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/ 11 October 2007
The Presidency has declined to confirm whether President Thabo Mbeki will hold back on appointing the new South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board as requested by labour and civil society organisations, saying it will address its written response directly to those organisations that had made the call.
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/ 11 October 2007
Government spokesperson Themba Maseko admitted on Thursday that the authorities were worried about the damage being done to the country’s international image by the ongoing saga surrounding suspended National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli and police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
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/ 11 October 2007
Fifa ended its three-day inspection tour of South Africa on Wednesday praising the progress made in building the stadiums that will be used for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. There have been concerns about the country’s high crime rate and poor transport system, as well as the pace of construction.
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/ 10 October 2007
Several labour and civil-society organisations have asked President Thabo Mbeki to hold back on appointing the new South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board and return the list of names approved by the National Assembly last month. ”We have asked him not to appoint them,” the organisations said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
Tears of joy flowed on Tuesday when the Richtersveld community got a court order restoring land taken from them seventy years ago. ”I am overwhelmed with joy. I can’t hold back my tears,” said community leader Willem Diergaardt. ”This is a big moment in the history of the Richtersveld.”
The stakes will be raised considerably this weekend as the Absa Currie Cup premier division enters its semifinal stage. The two semifinal clashes are the highlight of a bumper weekend on the local rugby calendar that also includes the promotion/relegation play-offs.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has apparently thrown her weight behind leading businessman Tokyo Sexwale for the African National Congress presidency. Meanwhile, audited ANC membership figures have confirmed the Eastern Cape as the party’s strongest province, media reports said on Tuesday.
The lawful decision by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) not to continue its inquiry into Cape Judge President John Hlophe has upset some people, the Black Lawyers’ Association (BLA) said on Tuesday. ”It’s an outcome they don’t like,” BLA president Henry Msimang said.
Johannesburg entrepreneur Mncedisi Eric Maluleka, who joked on board a kulula.com flight about hijacking the aircraft, was found not guilty on Tuesday of jeopardising the safety of an aircraft and its passengers in flight. He appeared in the Bellville Regional Court, before magistrate Clive Linden.
Nine senior advocates from the Cape Bar, some of them former acting judges, have publicly called on Cape Judge President John Hlophe to quit. ”We believe that there cannot be public confidence in the continuation in office now of Judge Hlophe,” they said in a letter published on Tuesday.
A settlement has been reached on the Richtersveld community’s troubled land-restitution deal, lawyers said on Monday. They said the settlement would be presented to Land Claims Court Judge Antonie Geldenhuys on Tuesday morning. ”We’ve settled,” said Rudolph Jansen, national director of Lawyers for Human Rights.
Transnet group chief executive Maria Ramos has moved up two places to become the world’s 14th most powerful woman in business this year, according to Fortune magazine’s latest rankings. Ramos was 16th on the American leading business magazine’s list last year. This year is the fourth time she has appeared on the annual list.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday accused Director General in the Presidency Frank Chikane of concealing information and deliberately trying to mislead opposition parties. On September 25, Chikane had invited opposition party leaders to a briefing on the controversial decision to suspend the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli.
Cape Town lawyer Christine Qunta on Monday welcomed the Sunday Times‘s retraction of defamatory statements made by the newspaper against her, saying the apology was proof that the principle of media accountability was being upheld.
South Africa’s unit of the world’s top diamond producer De Beers said on Monday it expects to produce 14,7-million carats in 2007, and saw a decline in output of 2-million carats in 2008. ”Very soon we will level at 12-million carats into the future,” said David Noko, managing director of De Beers Consolidated Mines.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it is disgusted by the out-of-hand rejection of MP James Selfe’s draft Bill by the chairperson of the select committee on private member’s legislative proposals and special petitions, Vytjie Mentor. The Bill seeks to expunge from the record crimes committed during the apartheid era that would not be crimes today.
