The Democratic Alliance (DA) has responded to President Thabo Mbeki’s call for those with evidence of a Cabinet member neglecting their duties to send him the proof. In an open letter published on the DA’s SA Today website on Friday, it has offered the president a list of reasons why he should sack controversial Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Business was committed to finding solutions for the country’s skill-shortage problems, South African business leaders told President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday. Briefing the media on Thursday, Safika Holdings deputy chairperson Saki Macozoma said business had assured Mbeki that it was committed to working with the government.
South Africa’s Cabinet has approved R6,1-billion in funding for a national literacy and numeracy campaign. ”Eighty thousand tutors will be engaged to enable 4,7-million adults to achieve basic literacy and numeracy by 2012, at a cost of R6,1-billion,” Themba Maseko, government spokesperson, told reporters on Thursday.
A presidential bodyguard facing a murder charge was rearrested on Thursday after allegedly breaking his bail conditions. Timothy Sabata Mvula will spend a night in the Kuils River police cells before appearing in the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court on Friday to apply for bail on the new charge.
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South Africa captain John Smit, who has not played since injuring his hamstring against Australia on June 16, will miss Saturday’s World Cup warm-up match against Scotland in Edinburgh. Smit was not among the 22 named by the South African Rugby Union on Thursday, although he travelled with the team on their two-match trip to Ireland and Scotland.
The South African government expressed confidence on Thursday in free and fair elections in neighbouring Zimbabwe, even as the ruling party and opposition there remained at loggerheads. The Cabinet accepted a report by President Thabo Mbeki that his attempts to broker a stalemate between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition were ”on track”.
The South African Cabinet has strongly criticised the ”distasteful” media coverage around Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Briefing the media on Thursday after the Cabinet’s fortnightly meeting on Wednesday, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said the Cabinet took a dim view of the distasteful coverage of the minister.
Springbok wing Akona Ndungane has been sent home from his team’s short tour of Ireland and Scotland for medical treatment, the South African Rugby Union announced on Thursday. Ndungane was injured in his team’s 18-3 victory over Connacht in Galway, Ireland, in a World Cup warm-up match on Tuesday.
A Cape Town massage studio that included the word ”cottage” in its advertisement was not advertising casual gay sex in a public toilet, the Advertising Standards Authority has decided. The ruling was in response to a complaint about a newspaper advert for a Cape Town business that describes itself as an upmarket massage studio.
A prosecutor on Wednesday expressed concern in the Cape Town Regional Court over the tendency of gangsters involved in territory warfare to lay criminal charges against their rivals, but then fail to attend proceedings as crucial witnesses. Prosecutor Harold Engelbrecht was speaking during the trial of an alleged gangster.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday officially wrote to President Thabo Mbeki asking him to fire Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. It cited Tshabalala-Msimang’s obsession with good nutrition as a substitute for proper HIV/Aids treatment as one of the reasons she should be fired.
A new set of photographs appeared to cast doubt on testimony by a senior police forensics expert in the Inge Lotz murder trial on Wednesday. The photographs were produced by the defence when Superintendent Stef Koekemoer, manager of the national fingerprint laboratory in Pretoria, was recalled to the stand for more questioning.
The Independent Democrats has accused airport check-in staff and baggage handlers of corruption and endangering flight safety. Simon Grindrod, the party’s deputy leader and a member of Cape Town’s mayoral executive committee, said that check-in staff are accepting bribes not to charge for excess baggage.
One of President Thabo Mbeki’s VIP protection unit bodyguards will appear in court on Thursday after allegedly shooting a man dead at a shebeen in June. Timothy Sabata (35), a police sergeant, is to appear in the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court in Cape Town on charges of murder and attempted murder.
