Cape Town

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon on Thursday suggested some leaders of big business in South Africa are as cowardly and mean spirited as their apartheid-era predecessors. This was in the light of the pressure brought to bear by Business Leadership South Africa on banking giant First National Bank (FNB) not to go ahead with a planned anti-crime campaign.

South African President Thabo Mbeki is expected this week to outline a strategy to cut crime and poverty and prepare the nation to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup in a speech overshadowed by a deep rift in his ruling party. Mbeki’s speech to Parliament on Friday has been preceded by a heightened debate over rampant crime.

It was a myth that participants in microbicide trials are encouraged to have unprotected sex, the Treatment Action Campaign said on Wednesday. ”This myth has been perpetuated by at least two senior South African politicians and we have encountered journalists who have mistakenly believed it,” the organisation said.

A woman burst into tears in the Cape High Court on Tuesday during an angry outburst over the death of her teenage daughter, who was allegedly shot by the 64-year-old man who had fathered the girl’s baby. According to prosecutor Penelope Magona, the girl left home at the age of 13 to live with the man.

The cost of Cape Town’s 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium has been slashed by over a billion rand to bring it ”within reach”, the city’s mayor, Helen Zille, said on Tuesday. The reduction from the original R3,7-billion quote to R2,68-billion still leaves a gap of R180-million, she told a media briefing.

The 114 000-member Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu) condemned agricultural organisations AgriSA and the Transvaal Agricultural Union on Tuesday for their ”denial of the abuse of farm workers” by farmers in South Africa. In a statement on Tuesday, Fawu came out in support of claims by Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana that abuse of workers by farmers is rife.

The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and the Federal Alliance (FA) are to merge before the 2009 general election, the parties announced on Tuesday. Briefing the media at Parliament, FF+ leader Pieter Mulder said his party has been in discussions with Louis Luyt’s FA for a few months, ”in the light of the seriousness of the situation in the country”.

Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica must tell South Africans what her department is doing to ensure that future electricity blackouts are averted, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. ”She needs to step up and reveal what the plan is over the short [one year], medium and long term,” DA minerals and energy spokesperson Hendrik Schmidt said in statement.

The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has asked the Public Protector, advocate Lawrence Mushwana, to investigate allegations in the German publication, Der Spiegel, that former state employee and chief of acquisitions for the arms deal Chippy Shaik received a -million bribe from arms manufacturer ThyssenKrupp.

Chippy Shaik, the former head of the South African government’s acquisition programme in the arms deal and brother of fraud convict Schabir Shaik, was allegedly paid a -million (about R21-million) bribe by one of the arms-deal bidding companies, Germany’s online newspaper Spiegel reported on Sunday.

A goal in each half allowed Ajax Cape Town to return to top spot in the Premier League after beating Bloemfontein Celtic 2-0 at the Athlone stadium on Friday night. Ajax playing with a strong south-easter, attacked from the start, and in the ninth minute, Terror Fanteni broke through, but Shoaib Walters dived to a save.

Cape Judge President John Hlophe’s acceptance of payments from the Oasis asset management group raise serious questions about his suitability for leadership in the judiciary, Democratic Alliance (DA) justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer said on Friday. She also called for the Judicial Service Commission to reopen its investigation into Hlophe.

The international scientific report on climate change released on Friday is a ”clarion call” to world leaders for immediate action, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said. He was reacting to the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which said global warming was ”unequivocal”, and ”very likely” man-made.

President Thabo Mbeki might represent all South Africans, but only 2% of the population endorses his views on crime, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday. Writing in his weekly letter, Leon said 98% of South Africans believe the president’s approach and attitude towards crime are wrong.

Spending on sustenance and travel by departmental officials for 22 government departments jumped by about R500-million, or 44%, in 2005/06 to R1,6-billion, compared with the previous year’s R1,1-billion, according to replies from ministers to the official opposition.

About 100 opponents of abortion prayed outside the gates of Parliament on Thursday for an end to a practice they say has killed 600 000 foetuses in South Africa over the last ten years. The demonstration was organised by the Christian Action Network to mark the anniversary of the date — February 1 1997 — when abortion on demand became legal in this country.

The government’s reckless implementation of the affirmative-action policy is forcing many white people to leave the country, creating a skills shortage crisis, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Thursday. Writing in his weekly letter, Buthelezi said white people need to be offered incentives in order for them to stay in the country.

Zimbabwean university student Tinashe Rioga, who allegedly tried to hijack a South African Airways (SAA) flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg last year, was on Wednesday declared unfit to stand trial in terms of the Mental Disorders Act. The order was made by magistrate Johan Vermaak when Rioga appeared in the Bellville Regional Court.

Teazers former co-owner Michael Jackson received psychiatric therapy after a street child was allegedly murdered outside the nightclub’s Cape Town premises, the Cape High Court heard on Wednesday. Jackson (45) is accused of murdering Xolani Zodwana, who was shot dead between 5am and 6am on a Saturday in May 2004.