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/ 25 October 2007
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South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale said on Thursday he had not ruled out joining the race to head the African National Congress (ANC), a position that traditionally leads to the country’s presidency. ”I haven’t made a final decision. I am waiting for the nominations process,” he told the Cape Town Press Club.
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/ 25 October 2007
All wild abalone (perlemoen) fishing will be suspended from November 1 to ensure the survival of the species, the government announced on Thursday. A social plan to address the job losses resulting from the decision has been approved, government communications head Themba Maseko said.
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/ 24 October 2007
A city-commissioned probe into the activities of controversial councillor Badhi Chaaban was completely legitimate, Cape Town mayor Helen Zille said on Wednesday. However, she promised she would ask an outsider with ”impeccable credentials”, such as a retired judge or senior advocate, to establish whether council funds were misused.
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/ 24 October 2007
Alleged drug dealer Nazier Kapdi is well-known at the Western Cape directorate for public prosecutions (DPP), the Wynberg Regional Court heard on Wednesday. ”I’ve been a prosecutor for 30 years and I know Kapdi; I know he does not operate his network alone,” DPP senior deputy director Nollie Nieuhaus told the court.
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/ 24 October 2007
Life is improving steadily — at least in the area of housing and basic service delivery — for the 48-million people living in South Africa, according to Statistics South Africa. The organisation on Wednesday released the first results of its 2007 Community Survey, based on responses from about 255Â 000 households.
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/ 24 October 2007
National oil company PetroSA is to construct a R39-billion crude-oil refinery in Coega near Port Elizabeth, the company announced on Wednesday. Dubbed Project Mthombo, the proposed crude-oil refinery is expected to produce about 200 000 barrels of fuel a day and will come on stream in 2014/15.
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/ 24 October 2007
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Virtually all Cabinet ministers and their deputies turned out for Wednesday’s fortnightly Cabinet meeting at Tuynhuys sporting Springbok rugby supporter’s jerseys, jackets or a cap. One minister, rather conspicuous in a traditional robe among the green and gold attire, was heard to remark: ”My underwear is green.”
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/ 24 October 2007
South Africa’s population has grown by almost a quarter over the last decade to over 48-million, according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). The estimate was released on Wednesday as part of the results of Stats SA’s 2007 Community Survey, the biggest household survey ever undertaken in South Africa.
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/ 23 October 2007
All charges brought against Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille for her participation in protest marches have been dropped, the Western Cape director of public prosecutions said on Tuesday. Zille, who is also mayor of Cape Town, was charged in terms of the Regulation of Gatherings Act.
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/ 23 October 2007
Three men who, as teenagers, beat to death a homeless man sleeping on church premises two years ago, saw vagrants as a threat to their neighbourhood, the Bellville Regional Court heard on Tuesday. Criminologist Dr Irma Labuschagne was testifying on behalf of the men who are to be sentenced on a charge of culpable homicide.
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/ 23 October 2007
The trial of actuary Fred van der Vyver, accused of murdering his student girlfriend Inge Lotz, appears to be drawing to a close. Prosecutor Carine Theunissen told the Cape High Court on Tuesday she would finish her cross-examination of Van der Vyver on Wednesday morning.
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/ 23 October 2007
Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on Tuesday failed to appear before the portfolio committee on home affairs in Parliament to answer allegations of misconduct by her staff. Committee chairperson Patrick Chauke told the committee he received a fax on Monday informing him that she would not be available.
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/ 23 October 2007
The news that the case file for the PetroSA claim against Imvume Management cannot be found is further evidence of a justice system in a state of advanced decay, according to Hendrik Schmidt, who speaks for the Democratic Alliance (DA) on minerals and energy affairs.
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/ 22 October 2007
An international campaign to stop the beating of children has urged South African MPs not to bow to pressure against a Bill that bans spanking. Hitting children was ”plainly unconstitutional”, the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children said on Monday.
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/ 22 October 2007
Murder accused Fred van der Vyver and his girlfriend, Inge Lotz, were deeply in love at the time she died, the young man told the Cape High Court on Monday. On the morning of her death on March 16 2005, they parted with hugs and kisses as he left to attend a class at the University of Stellenbosch, he said. ”I was very much in love with her,” he said.
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/ 22 October 2007
President Thabo Mbeki’s domestic approval rating in September fell to 40%, its lowest point in four years, TNS Research Surveys said on Monday. The fall was evident across all race groups but slightly less so among black respondents, the global market insight and information group said in a statement. Large drops occurred in Bloemfontein, Johannesburg and Soweto.
