The rise of religious ”Jihadist” extremism in Africa is a serious concern, a top United States official told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town on Wednesday. ”When we talk about the growth rate we have to be quite concerned,” said Jendayi Frazer, assistant US Secretary of State for African Affairs.
President Thabo Mbeki strongly criticised the Sunday Times on Wednesday for what he termed its peddling of ”falsehoods” in a report published earlier this month. The report dealt with the alleged rejection by Western Cape health authorities of doctors for top posts because they were white.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) began a meeting on Africa on Wednesday with warnings that the continent faces being left further behind as its growth rates fail to match those elsewhere in the world. Africa is forecast to grow 6,2% in 2007, having achieved 4,9% over five years from 2001 and 5,5% last year alone, said a joint report.
Injuries to Fourie du Preez and Ricky Januarie mean Sharks scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar will start for the first time in the number nine jersey when South Africa host Australia in the Tri-Nations opener at Newlands on Saturday. In all there are 11 changes to the Springbok team that ran out against Samoa last weekend.
A high crime rate, unreliable electricity supply and inflexible labour laws saw South Africa drop six places over two years on a global economic competitiveness barometer released on Wednesday. Ranked 46th overall out of 128 countries measured, South Africa was the second-best performer on the continent.
Africa will have to find its own way and develop its own growth agenda, which will not be either the Indian or Chinese way of forging economic development, Mvelaphanda Holdings executive chairperson Tokyo Sexwale argued on Wednesday at a World Economic Forum media briefing at the start of the forum conversation on Africa.
A pressure group has threatened to bring a class action against the government and the wine industry over the issue of alcohol abuse among farm workers. The Black Association of the Wine and Spirits Industry called on Wednesday for the establishment of an industry fund to change people’s attitudes towards drinking, and to set up an institution to treat alcoholics.
Transnet pensioners and their beneficiaries will receive bonuses totalling R125-million at the end of July, Transnet group chief executive Maria Ramos announced on Wednesday. The bonus will be paid and funded solely from Transnet’s resources.
The Springboks and the Wallabies disappeared beneath the radar on Tuesday as they continued their preparations for Saturday’s opening Vodacom Tri-Nations encounter at Newlands. The two southern hemisphere protagonists, each looking to continue winning after successful starts to their 2007 international campaigns, held closed practice sessions in Cape Town.
Springbok coach Jake White was on Tuesday cleared by the South African Rugby Union of breaching its code of conduct, following a row with a journalist in a Johannesburg pub. It was alleged that the argument over a tabloid newspaper’s coverage of the Springboks had led to the journalist being assaulted by another pub patron.
The City of Cape Town’s renaming panel, set up in a bid to avoid the controversy that has enlivened the process in other centres, has hit a stumbling block. The Western Cape African National Congress announced on Tuesday that it rejected the 17-member panel and demanded that the body be reconstituted.
President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday in Parliament condemned the violence that has marked protests during the ongoing public-service strike — but opposition parties expressed concern about police officers joining the strike in sympathy as well as trade-union leaders’ ”message of selfish own interests”.
Economic growth in South Africa is breaking historical records, President Thabo Mbeki told MPs on Tuesday. Speaking at the start of debate on the Presidency’s budget vote, he said that by September this year the economy ”will have been growing for eight solid years, longer than ever before in the recorded economic history of our country”.
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila is scheduled to arrive in Cape Town on Wednesday on a three-day official visit. Kabila will hold discussions with President Thabo Mbeki at Tuynhuys on Thursday, the Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement on Tuesday.
South Africa’s rugby bosses were hauled over the coals by lawmakers on Tuesday over the continued dearth of black players in the Springbok team 13 years after the end of the apartheid era. Members of the portfolio committee on sport lined up to accuse rugby administrators of not doing enough to develop rugby at school and club level.
The public-sector strike could soon ”turn violent”, Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi warned on Monday. Unions did not want the strike to continue unnecessarily, he told the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union national congress in Cape Town. ”We’re quite aware of the consequences of allowing the strike to prolong …,” he said.
