at the first signs of stress, abandon our anchor,” Manuel said.
It is now official: May 2 is to be an additional public holiday. At its fortnightly meeting in Cape Town on Wednesday, the Cabinet endorsed a proposal that it should be declared as an additional day off "to compensate workers for losing a public holiday as a result of Human Rights Day falling on the same day as Good Friday".
Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool says he has scrapped the Erasmus commission and reappointed it with expanded terms of reference. Rasool appointed the commission, headed by judge Nathan Erasmus, in December last year, to probe allegations that Cape Town mayor Helen Zille’s administration illegally spied on renegade councillor Badih Chaaban.
Jeremy Cronin, the deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party, suggested in Parliament on Tuesday that there should be a council of state, which would be a super-Cabinet with a strategic planning mandate. Croning was speaking during debate on the Appropriation Bill.
Eskom has applied for a 53% hike in electricity tariffs, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa announced on Tuesday. It said it had received the application earlier in the day. Eskom is seeking this hike in place of the 14,2% increase it was granted in December last year.
”Peak oil”, the point at which global petroleum production reaches its maximum, could come as early as 2011, a Cape Town conference on oil and gas heard on Tuesday. Chris Skrebowski, editor of the British Energy Institute’s magazine Petroleum Review, told the conference that the peak will come in 2011 or 2012.
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma will on Tuesday lead the party’s delegation to Angola to mark the 20th anniversary of the battle of Cuito Cuanavale. The delegation is expected to return home on Monday. A parliamentary delegation left from Pretoria on Friday in a convoy to Cuito Cuanavale to commemorate the battle.
The current global economic turmoil is unlikely to ”impoverish” South Africa and there is some good in the weaker rand, according to First National Bank chief economist Cees Bruggemans. Commenting on the falling rand on Monday, Bruggemans said the good news is that it is the shock absorber of the moment.
Workers are entitled to be paid for only one of the public holidays that will be celebrated this Friday, not both, the director of a local law firm said. According to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, they are only entitled to compensation for one day’s work, and not for both Human Rights Day and Good Friday.
Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa on Monday criticised the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for claiming that President Thabo Mbeki had not been an ”honest broker”. He was briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on foreign affairs ahead of his country’s ”harmonised” March 29 elections.
Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya on Monday released a discussion document that could see the current means test for social-grant eligibility overhauled. ”It is the view of the department that the means tests are outdated and consequently exclude many poor people from the safety net,” Skweyiya said.
The former secretary general of the South African National Civics Organisation, Thozamile Gwanya, has been appointed Director General of Agriculture and Land Affairs, the department said on Monday. Gwanya, who matriculated in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, holds a BCom degree from the University of Transkei.
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown will go on trial in September on fraud and theft charges, the Cape Town Regional Court heard on Monday. Prosecutor Thersia du Toit said the trial had been set down for nine days between September 15 and October 3. Magistrate Wilma van der Merwe postponed the case to May 2.
Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Monday dismissed appeals against the decision to grant environmental authorisation for a new Eskom power station in Mpumalanga. The project involves the construction of a 5 400MW coal-fired power station near Witbank.
Santos had goalkeeper Wayne Roberts to thank as they advanced through to the last 16 of the Nedbank Cup after beating Orlando Pirates 5-4 on penalties at the Athlone Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Roberts made saves three times in the shoot-out after the match had ended 2-2 after full-time.
Giving away free medicines, as Matthias Rath did with his vitamin products, is a well-known way of creating a market, the Treatment Action Campaign’s (TAC) counsel told the Cape High Court on Friday. Geoff Budlender was delivering final argument in the TAC’s bid for a court order forcing the government to act against Rath.
The South African Rugby Union (Saru) has distanced itself from speculation that a Japanese team might be included in an expanded Super 14 competition. The idea was floated by Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O’Neill who was quoted as saying the idea of adding a Japanese team was on the agenda of Sanzar.
Recent revelations on how the African National Congress used its investment arm Chancellor House to divert taxpayer’s money into its own coffers explains the ruling party’s obsession with black empowerment policy, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday.
Soccer players selected for the national team should be directly contracted by the South African Football Association, the African National Congress (ANC) said on Thursday. This would allow coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to work full-time for two years in preparing a winning team for 2010.
The Democratic Alliance has lambasted the Mpumalanga Rugby Union for including a convicted murderer in the Vodacom Pumas rugby team. Gert van Schalkwyk (22) — one of the infamous ”Waterkloof Four” — has been included in the starting line-up for the provincial team.
Stifling the private healthcare industry could see it shift resources to foreign operations, placing greater strain on the public sector, a consulting company said on Thursday. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announced in Parliament on Wednesday that unregulated private healthcare cannot be sustained.
Matthias Rath and his foundation had never claimed their vitamin products were a cure for HIV/Aids, Rath’s advocate told the Cape High Court on Thursday. ”We are not claiming it’s a cure,” Rath’s advocate, Dumisa Ntsebeza, told the court. ”We would like to make very clear, that has never been the claim.”
Solidarity on Thursday welcomed a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ruling on a charge of unfair racial discrimination in the trade union’s favour. Solidarity declared a dispute with South African Airways Technical in February and referred the matter to the CCMA.