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/ 30 October 2007
At least 500 people packed a local soccer stadium in Matatiele as the second day of public hearings on the region’s controversial incorporation into the Eastern Cape started on Tuesday. Matatiele was incorporated into the Eastern Cape on February 28, hours before voting started in the local government election of 2006.
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/ 29 October 2007
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Cyril Ramaphosa has been formally nominated to lead the African National Congress, media reports said on Monday — though the businessman has maintained he is not interested in the position. The ANC’s Rondebosch branch in Cape Town has nominated Ramaphosa as its candidate in the party’s succession race.
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/ 26 October 2007
Oom Os du Randt — the Springbok loosehead prop — is one of the most experienced sports stars in the country. At the ripe old age of 35 and with two World Cup winners’ medals around his neck, he has a lot to pass on to younger players, especially those who do not know how to handle success and end up in self-destruct mode.
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/ 26 October 2007
With Limpopo still to be accounted for, Eastern Cape provincial government departments are leading the field when it comes to poor accounting, according to figures released by the Auditor General on Friday. Eleven of the province’s 12 departments received qualified audit reports for the 2006/7 financial year, and three of the 11 got an ”adverse” rating.
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/ 25 October 2007
Because of the effect of HIV/Aids on a company’s workforce, corporate social responsibility programmes benefit not only local communities, but also the company’s bottom line. The SA Business Coalition against HIV/Aids, or Sabcoha, says that more than 90% of people with HIV/Aids are workers, managers or employers.
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/ 25 October 2007
With most schools in rural areas facing abject poverty, overcrowding, lack of resources and facilities, the cry for help is loud and desperate. Rural children want to compete on an equal footing with their urban brothers and sisters. Anglo American South Africa has answered this call with its Rural Schools Programme aimed at ameliorating the situation in Limpopo.
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/ 24 October 2007
Life is improving steadily — at least in the area of housing and basic service delivery — for the 48-million people living in South Africa, according to Statistics South Africa. The organisation on Wednesday released the first results of its 2007 Community Survey, based on responses from about 255Â 000 households.
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/ 22 October 2007
Stock theft in South Africa has amounted to R327 676 500 in the past year, the National Stock Theft Forum said on Monday. ”At the moment, stock theft is hampering the profitability of the stock farmers and it is also interfering with the government’s land-reform process, as well as the empowering of the emerging farmers,” the forum said in a statement.
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/ 21 October 2007
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Pride and politics mixed on Sunday as South Africans celebrated their Rugby World Cup final win over England. Festivities continued through the night as South Africans packed fan parks and restaurants and filled the streets with honking cars draped with the national flag.
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/ 18 October 2007
A civic movement on Thursday demanded that a ”degrading and discriminating” Rugby World Cup advert featuring Khoisan people be pulled from the airwaves. ”It degrades our Khoisan indigenous people as illiterate,” said national secretary general of the African Renaissance Civic Movement Richard Huber.
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/ 17 October 2007
Transformation and community engagement in the mining industry is a painful but crucial process, the Chamber of Mines sustainable development conference was told on Wednesday. Richards Bay Minerals’ strategic manager, Thabi Shange, said: ”Transformation is painful, cumbersome … It does not imply an easy ride of free will.”
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/ 12 October 2007
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi has pledged his full cooperation with a panel of experts named on Friday to review a criminal probe against him. ”As an individual, I will fully cooperate with the members of the panel as announced … by the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority],” Selebi said in a statement.
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/ 12 October 2007
The names of the panel expected to review the case against police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi were released on Friday. The Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, advocate Moktedi Mpshe, said the panel would be made up of Frank Dutton, advocate Mbuyiseli Madlanga, Peter Goss and advocate Shamila Batohi.
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/ 11 October 2007
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President Thabo Mbeki’s chances of staying on as leader of South Africa’s ruling party improved on Thursday when the party said the biggest share of regional votes in a leadership contest would go to his stronghold. Mbeki, barred from seeking re-election as national president in 2009, has signalled he intends to stand for a third term as African National Congress (ANC) leader.
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/ 11 October 2007
Polokwane will be a busy town come December with an expected 4Â 500 delegates, both voting and non-voting, attending the African National Congress’s (ANC) 52nd national conference. Smuts Ngonyama, head of the presidency of the ANC, on Thursday updated the media in Johannesburg on preparations for the conference.
