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/ 21 September 2007
Empowerment consortium Gidani has been awarded the licence to operate the National Lottery, Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa announced at a press conference on Friday afternoon. Mpahlwa had suspended the lottery on March 31, hours before operator Uthingo’s licence to run it expired.
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/ 21 September 2007
Full-colour advertisements placed in a number of national newspapers on Friday by the Health Department defending its Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, were a waste of taxpayers’ money, the Democratic Alliance said. The United Democratic Movement also criticised the advertisements.
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/ 20 September 2007
The controversial Constitution 13th Amendment Bill was passed in the National Assembly on Thursday, despite opposition from the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party, among others. The Bill seeks to realign certain provincial borders to avoid municipal boundaries straddling them.
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/ 20 September 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday rejected the proposed shortlist of candidates to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board. An emergency resolution was brought before the union body’s central committee in Kempton Park, Gauteng, by three member unions.
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/ 19 September 2007
Floor-crossing politicians managed to shift the majority party in control in 12 of the country’s 128 municipalities during the two-week crossing period, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said on Wednesday. The African National Congress gained the most councillors, the IEC figures showed.
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/ 19 September 2007
Auditor General (AG) Terence Nombembe will conduct an audit next year to assess station-level performance within the South African Police Service (SAPS). The special audit will examine, among others, uneven service delivery at station-level across the country, which affects the way that are opened and recorded, and crime statistics compiled.
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/ 19 September 2007
Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa needs to explain the ”confusion” between his department and the National Lotteries Board (NLB), the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. While the department denied involvement in the 42,4% increase in performance bonuses at the NLB, board spokesperson Sershan Naidoo had contended Mpahlwa authorised the bonuses himself.
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/ 18 September 2007
There is a ”massive” service crisis within rail-passenger company Metrorail, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. There are also concerns about the Transnet division’s readiness for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, DA MP Mpowele Swath said in a statement. Responding, Metrorail on Tuesday denied the claims that it was experiencing a service crisis.
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/ 17 September 2007
As opposition parties called for urgent action to address the ”crisis” of HIV infection in babies attending state hospitals, the Health Department took steps on Monday to get to the bottom of the matter. The department was concerned at media reports ”alleging there have been cases of HIV infection as a result of inadequate infection-control measures”.
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/ 17 September 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday lodged a complaint with the Public Services Commission over what it said were ”unjustified” performance bonuses being paid to National Lotteries Board (NLB) officials. Staff performance bonuses at the NLB soared by R42 4% to more than R1,3-million for the past financial year
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/ 16 September 2007
Cape Town mayor and Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille’s Sunday march against drugs almost landed her in trouble with the police again. Zille, who was leading a community march targeting at drug lords in Atlantis outside Cape Town, was denied permission to march in a street whose residents were said to be mostly drug lords.
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/ 15 September 2007
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The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Saturday welcomed the Pretoria High Court’s decision to reject a bid by former deputy president Jacob Zuma blocking the state from investigating his business activities in Britain. ”Zuma and his very expensive legal team … must not further attempt to obstruct, delay and resist the investigations by the state,” said DA spokesperson Eddie Trent.
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/ 14 September 2007
The Independent Democrats (ID) came out winners on Friday in a last-minute flurry of applications to the Cape High Court by ID defectors to retain their seats. The party said bids by four former ID local councillors in the Western Cape to keep their seats were rejected by the court with costs. Two of the four were members of the Cape Town city council.
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/ 14 September 2007
The Western Cape legislature’s public accounts committee has cleared African National Congress provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha of wrongdoing in a lucrative Cape Town land deal, the ANC said on Friday. Allegations that Skwatsha had interfered in the sale of a province-owned 2,4ha erf in Tamboerskloof were referred to the committee by the Democratic Alliance.
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/ 14 September 2007
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader and Cape Town mayor Helen Zille has accused the police and Western Cape provincial minister of community safety Leonard Ramatlakane of trying to justify their actions by disseminating misinformation and conducting smear campaigns. ”Those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” she said in her weekly online newsletter on Friday.
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/ 13 September 2007
Despite loud and bitter protests from the opposition, the National Assembly on Thursday approved the slate of candidates for the board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), which was proposed by the communications portfolio committee.
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/ 13 September 2007
The Public Protector is to conduct a preliminary investigation into allegations of improper conduct against Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba. Gigaba had been informed of this by letter, the Public Protector’s office said on Thursday. It said this ”own initiative investigation” would seek to determine the merits of the allegations against Gigaba.
