Cape Town

To tax lobola, or not to tax: that is the question that Finance Minister Trevor Manuel does not want to touch with a barge pole. He told MPs in his budget speech on Wednesday that last year he received a suggestion he should make lobola, the traditional payment for a bride, tax deductible.

A senior advocate was specially drafted on Wednesday to cross-examine a youth who accused his former legal representative of trying to bribe him not to testify in the Cape High Court murder trial of Dina Rodrigues. The teenager claimed last week that his former counsel, Charles Simon, had offered him a R20 000 bribe to remain silent.

The safety and security budget is set to increase to R43,6-billion by 2010. According to the 2007 estimates of national expenditure, tabled by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel in Parliament on Wednesday, by that year there will be 190 000 police officers patrolling South Africa’s streets.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s 2007/08 budget proposals tabled in Parliament on Wednesday contain further relaxation of exchange controls. The requirement that South African companies obtain a majority shareholding in foreign entities or projects outside of Africa is abolished, and they now have to obtain only a 25% shareholding.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday paid tribute to teachers as ”the front line of our education system” — and then matched his praise with hard cash. ”The investments announced in this budget constitute a concerted effort to improve the quality of schooling in our country,” he told the National Assembly.

The government wants to have its ”bold and ambitious” new social-security scheme, that could include a R30 billion-a-year wage subsidy, in place by 2010, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel announced on Wednesday. Manuel told Parliament the planned budget surplus created space for future social-security reforms.

The government is confident it will remain within budget for hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup, says Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi. Speaking at a media briefing ahead of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s Budget speech on Wednesday, he said he saw no reason why building stadiums would exceed the R17,4-billion allocated for the purpose.

Agencies operating under the umbrella of the Department of Trade and Industry will receive R1,7-billion to promote black economic empowerment (BEE) and small-business development, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. Delivering his budget speech to Parliament, he said an additional R380-million will go to the national empowerment fund.

South Africa is to set an official ”poverty line” as a tool to help measure progress in the fight against the problem, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. A poverty line establishes the income required for a basic minimal standard of living, enough for an adequate food supply and other necessities.

The Department of Defence’s budget has risen to R25,9-billion to meet the rising cost of peacekeeping operations and the military’s need to beef up its airlift capacity. Tabling his 2007/08 budget in Parliament on Wednesday, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said the South African National Defence Force had ”assisted significantly” in helping reduce a number of African conflicts.

Spending on dedicated HIV/Aids programmes by national and provincial government departments will exceed R5-billion within the next two years, according to Wednesday’s budget. The Treasury says in its budget review that an additional R1,65-billion has been committed to provinces over the next three years for their Aids-treatment programmes.

Given his military background, it is likely Ananias Mathe could have squeezed through the tiny window of a C-Max prison cell on his own to escape from jail last year, a ministerial task team has found. It is possible he did so without the assistance of prison warders, task team member Paul Govindsamy said on Tuesday. However, MPs disagreed.

South African President Thabo Mbeki met FirstRand Limited chairperson GT Ferreira, FirstRand Limited CEO Paul Harris and FirstRand Bank CEO Sizwe Nxasana in Pretoria on Tuesday, the Presidency said. According to presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga, the group ”apprised the president on their widely publicised media advertisement campaign on crime”.

Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk dealt canned lion hunting a death blow on Tuesday by outlawing the hunting of captive-bred large predators within two years of their release on a property for the purpose of hunting. He told journalists in Cape Town he intends ”putting an end, once and for all, to the reprehensible practice of canned hunting”.

The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) has lambasted the South African Defence Force’s transformation policy, saying it has contributed to thousands of experienced white officers leaving the force. The party’s spokesperson on defence, Pieter Groenewald, said the policy, introduced two years ago, required more than 5 000 white senior officers to leave the force.

The City of Cape Town needs to spend about R1-billion on treatment plants over the next five years to avoid a sewage crisis, mayoral committee member for trading services Lionel Roelf said on Monday. Most of the city’s waste-water treatment plants are already operating near or beyond capacity, with ageing, ineffective infrastructure, he said in a statement.

Bold corporate-tax cuts and a job-creation programme are among the main features of the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) alternative budget 2007/8, which was unveiled on Monday. Released each year ahead of the actual budget, the DA says its version is ”geared towards boosting economic growth, creating jobs and turning South Africa into a true, open society”.

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon has asked why the murder-conviction rate is so low if over 80% of murder victims in South Africa are killed by people they know. In his weekly newsletter published on Friday, Leon questioned what he called ”a dizzying series of statistics” contained in President Thabo Mbeki’s response on Thursday to the State of the Nation debate.

President Thabo Mbeki on Friday called for an end to all measures intended to isolate the Palestinian Authority and for the parties involved to renew their peace efforts. Writing in his weekly newsletter, Mbeki congratulated Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khalid Mish’al for concluding last week’s Mecca agreement.

Plans to build hundreds of thousands of new low-cost homes could fall victim to shifting budget demands in the run-up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup, South Africa’s housing minister said on Thursday. Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said there was a danger that her ministry’s demands ”could be completely wiped off the radar screen”.