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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.
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/ 18 October 2007
Information on the Vusi Pikoli saga seemed to indicate interference with constitutional safeguards, the Johannesburg Bar Council said on Thursday. The controversy about the suspension of the National Director of Public Prosecutions required a strong and unambiguous response from the government, said the council.
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/ 17 October 2007
The multimillion-rand cost of fighting the Richtersveld land claim was money well spent, the Department of Public Enterprises said on Wednesday. It was responding to a query on the final legal bill for the case, which was settled last week.
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/ 17 October 2007
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula on Wednesday in the National Assembly rebuffed questions on why he would not suspend controversial police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, saying there is a process in place to deal with the matter.
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/ 17 October 2007
Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri told the National Assembly on Wednesday that the state-owned telecommunications giant Telkom has lost R350-million over three years through fraud. She said that Telkom has also experienced significant theft of cables, solar panels and wireless communications equipment.
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/ 17 October 2007
The cost of broadband internet access is set to drop significantly with the adoption in the National Assembly on Wednesday of the Broadband Infraco Bill. The Bill provides mainly for transferring Broadband Infraco to the state from Eskom Holdings. Broadband costs in South Africa are considerably higher than the country’s international counterparts.
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/ 17 October 2007
At the end of an emotional day of testimony, murder accused Fred van der Vyver on Wednesday formally denied that he killed his student girlfriend Inge Lotz. Van der Vyver was in the witness box for the second day, following a successful application by his defence team to reopen its case to hear his testimony.
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/ 17 October 2007
Najwa Petersen, widow of slain entertainer Taliep, has a ”unique” voice that family friend Waleed Ajoubaar instantly recognised when he heard it on tape, the Wynberg Regional Court heard on Wednesday. Ajoubaar was questioned by prosecutor Shireen Riley, defence counsel Herbert Raubenheimer and Magistrate Robert Henny about the taped voice and his reaction to it.
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/ 17 October 2007
The Home Affairs Department’s refugee office in Cape Town was a ”chaotic” place at which refugees were treated like animals, a parliamentary committee said on Wednesday. The MPs, on an unannounced visit, also discovered that refugees were being illegally detained by officials.
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/ 17 October 2007
There has been an ”alarming” increase over the past year in the deadly dust disease silicosis among workers on South Africa’s gold and platinum mines, MPs heard on Wednesday. Mine doctors submitted 1 031 cases of silicosis to the Medical Bureau of Occupational Diseases in 2005.
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/ 16 October 2007
Western Cape police and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Tuesday scoffed at claims that police are about to arrest Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya and deputy managing editor Jocelyn Maker. ”We wish to state that there is no truth in reports that [they] will be arrested and/or be brought before court this week,” NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said.
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/ 16 October 2007
Political parties on Tuesday paid tribute to outgoing Democratic Party MP Douglas Gibson, who is leaving Parliament to take up a post as South Africa’s ambassador to Thailand. The African National Congress said despite the fact that Gibson had previously said things that offended its MPs, it would always respect his courage.