The mother of jailed Chinese journalist Shi Tao wept and punched the air on Monday as she accepted a press-freedom award on her son’s behalf from world media bosses in Cape Town. "He has only done what any courageous journalist should do," Gao Qinsheng told an annual gathering of the World Association of Newspapers.
President Thabo Mbeki on Monday called on the media to provide what he described as accurate and properly contextualised information. ”We in Africa can and do benefit from criticism, but we do ask that it should be based on accurate information …,” he told the 60th World Association of Newspapers congress and 14th World Editors’ Forum in Cape Town.
President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday called for enhanced legitimacy through representation and accountability as well as recapitalisation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He said low-income countries would continue to draw heavily on a wide range of macro- and micro-economic policy advice linked to financing needs.
As many consumers of traditional news media, especially in the developed world, have moved to the internet to keep up to date, so another exodus has started: from the web to other digital media, especially cellphones. This was the message at a precursor on Sunday to the World Editors Forum and World Newspaper Congress running until June 6.
International Cricket Council president Percy Sonn, who died last weekend following complications after undergoing minor colon surgery, was laid to rest in Cape Town on Saturday. Hundreds of people gathered at St George’s cathedral in the city centre for a funeral service.
Nearly 60 journalists have been murdered in recent months, and prosecutions of journalists for ”treason” and ”extremism” are on the rise, according to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). The annual review of press freedom by the Paris-based WAN painted a grim picture of attacks, imprisonment and murder.
Union leaders sought to draw other sectors into their wage dispute with the government on Friday as thousands of public servants countrywide downed tools. The first day of what the unions said would be an indefinite strike passed without major incident and had a patchy effect on service delivery.
Media freedom in Africa will come under the microscope as global newspaper publishers and editors converge in Cape Town from Sunday to analyse challenges and opportunities facing the fourth estate. About 1 600 participants from 105 countries are set to attend the gathering, which kicks off with a discussion on Sunday on press freedom in Africa.
A Cape High Court judge on Friday reserved his ruling on an application by the state, which, if successful, could see two LeisureNet bosses face a retrial on some charges. Former joint chief executives Peter Gardener and Rod Mitchell were sentenced in April to an effective eight and seven years in jail respectively on R12-million fraud charges.
South Africa should be compensating public servants for the quality of the work they do rather than granting an across-the-board increase — as demanded by striking trade unionists — official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille argued on Friday.
The Auditor General’s investigation into the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s procurement processes revealed a number of flaws in the way the department is operating, the Auditor General (AG) said on Thursday. Tabling his report, AG Terrence Nombembe said the department has failed to follow proper tender procedures.
The Labour Court in Cape Town on Thursday granted an order interdicting unions from calling on immigration officers to join Friday’s national strike. Judge Deon Nel also ruled that the statutory essential-services committee should hold a hearing not later than June 15 to decide whether the officers are essential-services workers.
The government has made no decision to reduce the number of provinces or to ”rationalise” them, President Thabo Mbeki told Parliament on Thursday. Replying to questions in the National Assembly, Mbeki said Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi is to give more details of a provincial- and local-government system review next week.
South Africa could have at least ten more nuclear power stations within two decades if Eskom has its way, according to the utility’s chief executive, Jacob Maroga. He told journalists at a briefing in Cape Town on Thursday that in the face of global warming, nuclear power was the ”next big viable alternative” to coal.
The South African Cabinet has backed President Thabo Mbeki in rejecting alleged suggestions by Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi of similarities between government propaganda and that used by Adolf Hitler’s regime in Nazi Germany.
One of the two units at the Koeberg nuclear power station near Cape Town was unexpectedly shut down on Thursday morning because of a technical problem, Eskom said. Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga said there was no need for concern, as Eskom had enough reserve capacity to supply the Western Cape.
The Cabinet has dismissed suggestions the government is insensitive to the plight of its employees and called for ”responsible leadership” during protest actions. ”We reject any insinuation that government is insensitive to the plight of its employees,” government communications head Themba Maseko said.
The Cape Town Regional Court on Wednesday granted a fashion photographer leave to appeal his conviction and four-year jail sentence for sexual offences against a five-year-old girl. Neil Herman (48) appeared before Judge Wilma van der Merwe, who extended his R1 000 bail pending the outcome of the appeal.
South African lawmakers have given their thumbs up to a proposed law banning parents or guardians from spanking their charges. The law is an attempt to widen a ban on corporal punishment in schools, which was passed several years ago, to the home.
A working document tabled at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council on Wednesday offers progress in public-service pay talks, Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said. ”This is a major breakthrough,” she told the National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon.
The Department of Minerals and Energy is working on regulations to govern "the norms and standards" of energy appliances so as to reduce the use of energy, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on Wednesday. Speaking ahead of her budget vote, the minister acknowledged that people would be obligated "to be energy efficient".
South African Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa says he expects to make an announcement on the National Lottery on Thursday. At a media briefing at Parliament on Wednesday, he said he was awaiting a report from the National Lotteries Board on the matter.
The Zimbabwe opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s economics spokesperson, Eddie Cross, says that judging from his own bakery business, the country’s inflation rate now exceeds 10 000%. He said on Wednesday that he was told by a supplier that flour for his bakery would now cost Z 000 for a 50kg bag, which cost Z 000 just recently.
South Africa again rejected calls for tough action against Zimbabwe on Tuesday ahead of a visit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is expected to press the issue. Britain and other Western powers have accused Mugabe of widespread human rights abuses and mismanaging the economy.
High Court papers have been served on President Thabo Mbeki and Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla calling on them to respond in the matter of considering applications for a presidential pardon for 384 prisoners, Inkatha Freedom Party chief whip Koos van der Merwe told MPs on Tuesday.
More than half of the one million cases that made it last year on to the rolls of South Africa’s lower courts were withdrawn or struck off, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday during debate on the Justice and Constitutional Development Department budget vote in the National Assembly.
Many so-called political prisoners held in South African jails committed their offences after 1994, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla said on Tuesday. Briefing the media in Cape Town, she said it would be incorrect to regard any inmate as a political prisoner.
The Cape High Court on Tuesday denied four men convicted in the Fancy Boys gangster case leave to appeal. Three Fancy Boys gang members, with sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment, and a non-gangster who received stolen property from them had applied for leave to appeal.
The National Treasury has gazetted the details of municipalities whose 2006/07 municipal infrastructure grant allocations have been stopped — because of non-compliance with the 2006 Division of Revenue Act. It amounts to R503-million. The main reason for the funds being stopped is "significant under-expenditure".
Opposition parties on Tuesday castigated the government for not doing more to uphold human rights around the world, particularly in Burma and Zimbabwe. ”How sad that within 13 years South Africa has lost its image as the champion of human rights in the world,” Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder said.
A lack of capacity to spend their allocations from the integrated housing and human-settlement development grant has resulted in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga being stripped of R145-million by the national Housing Department, the Cape Town-based South African Local Government Research Centre has reported.
President Thabo Mbeki’s facilitation of political dialogue in Zimbabwe will succeed only if its people show they are serious about finding solutions to that country’s crisis, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Tuesday in her budget-vote debate in the National Assembly.