The Democratic Alliance has asked Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela to place the health department under the administration of the provincial treasury. ”This will allow the province to take proper control of its finances and institute a complete review of all current appointments,” DA spokesperson Mike Waters said.
More than R45,6-million was lost by national and provincial government departments due to financial misconduct in the 2005/06 financial year, the Public Service Commission (PSC) said on Tuesday. Releasing the commission’s report on financial misconduct in government departments, PSC chairperson Stan Sangweni said there were 771 reported cases.
The 24-hour power failure at Johannesburg’s Coronation Hospital on the weekend should serve as a wake-up call on maintenance work, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. Jack Bloom, Gauteng health spokesperson for the party, warned that hospitals in the province were at dire risk because maintenance contracts had been cancelled.
President Thabo Mbeki wrapped up his two-day imbizo in the Eastern Cape on a positive note after interacting with stakeholders, communities and different spheres of government. Spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said Mbeki was particularly pleased with the support the Ukhahlamba district gave to a R1,5-billion PG Bison Project.
Former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was fired for her inability to work as part of the ”collective” and for undertaking a trip to Madrid against President Thabo Mbeki’s orders. This is according to the letter Mbeki sent to Madlala-Routledge on Wednesday firing her. The Presidency released the letter on Saturday to ”prevent further speculation.”
President Thabo Mbeki made 80-year old Evelina Mokwena of Dukathole, Aliwal North, in the Eastern Cape, the proud owner of a house on Saturday. The president handed over the house to Mokwena who has lived in a shack for more than 10 years.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang never told her axed deputy Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge that she would "fix" her, her department said on Friday. "We have confirmed with the minister that no such statement was ever made," the department said in response to an earlier statement by Madlala-Routledge at a media briefing.
Sacked deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge has confirmed she was dismissed by President Thabo Mbeki for her unannounced visit to East London’s Frere Hospital and her unauthorised trip to Madrid. Addressing a press conference broadcast live on Cape Talk radio on Friday, she said she wanted the facts, ”as I see them”, to receive an airing.
South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry this week indicated that it was considering building a state-backed, but privately operated, steel mill to compete with ArcelorMittal South Africa and Highveld Steel and Vanadium. According to the National Industrial Policy Framework, the department aims to finalise the feasibility study by March 2008.
Investigators on Thursday found more human remains on an Eastern Cape farm where the Pebco Three were believed to have been buried, the National Prosecuting Authority said. ”We uncovered further human bones and other material that we are going to subject to analysis,” said a spokesperson.
A total of 28 people died and hundreds of homes were destroyed by a series of forest fires that have swept through parts of South Africa and Swaziland since the end of last month, officials said on Thursday. ”Twenty-six deaths have been reported thus far” in South Africa alone, said a statement issued after a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The average abused woman leaves her husband 37 times before she divorces him. After every lame excuse, every bunch of flowers and every empty promise, she takes him back again. And again. And again. Why? Women’s rights activists, social workers and clinical psychologists agree: abused women are kept in abusive relationships by a combination of fear, emotional or financial dependence, low self-esteem or a false sense of loyalty.
Winter had one last blast before making way for spring as snow fell in parts of South Africa on Tuesday. Snow had fallen near the Hex River in the Western Cape, in Sutherland in the Northern Cape, near Tiffendell in the Eastern Cape and in parts of Lesotho and the Drakensberg, according to South African Weather Service forecaster Elke Brouwers.
South Africa’s workers in the petroleum sector said they were hopeful that talks with their employers later on Monday could end their strike over pay, which has severely affected fuel delivery. "We have a meeting tonight [Monday] beginning at 8pm with the employers of the workers and we are hopeful," a union spokesperson said.
Representatives from the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) and the National Petroleum Employers’ Association resumed talks on Saturday in a bid to resolve a pay strike which led to countrywide fuel shortages and panic buying. Ceppwawu spokesperson Keith Jacobs said the union had repeatedly informed employers and the public about the strike.
There have been ”significant breakthroughs” in several police investigations into organised crime, the Safety and Security Ministry said on Friday. The latest was the arrest of 13 members of a gang suspected of carrying out a spate of cash-in-transit heists in the Eastern Cape, it said in a statement following Thursday’s meeting of the Anti-Crime Leadership Forum.
As fuel shortages continued countrywide and panic buying set in, the Department of Minerals and Energy insisted on Friday it would not intervene in the strike by fuel workers. ”It is a huge problem and we are not happy with it, but our hands are tied. It is a very tough one … it is an in-house issue,” said spokesperson Sputnik Rantau.
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The Eastern Cape government would implement recommendations arising from a probe into the deaths of babies at Frere Hospital. Some of the suggestions were already being implemented, said provincial health minister Nomsa Jajula, adding that the hospital was to undergo a R150-million revamp.
Failure to ”saturate” a patient, causing another to suffer ”importance” by not referring him to a urologist, and a fractured ”fumer” are among the reasons given by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for public hospitals being sued for more than R26-million last year.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday dismissed a special task team’s report on conditions at East London’s Frere Hospital as a ”whitewash”. ”There are several problems with the methodology of the task team that make the conclusions entirely superficial and very difficult to take seriously,” DA spokesperson Mike Waters said in a statement.
The tiny kingdom of Lesotho is the unlikely venue for ambitious plans to create the number one destination for skiers in Africa. "This is going to be the biggest ski resort in Africa," says Ollie Esplin, manager of the Afri-Ski resort, as he tries to explain how to minimise the risks of meltdown in Lesotho’s picturesque Mahlasela Valley.
Eight community halls have been opened for people forced out of their homes by flood waters after a massive cold front brought heavy rain to Cape Town and surrounding areas on Thursday night. About 15 000 people have been displaced by heavy rains in the Cape peninsula, reports said on Saturday.
Unless Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang releases a full report on the deaths of babies in Eastern Cape’s Frere Hospital within the next 24 hours, the Democratic Alliance (DA) will take constitutional steps against her, the party warned on Wednesday. The DA’s health spokesperson, Mike Waters, said the party’s previous attempts to get the minister to release the report drew a blank.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) has turned down an invitation for a question-and-answer session with the murderers of their secretary general Chris Hani, saying on Wednesday the two should rather hand their information to law enforcement authorities. Last week Janusz Walus and Clive Derby-Lewis sent the invitation to the SACP via their lawyers from prison.
Thirteen hostages were rescued from a supermarket in Mthatha on Tuesday night after being held hostage by a gang of gunmen. Eastern Cape police said the hostage takers had escaped. Guards were collecting money inside the Boxer supermarket on Callaway Street when the gang stormed into the shop.
A number of people were being held hostage at a supermarket in Mthatha on Tuesday afternoon, Eastern Cape police said. Superintendent Mzukisi Fatyela said police believed two armed men, part of a gang that robbed the store at about 1pm, were holding staff at gunpoint by 4pm.
Snowfall and thunderstorms are expected in the southern and western parts of the country, said the South African Weather Service on Tuesday. A cold front over the Western Cape on Tuesday night is expected to result in heavy rainfalls and thunderstorms in the extreme south-western parts of the province.
The Health Department says the Eastern Cape’s Frere Hospital maintenance budget must be drastically increased. In a statement released on Sunday, the department recommended that the maintenance budget be increased to R35-million, or 5% of the hospital’s total budget.