The Democratic Alliance (DA) is exploring the possibility of entering into a coalition with other parties in Parliament. The leader of the official opposition in the National Assembly, Sandra Botha, told the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday that a coalition brings ”more weight” to bear on important issues.
Springbok captain John Smit confirmed on Wednesday that he is to join French club Clermont-Ferrand following the Rugby World Cup. A statement from the South African Rugby Union said that Smit had signed a two-year contract from 2008 to June 2009. Smit (29) has led the Springboks a record 42 times in his 67 caps and will lead South Africa at the Rugby World Cup.
As the wife of the United States president tours Africa, she will be shining a spotlight on malaria as well as Aids. While the former does not grab the same headlines, it far outstrips Aids as the continent’s biggest child killer, claiming one young life every 30 seconds.
Severe cold and more snow is to hit large parts of the country later on Tuesday and Wednesday, the South African Weather Service has warned. It said temperatures will drop as low as minus nine degrees Celsius in places such as Sutherland in the Northern Cape. The town was blanketed in snow on Monday.
A Cape Town woman on Tuesday continued her testimony about her horror taxi ride at the hands of a ”taxi conductor”. One of the two women named in the case, Lorraine Pindela, told the Cape Town Regional Court the shock of the ordeal caused her to menstruate in the taxi.
The Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town was packed to capacity on Tuesday during the bail application of Najwa Petersen, who is alleged to have murdered her husband, popular entertainer Taliep Petersen. Magistrate Jackie Redelinghuys postponed the combined bail application of Petersen and her three alleged accomplices.
A fire that destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest in and around the Tsitsikamma National Park in the Eastern Cape has finally been brought under control, South African National Parks (SANParks) said on Tuesday. A SANParks spokesperson said he was not sure about the extent of the damage caused by the raging fire.
Severe cold is to hit large parts of the country later on Tuesday and Wednesday, the South African Weather Service has warned. It said temperatures would drop as low as minus nine degrees Celsius in places such as Sutherland in the Northern Cape. The town was blanketed in snow on Monday.
The Cape High Court has ordered the Western Cape government to ensure that health services in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha area are fully reinstated with immediate effect. Handing down judgement in an application for the reinstatement of 41 sacked Khayelitsha health workers on Tuesday, Judge Siraj Desai said the court was not the right forum to rule on their dismissal.
A committee of the Western Cape legislature has cleared former provincial transport and public works minister Mcebisi Skwatsha of claims that he failed to disclose an interest in two companies. Skwatsha is the African National Congress’s Western Cape provincial secretary.
The African National Congress (ANC) is set to confront growing disquiet about the gap between rich and poor at a policy conference this week amid the biggest bout of worker unrest since apartheid. With the ANC due to elect a new leader at the end of the year, the four-day meeting will be partly seen as a test of strength between left-wing and pro-business elements.
Lawyers for Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool on Monday called for the recusal of most of the members of a special committee probing whether he misled his legislature. The committee, which was to have begun formal hearings on Monday morning, was postponed indefinitely following the application.
Judgement has been reserved on a Treatment Action Campaign application for the reinstatement of 41 dismissed Khayelitsha health workers. Cape High Court’s Justice Siraj Desai said at the end of an afternoon of legal argument on Friday that he would give a ruling ”with or without reasons” at 10am on Tuesday.
The Proudly South African campaign has dismissed media reports it has been ”disowned” by the government and the Department of Trade and Industry. The seed funding provided for the campaign’s founding period was suspended in 2004, it said in a statement on Friday.
The African National Congress’s (ANC) national policy conference in Gauteng next week should remain loyal to principle and continuity, but also respond to changing circumstances, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. The four-day conference, which starts on Wednesday, will assess the party’s major policy positions.
Two boys have been rescued from a Transkei initiation school after a so-called traditional surgeon cut off the ends of their penises, the Eastern Cape health department said on Friday. Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the boys, plus a third youth, were found at the village of Swazini near Port St Johns.
One of President Thabo Mbeki’s VIP protection-unit bodyguards has appeared in court in Cape Town after allegedly shooting a man dead in a shebeen on the weekend. The Western Cape head of the Independent Complaints Directorate, Thabo Leholo, confirmed on Friday that Sergeant Sabata Vula faced charges of murder and attempted murder.
A court application for the reinstatement of health workers dismissed during the public-service strike sought to punish a government that was trying to restore order, the state argued in the Cape High Court on Thursday. ”We have been berated for taking action in a chaotic situation,” said an advocate for the Western Cape government, Dumisa Ntsebeza.
Taliep Petersen’s wife, Najwa, received electric shock therapy before his murder last year and could relapse into psychosis if she remained in custody, the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday. She also made an apparent suicide attempt some years ago, her psychiatrist said.
Irreparable harm had been caused by dismissing health workers in Khayelitsha clinics during the public-service strike, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) argued in the Cape High Court on Thursday. Last week, the TAC and seven Khayelitsha residents lodged an application to reverse the health workers’ dismissal.
The wife of slain theatre personality Taliep Petersen appeared with three men in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, charged with his murder. Petersen was shot in his Cape Town home in December last year. In the dock were his wife, Najwa, as well as Abdoer Emjedi, Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders.
The Cape Town Book Fair has achieved much in its second year, writes Darryl Accone.
Jane Rosenthal reports on the winners of the M-Net Literary Awards for 2007.
South Africa’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is to lead an African Union (AU) fact-finding team to the Comoros after elections in the rebel Anjouan island. An AU ministerial committee has rejected the outcome of the Anjouan poll.
While holding elections in Côte d’Ivoire is a priority, this should not be done at the expense of peace in the country, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. Briefing the media following discussions with the Ivorian prime minister, Mbeki said the unification and disarmament process currently under way in the West African country was the main priority.
Cape Town’s renaming panel has recommended that slain musician Taliep Petersen be remembered in a street name, and that a clutch of apartheid-era prime ministers drop off the map. A total of 46 changes suggested by the panel of experts were released on Wednesday.
South Africa has no copper mines, but copper exports to China are booming: the result of a cable-theft epidemic that regularly plunges whole suburbs into darkness, strands thousands of train passengers and is wreaking havoc with the national economy.
Dina Rodrigues’s advocate, Johan Van der Berg, called on Wednesday for a fair and balanced sentence for her for the premeditated murder of baby Jordan-Leigh Norton. He delivered his closing argument in the Cape High Court concerning an appropriate sentence for his 26-year-old client.
Twelve people were arrested after a second night of vigilantism against suspected drug dealers at Mitchells Plain in Cape Town, police said on Wednesday. Captain Randall Stoffels said about 1Â 000 people marched to three homes of suspected drug dealers. The top floor of a double-storey house was burnt down.
A man has been arrested and is being questioned by police after causing a disturbance in the public gallery of the National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon. Shortly after proceedings began, the man began shouting at bemused MPs sitting below. Deputy Speaker Gwen Mahlangu, who was in the chair at the time, repeatedly told the man to stop.
The National Assembly on Wednesday approved the controversial Public Service Amendment Bill, despite the objections of most opposition parties. Essentially, the Bill provides for a single public service at national and provincial levels and allows for secondment of employees.
Biotech crops giant Monsanto has been ordered to withdraw an advertising claim that no negative reactions have ever been reported to genetically modified foods. The Advertising Standards Authority made the ruling this week in response to a consumer complaint lodged against a Monsanto South Africa print ad.