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/ 5 February 2008
Permanent solutions to South Africa’s energy crisis are being sought, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on Tuesday. "I concede that this situation impacts negatively on planned output of the country’s mining operations," Sonjica said at a mining indaba.
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/ 4 February 2008
African National Congress (ANC) leaders who supported President Thabo Mbeki in the build-up to the party’s elective conference in Polokwane will not be victimised, the party’s newly elected leadership said on Monday. The ANC said fears that there would be a purge were baseless as the party had no intention to change its traditions.
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/ 4 February 2008
The Department of Home Affairs wasted more than R56-million in detaining illegal immigrants who did not exist, according to its 2007 annual report. The department had to pay a contractor for a fixed number of immigrants, regardless of the actual number detained, wrote the Auditor General in the report.
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/ 4 February 2008
The African National Congress was not aware of any imminent visit to its Johannesburg headquarters by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool, a spokesperson said on Monday. Rasool’s spokesperson Shado Twala also said she did know about the reported visit.
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/ 3 February 2008
South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande has accused City Press newspaper of adopting an ”extremely hostile attitude” towards African National Congress president Jacob Zuma. Nzimande tears into the paper in an open letter published on Sunday for ”deliberately” writing about the party in a ”provocatively factionalist, divisive and highly subjective manner”.
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/ 3 February 2008
Hundreds of spectators and competitors attending the third of four events in the Billabong ”Girls Get Out There” Summer Surf Series event at Tableview in Cape Town on Saturday enjoyed an ideal beach day with blazing sunshine, light winds and gradually dropping 1m waves.
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/ 1 February 2008
Dealing with poor attendance by African National Congress (ANC) members at parliamentary and caucus meetings would be one of the year’s priorities, the party’s chief whip said on Friday. Nathi Mthethwa said: ”Inculcating a culture of discipline among some of the organisation’s public representatives in this institution will form part of the priorities.”
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/ 1 February 2008
The financial director of Fidentia, Graham Maddock, was on Friday effectively jailed for seven years on 54 counts involving fraud, theft, money laundering, contraventions of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act and the reckless or fraudulent conduct of business. Maddock appeared in court in Belville.
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/ 1 February 2008
As long as the government’s priority remains affirmative action instead of quality education, delivery problems such as the current electricity crisis will be unavoidable, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday. Zille said the many delivery challenges faced by South Africa could only be resolved if the country’s education system improved.
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/ 31 January 2008
South Africa’s crippling power crisis will not put off investors nor limit its ability to stage the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Wednesday. Rolling power cuts have plagued homes, businesses and the mining industry in South Africa for weeks and are likely to continue for about five years, according to state power utility Eskom.
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/ 30 January 2008
Power failures could be a thing of the past if metropolitan areas cut their electricity usage by 10%, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Wednesday. ”If we can do that, we can avoid even planned load-shedding,” he told MPs during Parliament’s special joint sitting to discuss the electricity crisis.
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/ 29 January 2008
Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has done her best to try to bring order and stability into the chaotic Home Affairs Department, MPs heard on Tuesday. ”The political responsibilities have been exercised boldly, and we are working towards an unqualified audit,” Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said.
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/ 29 January 2008
Stephen Rosen, described in court as a ”trained con artist,” was on Tuesday effectively jailed for six years on 101 charges of fraud and theft and three of unlawfully acting as an attorney and advocate. He was warned he would be declared a habitual criminal if again found guilty of any offence involving dishonesty.
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/ 29 January 2008
An African National Congress MP on Tuesday proposed that prostitution be legalised during the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The suggestion of George Lekgetho was met with groans of protest and chuckles from other MPs at the portfolio committee on arts and culture in Parliament.
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/ 29 January 2008
The Independent Democrats (ID) said on Monday it would bring a motion of no confidence against President Thabo Mbeki and his Cabinet for failing to avert power cuts that have forced some industries to shut down. ID leader Patricia de Lille accused Mbeki of having ignored warnings about the crunch in electricity supplies.
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/ 28 January 2008
The Public Protector, Lawrence Mushwana, has written to the Democratic Alliance to explain that he will not release a report on the merits of the case for reopening the Oilgate investigation because it is still the subject of a court case. Last week, DA spokesperson Motlatjo Thetjeng said it had been nine months since the DA first wrote to Mushwana about the issue.