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/ 22 October 2007
The government needed to take a series of firm and decisive steps to attract the direct foreign investment needed for job-creating economic growth, the Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson on trade and industry, Dr Pierre Rabie, said on Monday. In a statement, Rabie listed ten ”action steps” needed to make the South African economy more competitive.
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/ 22 October 2007
Murder accused Fred van der Vyver told the Cape High Court on Monday that he never used the ornamental hammer that the state says could have been a murder weapon. Van der Vyver, accused of bludgeoning his student girlfriend Inge Lotz to death in her Stellenbosch flat in 2005, was starting his second day of cross-examination.
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/ 22 October 2007
A call for further cuts in corporate taxes was among a number of proposals made by the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday — aimed, it said, at growing the economy and encouraging foreign direct investment. Pierre Rabie, who speaks for the party on trade and industry, quoted the World Bank survey <i>Doing Business 2008</i>.
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/ 21 October 2007
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Pride and politics mixed on Sunday as South Africans celebrated their Rugby World Cup final win over England. Festivities continued through the night as South Africans packed fan parks and restaurants and filled the streets with honking cars draped with the national flag.
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/ 19 October 2007
A disciplinary committee of the Cape Town city council has recommended that controversial councillor Badhi Chaaban be removed from office. The disciplinary hearings — which Chaaban claimed were a kangaroo court — followed claims that he sought to bribe councillors to cross the floor to his National People’s Party.
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/ 19 October 2007
Children’s rights activists on Friday urged MPs to push through a Bill that will ban corporal punishment of children, saying it was vital that children be protected from violence. The social development portfolio committee on Thursday postponed deliberations on the measure after members of the African National Congress’s parliamentary caucus reportedly objected.
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/ 19 October 2007
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South Africa’s politicians are not immune to Rugby World Cup fever, with a fair number already in or on their way to Paris for Saturday’s final against England at the Stade de France. Leading the way, President Thabo Mbeki left for France on Friday morning, sporting his Springbok jersey and cap.
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/ 19 October 2007
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”Go Bokke, go!” is the message from President Thabo Mbeki on the eve of the Rugby World Cup final between South Africa and England. In his weekly newsletter, published on Friday on the ANC Today website, Mbeki said the government was confident the Springboks would repeat what they did at Ellis Park in 1995, and walk away as rugby world champions.
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/ 19 October 2007
Instead of trying to impose racial quotas on rugby, the government should be looking at ways of nurturing young black talent for the sport, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday. In her party’s weekly newsletter, SA Today, she said the Springboks’ prowess in the international competition confirmed what should be self-evident.
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/ 18 October 2007
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The South African government warned on Thursday that demands for an overhaul of the racial make-up of the Springboks would not be silenced, even if they win this weekend’s Rugby World Cup final. Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba told Parliament that coach Jake White’s charges were still not representative of the nation, 13 years after apartheid.
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/ 18 October 2007
The National Assembly on Thursday adopted a motion of full confidence in Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, thereby rejecting the original motion by the Democratic Alliance, which called for a special committee to probe her fitness to hold public office.
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/ 18 October 2007
Murder accused Fred van der Vyver was questioned closely on Thursday on how he came to know that his student girlfriend Inge Lotz had been stabbed. Van der Vyver (25) was under cross-examination in the Cape High Court after his defence team was given permission to reopen its case to present his testimony.
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/ 18 October 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will not be able to pursue its threat of legal action to force Frene Ginwala’s recusal from heading the inquiry into suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, it emerged on Thursday. The DA has previously stated it would be prepared to fight her appointment by President Thabo Mbeki.
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/ 18 October 2007
Earlier this year, Cape Town was debating a by-law that would make solar water heating compulsory for relatively costly new buildings, and certain renovations. But what of solar water heating for less expensive structures — especially homes being built under the country’s extensive low-cost housing programme?
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/ 18 October 2007
Environmental NGO Earthlife Africa has threatened a legal challenge to what it says is South Africa’s ”hasty and ill-informed” draft nuclear policy. The threat was made in a submission on Earthlife’s behalf by the Legal Resources Centre on the policy document, released by the Department of Minerals and Energy in August.
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/ 18 October 2007
Nolwazi Mbananga, from the Medical Research Council of South Africa, said that the country’s mines should become "knowledge-based organisations". "We often hear of miners who are trapped underground, but have we asked those miners what the signs are before mines collapse?" she said.