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/ 10 October 2007
Charges against a man accused of participating in the murder of ten KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) women were withdrawn in the Umzinto Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. The state has withdrawn its charges against Zandisile Bhadla Somanikiniki (28), who resides in the Majola, Port St Johns, area but no reasons were given for the withdrawal.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has apparently thrown her weight behind leading businessman Tokyo Sexwale for the African National Congress presidency. Meanwhile, audited ANC membership figures have confirmed the Eastern Cape as the party’s strongest province, media reports said on Tuesday.
A 31-year-old Eastern Cape man should be jailed for life for raping an elderly woman and trying to kill her husband, the Grahamstown High Court heard on Tuesday. Beneza Allah, of Phumlani, Jansenville, who was 29 at the time of the crimes, appeared before Judge Zamani Nhlangulela.
An HIV/Aids treatment programme is on track in Lusikisiki, contrary to media reports that it was bungled, the Eastern Cape health department said on Tuesday. The department took over the programme initiated by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the NGO Médecins sans Frontiêres in October last year.
Ships have been put on alert after an iceberg was spotted floating off St Francis Bay in the Eastern Cape, the Cape Argus reported on Tuesday. The large white mass, said to be about 35 nautical miles offshore, is estimated to be 25m long and 20m high. It was reported by a single vessel, the Ntini, which was sailing in the area on Monday night.
African countries should make use of intellectual provisions to protect their innovations when it comes to African traditional medicines, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Monday. ”Africa should make use of intellectual-property provisions to protect its innovation with regard to indigenous knowledge and African traditional medicine,” she said Johannesburg.
The allure of the cosmopolitan display of rugby on the global stage in France has provided overwhelming competition for this year’s domestic showpiece, the 2007 Currie Cup. Despite the welcome panache and entertainment that have been provided by the two dominant sides, the Cheetahs and the Sharks, the Currie Cup has crept to its final stages almost unnoticed.
Whether it costs the Makana municipality two cents or R100-million to change the name of Grahamstown and the names of other places and landmarks, the names will change, said Grahamstown mayor Phumelelo Kate on Thursday. ”You cannot equate the transformation of our country to costs. Change must happen and nothing is going to stop it,” Kate was reported as saying.
So-called surprise visits by businessman Tokyo Sexwale to branches of the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) have raised the ire of the student body. ”We demand a public apology from Mr Sexwale for bringing the name of our organisation into disrepute,” said Sasco president David Maimela on Wednesday.
South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) members are expected to converge on the Labour Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday to hear a final ruling on a secondary strike. Union spokesperson Dumisani Langa said if the court ruled in their favour, they would rope in other Gauteng municipalities to join the strike.
The second day of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) strike in Johannesburg has had little impact on service delivery, city officials said on Tuesday. City spokesperson Gabu Tugwana said the first day saw about 1 500 marchers — 50% of which were from the Johannesburg metro police department.
The South African Secret Service’s deputy director general, Silumko Sokupa, would take over as the new coordinator for intelligence next month, the Intelligence Services said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Lorna Daniels said President Thabo Mbeki had appointed Sokupa following the early retirement of Barry Gilder.
Street posters promoting politician-turned-business-tycoon Tokyo Sexwale for president have appeared in Buffalo City (East London) in the Eastern Cape. The Dispatch Online reported on Monday that big colour posters reading ”Tokyo for president” were seen on poles in and around the city.
The unveiling of a multimillion-rand extension to the international terminal building of the OR Tambo International Airport was a milestone in preparing for the 2010 World Cup, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said in Johannesburg on Sunday.
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/ 29 September 2007
Published by non-aligned parallel structures within the aligned structure of the Party. No names, please. We don’t want to have to deny anything after Polokwane. We salute those who salute the everyday salutes of those who strive on a daily basis to salute, with democratic salutations, the salutes of their comrade saluters. Saluta continua!
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/ 28 September 2007
The medical superintendent of Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, who spoke out about the recent spate of baby deaths there, has been fired, the Eastern Cape health department said on Friday. The department found Dr Nokuzola Ntshona guilty on three charges of speaking out against its handling of the Frere Hospital maternity saga.
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/ 27 September 2007
African National Congress funder Sandi Majali — known for his role in the Oilgate scandal — is to sue the Sunday Times for defamation following its story implicating him in the disappearance of money meant for an Eastern Cape school feeding scheme.