Neither food nor food supplements are alternatives to drug therapy in treating people with HIV/Aids, South Africa’s top scientific advisory panel said on Tuesday, amid a controversy over the nation’s Aids policies. The report by the Academy of Science of South Africa was issued as President Thabo Mbeki faced new criticism over support for his health minister.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Tuesday defended South Africa’s quiet diplomacy toward Zimbabwe, saying that foreign intervention to bring about a regime change risked unleashing turmoil like in Iraq. He told lawmakers that South Africa — the top regional powerbroker — was not in a position to dictate political and economic policy to Zimbabwe.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Tuesday proposed a motion of no confidence in Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and called for her dismissal. It said the existence of a conviction against her was never disclosed to the South African public, despite the position of trust she was placed in as minister of health.
A parliamentary committee, in a report tabled on Tuesday, has proposed sweeping and controversial changes to the structure and functioning of institutions such as the Human Rights Commission (HRC), the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) and other constitutional bodies.
Municipal workers will embark on an indefinite strike in Cape Town next week, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Tuesday. Samwu said the strike was a protest against the city’s unilateral implementation of new conditions of service. The city had also relocated staff without any agreement with the union. However, the city rejected the union’s allegations.
Reigning champions Western Province (WP) and co-favourites Southern Gauteng both won their opening games at the Spar Women’s Interprovincial Tournament being played at the Hartleyvale Astro in Cape Town on Monday. WP showed their pedigree with a 3-1 win over Northerns, while Southerns beat KwaZulu-Natal 3-0.
Suspected sex blogger Juan Duval Uys of Kroonstad on Monday made his second appearance in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, where he faces a charge of crimen injuria reportedly relating to an allegation that he had stated on a blog that a City of Cape Town mayoral committee member had used Uys’s services as a male prostitute.
Almost two years after arriving in Cape Town, nine containers of clothes donated by Taiwan are finally ready to be given to the needy, mayor Helen Zille said on Monday. The containers of new clothes arrived in Cape Town harbour in November 2005 and were held up by unfinished paperwork and customs processes.
The state was stalling on details of the travel-voucher fraud charges faced by a current and a former MP, their defence teams claimed in the Cape Town Regional Court on Monday. Lawyers acting for the two said they wanted the court to rule that prosecutors must provide full answers to their requests for further particulars.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday asked the Public Protector to investigate whether Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang benefited from the inappropriate influence of President Thabo Mbeki. It has been alleged that Mbeki called up surgeons at a medical centre to insist they approve a liver transplant for Tshabalala-Msimang, DA leader Helen Zille said.
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African National Congress (ANC) members should not be misled into believing that the media would assist and find solutions for the many challenges facing the organisation, party deputy president Jacob Zuma said on Sunday. He said the media’s only objective was to sensationalise ANC problems.
The Eastern Cape government has rejected a claim by a suspended hospital official that 200 babies have been dying every month at East London’s two largest hospitals. The former deputy manager of the East London Hospital Complex, Dr Nokuzola Ntshona, made the claim in an interview published in the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>.
President Thabo Mbeki and the opposition leader, Helen Zille of the Democratic Alliance, crossed swords on Friday in the internet letters they send each week to their supporters. Both were talking about sacked deputy minister of health Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.
The African National Congress (ANC) is not a party for the independent-minded, says Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille. The recent sacking by President Thabo Mbeki of his deputy health minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, illustrated what the ANC had become, she said on Friday in her weekly online newsletter, DA Today.
The treatment of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit has shown that there is no real political will to hold the Zimbabwean leadership accountable for their actions, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday.
Najwa Petersen was not mentally ill when she allegedly killed her husband, Taliep, and is fit to stand trial, a Cape Town regional magistrate ruled on Friday. The finding, based on the unanimous reports of three psychiatrists, cleared the way for Petersen and her three co-accused to go on trial in the Cape High Court in February next year.
President Thabo Mbeki has taken issue with those elevating sacked deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge to ”heroine” status. ”Ordinarily, I would not make any further comment on this matter,” Mbeki said in his online newsletter on Friday, ANC Today. However, an ill-founded hue and cry about the dismissal had been raised.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula has provided Parliament with inaccurate crime statistics when replying to questions, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday. The DA’s Dianne Kohler-Barnard said Nqakula gave two contradicting answers to the same question.