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/ 12 September 2007
Thanks to floor-crossing, the African National Congress (ANC) has at last secured a clear two-thirds majority in the Morkel family. The decisive moment came on Wednesday when the last of the Morkel brothers, Craig, joined the party. But the patriarch, former premier Gerald Morkel, has no intention of following in his sons’ footsteps.
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/ 12 September 2007
In the latest twist in the current floor-crossing saga the African National Congress (ANC), despite all its previous protestations about taking firm action against members of Parliament convicted of fraud, on Wednesday accepted into their ranks Craig Morkel, who was convicted of fraud and theft in the Travelgate debacle.
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/ 11 September 2007
The arrest of Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille was an attempt to settle political battles with state resources, the Western Cape office of the Congress of South African Trade Unions said on Tuesday. The Cosatu statement coincided with a brief appearance by Zille and 10 other people in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court.
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/ 11 September 2007
The United Independent Front (UIF) lost both its representatives in the National Assembly on Tuesday when they crossed the floor to the African National Congress. Its single proportional seat in the National Council of Provinces could also be in danger after one of its two Western Cape MPLs also defected to the ANC.
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/ 11 September 2007
The National Assembly’s communications committee on Tuesday recommended 12 names for the new South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) board, including six current board members. The six are Alison Gilwald, Andile Mbeki, Fadila Lagadien, Khanyisile Mkhonza, Christine Qunta and Ashwin Trikamjee.
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/ 11 September 2007
A Mitchells Plain court on Tuesday postponed a hearing for Cape Town mayor Helen Zille and 10 others who were arrested on Sunday during a protest against drug lords in a suburb of the city. Zille made a brief appearance in a magistrate’s court to face charges that she had participated in an illegal gathering.
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/ 10 September 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) had a ”lively” exchange of views with National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete on Monday in a meeting held to discuss her suspension of DA MP Mike Waters. The meeting was also aimed at discussing Mbete’s ruling as out of order a question, asked by Waters, about Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s theft conviction.
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/ 10 September 2007
Cape Town city councillor Badhi Chaaban said on Monday he is a member of both the African Muslim Party (AMP) and the newly formed National People’s Party (NPP), as both allow dual membership. But he has asked the AMP leadership for permission to formally cross to the NPP, taking his council seat with him.
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/ 10 September 2007
Police arrested Democratic Alliance (DA) leader and Cape Town mayor Helen Zille on Sunday in connection with a protest she led against drug lords wreaking havoc in Cape Town’s poor districts. DA councillor Grant Pascoe said Zille was arrested after she went to a police station to inquire about the arrest of a religious leader who had participated in the protest.
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/ 7 September 2007
One of the Cape Town councillors embroiled in the city’s floor-crossing battle said on Friday she did not know what party she belonged to any more. Georgina Sass was one of five Independent Democrats members that the newly formed National People’s Party claimed on Thursday had defected to it.
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/ 7 September 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is looking at the legality of the Tshwane metro council’s reported ban on ”white businesses”, and the matter could even end up in the Constitutional Court, DA leader Helen Zille said on Friday. ”Such a resolution amounts to naked racism and flies in the face of the Constitution,” she said in her weekly online newsletter, SA Today.
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/ 6 September 2007
Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Mike Waters has been suspended from Parliament following his outburst in the National Assembly on Wednesday. At the start of proceedings in the House on Thursday afternoon, speaker Baleka Mbete described his conduct of the day before as ”outrageous, disrespectful and grossly disorderly”.
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/ 6 September 2007
The majority of the members of the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) walked out of the National Assembly on Thursday after speaker Baleka Mbete officially suspended one of them for five days. Health spokesperson Mike Waters upset the speaker on Wednesday when he challenged her ruling that a question directed to Manto Tshabalala Msimang was out of order.
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/ 6 September 2007
The newly formed National People’s Party (NPP) on Thursday claimed that five former members of the Independent Democrats (ID) had crossed the floor, bringing their Cape Town metro seats with them. However, the ID said two of the five — Abdulla Omar and Aaron Kallie — were expelled from the party before the floor-crossing window opened.
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/ 5 September 2007
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) had demonstrated nothing but arrogance in pulling out of the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) over reports about Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, said the Media Institute of Southern Africa on Wednesday.