No penalties will be imposed on the Tasima Consortium for the late delivery of the flawed electronic traffic information system (eNaTIS), which plunged the country’s traffic system into chaos, the Department of Transport said on Monday. The department said it could not impose any penalties because it felt that the delays were due to, amongst other things, a court interdict.
With only two weeks to go before the ruling party’s crunch national policy conference, most of the party’s provincial structures have not taken an official position regarding President Thabo Mbeki standing as African National Congress president for a third term.
The state spent R269,5-million on private security companies last year — up R118,5-million (78,5%) from R151-million in 2005. According to ministerial replies to a number of questions put forward by the Democratic Alliance in Parliament, the money was spent by 20 national departments.
Africa’s political and economic elite will gather under the banner of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Cape Town this week seeking ways to boost growth and trade for the world’s poorest continent. Host President Thabo Mbeki and counterparts will be joined by leading business figures, Cabinet ministers and central bankers for the 17th annual WEF on Africa.
Group of Eight (G8) leaders are making ”hot air” promises when it comes to giving substantial aid to Africa, said Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane in Cape Town on Monday.Ndungane was speaking at a media briefing of the African Monitor, an advocacy organisation of which he is the founder and president.
Scrumhalf Michael Claassens was added to the Springbok squad on Monday as cover for Saturday’s opening Tri-Nations Test against Australia in Cape Town. Claassens, who has just agreed a two-year contract with Bath in England, steps in due to injuries to first-choice duo Fourie du Preez and Ricky Januarie.
The Cape Town Labour Court has rejected an attempt by Parliament to block an unfair-dismissal claim by the institution’s former chief financial officer, Harry Charlton. Parliament’s lawyers had raised an ”exception” to Charlton’s claim, seeking a ruling on whether his challenge was legally sound.
A hostage drama ended in central Cape Town on Saturday night when police stormed the Nyoni’s Kraal restaurant, shooting dead the hostage taker and releasing the hostages. Inspector Bernadine Steyn said a specialised police team set off a stun grenade and several shots were fired when they entered the restaurant shortly after 6.30pm.
While the Dutch Reformed Church had decided on a more accommodating approach to gay membership at its national synod meeting in Gauteng this week, it also firmly rejected gay marriage and sex. The synod was clear in its stance that marriage could only be between a man and a woman, newly elected moderator Professor Piet Strauss said on Friday.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called for the reversal of Thursday’s 50 basis point interest-rate hike. ”Cosatu believes that the South African Reserve Bank’s policy of raising interest rates … is seriously out of step with the needs of a developing economy like South Africa,” the union said in a statement on Friday.
Media reports of Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya having ”snubbed” the South African National Aids Conference in Durban are incorrect, the ministry said on Friday. ”The ministry never confirmed the participation of Dr Skweyiya at this conference …,” it said in a statement.
Parishioners of a Johannesburg Roman Catholic church, concerned at a growing shortage of priests, have challenged church authorities to allow priests to marry. The proposal is made in a ”discussion document” compiled by a working group of the pastoral council of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Rosebank.
Alleged drug trafficker and leader of the Wonder Kids gang on the Cape Flats, Christopher ”Ougat” Patterson, was on Friday refused bail at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court. He appeared before magistrate Grant Engel, who remanded him to July 27 when he and three others, including his wife Denise, are to appear in court again on drug-dealing charges.
The number of awaiting-trial detainees in South Africa remained unacceptably high, National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli said on Friday. He was addressing a seminar arranged in Cape Town by the justice initiative of the Open Society Institute, part of the network of Soros foundations.
South Africa needs to spend billions of rands to ease a nationwide housing crunch, its housing minister said on Friday, highlighting a glaring legacy of decades of apartheid. Lindiwe Sisulu told Parliament during her annual budget speech that the country had made progress in easing a huge backlog in requests for housing.
South Africa’s controversial health minister returned to the spotlight on Thursday after snubbing a major Aids conference, announcing a ”significant” decrease in the number of pregnant women infected with HIV. ”This is mainly as a result of our continued focus on prevention as the mainstay of our response to combat HIV,” Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told Parliament.