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/ 28 January 2008
Eskom’s monopoly was the main cause of South Africa’s electricity problems and the solution lay in independent power producers (IPP), the DA said on Monday. While provision was made for IPPs to generate up to 30% of South Africa’s total electricity output, it had to be sold to Eskom and not to other users, party MP Hendrik Schmidt told journalists.
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/ 27 January 2008
A guard in a surgical mask patrols a wire fence designed to keep dozens of patients with a lethal form of tuberculosis at Cape Town’s Brooklyn Chest hospital isolated from the rest of the world. Sufferers of extreme drug resistant tuberculosis, a near untreatable strain, battle boredom, depression and the side-effects of a daily palmful of pills.
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/ 26 January 2008
South Africa beat West Indies by 86 runs in the second one-day international on Friday to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. The home side totalled 255 for nine before bowling out West Indies for 169 in 48.2 overs. Captain Graeme Smith smashed 11 fours in his 86 while JP Duminy hit 68.
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/ 25 January 2008
Eskom’s ”poor communication” during the current electricity crisis is of major concern to the tourism industry, the City of Cape Town said on Friday. Simon Grindrod, the city’s mayoral committee member for economic development and tourism, said the tourism industry found it difficult to cope with the power cuts because Eskom was not providing accurate information.
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/ 25 January 2008
If, back in the 1990s, the government had chosen to spend billions of rands on new power stations instead of armaments, South Africa would not now be facing an electricity crisis, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday. ”It chose to spend billions of rands on arms that we do not need,” she said.
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/ 25 January 2008
South Africa’s wealth gap is widening and the average black citizen still only earns an eighth of what his white counterpart does nearly 14 years after the end of apartheid. In its annual survey, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, said inequality rose from 0,60 in 2006 to 0,62 last year on a zero to one scale.
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/ 24 January 2008
Thieving staff members caused losses worth R2,5-million in the Western Cape provincial administration in the last 12 months, the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court heard on Thursday. The deputy director in the administration’s Forensic Investigation Unit, Rajendra Naidoo, testified at the trial of a former staff member, Melanie Otto.
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/ 24 January 2008
Veteran bowler Shaun Pollock, who announced his retirement from international cricket earlier this month, will be playing his 300th one-day international (ODI) when he takes the field in the second MTN ODI against the West Indies at Newlands on Friday night.
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/ 24 January 2008
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has nudged the public protector, Lawrence Mushwana, in an attempt to get a response to their request that he reopen his investigation into the Oilgate scandal. DA spokesperson Motlatjo Thetjeng said it was now nine months since the DA first wrote to Mushwana about the matter.
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/ 23 January 2008
Activists and doctors on Wednesday accused the government of backsliding on promises to provide more effective treatment to prevent mothers passing on Aids to unborn children. The Treatment Action Campaign said that more than 60Â 000 babies are infected with HIV yearly in South Africa, most of them in the womb.
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/ 23 January 2008
Allegations of a ”serious rift” between Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille and the party’s parliamentary leader, Sandra Botha, have been dismissed by the DA. ”As far as we are concerned, the story … has absolutely no facts or grounds,” DA national media officer Aimee Franklin said on Wednesday.
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/ 23 January 2008
The Department of Public Works has started on the business of revising the laws on expropriation, which became a matter of urgency following the African National Congress national conference last month. An announcement from the department on Wednesday said that it will start the ball rolling with a national workshop to be held in Gauteng next month.
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/ 23 January 2008
The Western Cape’s energy risk-management committee (ERMC) is to be reactivated to deal with the latest wave of Eskom power failures to hit the region, the provincial government announced on Wednesday. The ERMC was first set up two years ago to deal with power cuts in the province at that time.
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/ 23 January 2008
The City of Cape Town is making R30-million available to restart the development of the Dreamworld Film City project, which is still hoping to turn the eastern suburbs of Cape Town into a southern-hemisphere Hollywood. Film producer Anant Singh was chosen to build the country’s first major film studio in Cape Town four years ago.
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/ 23 January 2008
A truck drove into a stationary aircraft at Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday morning, minutes before the aircraft was due to take off. No one was injured in the incident, which happened at about 8.30am, airport media officer Deidre Hendricks said. ”There was an incident early this morning … It has had no impact on airport operations,” she said.
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/ 22 January 2008
Weddings in the dark, disgusted tourists and business owners leaving the country are some of the effects Eskom’s power failures are having, according to postings on a website dedicated to the problem. In the first 48 hours of operation, www.eskomstories.co.za has received about 2Â 000 letters.