A wet and slippery Newlands set the scene for Western Province’s final Currie Cup match in 2007. Province were still in with a chance at the play-offs — however, the team had to score 102 points to qualify. Against Griquas this was always going to be an impossible task.
The battle for the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) is becoming ever dirtier and fuelled by paranoia in the final weeks before delegates vote for the as-yet undeclared candidates. The challenge on the surface appears a straight contest between incumbent Thabo Mbeki and ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.
Climate change is already happening in South Africa, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday during a visit to a biodiversity centre in Cape Town. ”You can see that climate change is already a reality here,” said Merkel, as she visited Biota Africa, a centre where German and South African scientists conduct research on African climate change.
President Thabo Mbeki steered clear on Friday of the furore over suspended National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli, opting to devote his weekly newsletter, ANC Today, to eye-care awareness week. As readers remained in the dark on Mbeki’s own views on the controversy, he began this week’s column with: ”Those who have eyes to see, let them see!”
The lack of legislation regulating the conduct of judges has resulted in Cape Judge President John Hlophe getting away with a ”slap on the wrist”, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday. DA spokesperson on justice Sheila Camerer said Hlophe’s case highlighted the need to expedite the passing of such legislation.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Friday vowed it will pursue the controversy surrounding President Thabo Mbeki and police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi. Writing in the party’s weekly newsletter, SA Today, parliamentary leader of the DA Sandra Botha said the gravity of the situation was such that it should not be underestimated.
No impeachment proceedings will be instituted against Cape Judge President John Hlophe, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) said on Thursday. Chief Justice Pius Langa said although the JSC members were divided on whether there was sufficient evidence to justify proceedings that could lead to impeachment, it was generally agreed the proceedings should not be pursued.
A swoop by environmental inspectors on the giant Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation’s Vanchem plant outside Witbank in Mpumalanga has uncovered shocking levels of air, ground and water pollution. Environmental management inspectors, better known as the Green Scorpions, carried out a compliance inspection at the plant at the end of August this year.
As the Democratic Alliance (DA) took steps to obtain copies of the alleged warrants of arrest for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi on Thursday, the Freedom Front Plus renewed its call for the police chief’s suspension. The DA has lodged an application to obtain copies of the warrants allegedly issued for Selebi, DA parliamentary leader Sandra Botha said.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has tabled a private member’s Bill seeking to expunge from the record crimes committed during the apartheid era that would not be crimes today. The inspiration for the measure came to him from two constituents, DA correctional services spokesperson James Selfe said in a statement on Thursday.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says it stands by its statement on South African Broadcasting Corporation board deputy chairperson Christine Qunta and on Thursday laid complaints against her and the company Comforters Healing Gift. On Wednesday, Qunta’s legal representatives demanded the TAC stop publishing defamatory material about her.
South African Broadcasting Corporation board deputy chairperson Christine Qunta has demanded the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) stop publishing defamatory material about her. Qunta’s legal representatives sent a letter in this regard to the TAC on Wednesday, her lawyer, Athol Gordon, said.
A new liver costs about R450 000, according to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang — herself the recent recipient of a new liver. In a written reply to a question by the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Ruth Rabinowitz in the National Assembly, she said hospital expenditure on liver transplants was, all inclusive, about R450 000 per patient.
Trade union Solidarity has accused Denel of using employee salary funds to pay bonuses to top management. While Denel is locked in a dispute with four trade unions about exemption from national wage increases, 49 top management members have been paid performance bonuses totalling R2,2-million.
A Cape High Court judge on Wednesday reserved his ruling on a forfeiture application against former LeisureNet joint chief executives Peter Gardener and Rod Mitchell. The two men have already paid over R29,5-million to liquidators, the state says there is a shortfall of at least half a million rands each.
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown and financial director Graham Maddock appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. The case was postponed to December 7 for a regional court date and for the state to give the defence teams a charge sheet. The appearance follows their rearrest in August on fresh fraud and theft charges.