Reasons given by Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi for Matatiele’s incorporation into the Eastern Cape from KwaZulu-Natal were wrong, the Constitutional Court heard on Thursday. ”The minister’s facts are wrong geographically, ethnically, culturally … And his wrong facts are compounded by the fact that nobody has spoken to these people,” said lawyer Alastair Dickson.
The Cape Town Book Fair provides the ideal platform for getting South Africa’s new writing and publishing out there, but it is being launched with performance, not hype, in mind. Karen Rutter reports.
Since its inception in 2000, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival has included a world-class photographic exhibition as part of the visual arts mix. This year’s exhibitors include Peter Magubane, Fanie Jason and Mike Mzileni. Magubane began a distinguished photographic career for Drum magazine in 1955. At the Rand Daily Mail in the Sixties, he […]
The fate of the Southern Spears is expected to be decided at a president’s council meeting of the South African Rugby Union on Wednesday. At its meeting last Friday, the council poured cold water over the Spears’ chance of playing in the Super 14 competition next year. The move has been slammed by the African National Congress.
The government plans to improve staff and management of tuberculosis (TB) services and to improve access to laboratory services where it is poor. This forms part of the TB crisis plan launched by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Friday, World Tuberculosis Day, at Durban’s King George V hospital.
Phil Naledi has changed the lives of residents along a leafy street in the north-eastern Johannesburg suburb of Sydenham. He earns R900 a month for guarding the houses in the relatively affluent suburb, working 12-hour shifts. ”No one can make a life if they spend so much time working for this little money,” he explains.
Police were keeping an eye on striking private security guards in the Johannesburg city centre on Friday. About 100 guards had gathered at Beyers Naude Square by 9am, police said. In other centres, striking security workers were also expected to march in support of their demands for better wages and working conditions.
Protesting security guards in Pretoria began to disperse on Thursday afternoon after their strike turned violent earlier, with a security vehicle set alight and rubbish strewn in the inner city. At one stage police fired rubber bullets at the protesting guards in an effort to calm the situation.
Police fired rubber bullets at protesting guards after they apparently set alight a security van in Pretoria on Thursday afternoon. Guards made their way to Church Square, trashing rubbish bins and causing havoc in the city centre. Shops were also set alight. The violence came on the first day of a security-guard strike in seven provinces.
Security-guard employers were reporting little absenteeism in Johannesburg and the East and West Rand on Thursday, the first day of a two-day security-industry strike in six provinces. In the Cape and Pretoria, however, some companies experienced 80% absenteeism, and cases of intimidation were reported.
”As I write this, I’m sitting in Centane, a rural town in the Eastern Cape and a world apart from my office in Houghton, Johannesburg. Centane, along with Butterworth and Ngqamakwe, forms part of the Mnquma local municipality — home to about 300 000 people,” writes Gloria Serobe, CEO of Wiphold.
As South Africans celebrate Human Rights Day on Tuesday, some organisations will use the occasion to raise awareness of issues that particularly concern them. Human Life International said on Monday that it would continue its efforts to lobby until the human rights of all born and unborn children were legally protected.
Swine fever has been detected at Uitenhage in the Nelson Mandela Metro and about a thousand pigs will be culled this week, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday. Road blocks have been set up around KwaNobuhle in Uitenhage in an effort to contain it, but this measure does not seem to work as the disease has continued to spread throughout the province.
A meeting between Transnet unions and Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin yielded progress on Monday after another day of national strikes crippled the transport industry. ”Erwin has agreed that government will facilitate a resolution of certain pension issues related to Metrorail,” said his spokeswoman Gaynor Kast.
Economists have warned that the economy will suffer because of the Transnet strike and intermittent power outages in major cities, media reports said on Monday. These factors would keep the country’s growth rate for the first quarter below 3%, economists said at the weekend.
![]()
South Africa has taken a giant step towards the goal of gender equality and the emancipation of women in the recent municipal election, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. The election results show the success the African National Congress has achieved to increase the numbers of women in the municipal system, he said.
Although South Africa was the biggest importer of poultry in Africa, it was also the country best prepared against avian flu, a Southern African Development Community (SADC) workshop on the epidemic heard in Pretoria on Thursday. ”South Africa is in a very good place. You are used to fighting bird flu.”
The SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union has threatened to make its national strike on Monday next week the launching pad of a second round of downing tools. This follows the union’s claim that Transnet, at the weekend, went ”behind labour’s backs” and signed an agreement to transfer Metrorail to the SA Rail Commuter Corporation by the end of this month.
![]()
The Democratic Alliance said on Monday afternoon that it had been offered a deal that would give it control of the city of Cape Town. DA Western Cape leader Theuns Botha said the offer would give a grouping of 106 seats — enough for a clear majority in the 210-seat council.
![]()
The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) has called for a multi-party governance system in the Western Cape after Wednesday’s local government elections. The party’s leadership made the call on Friday after no single party won an absolute majority in Cape Town, paving the way for political parties to form coalitions.
![]()
The Democratic Alliance stands ready to co-operate with other parties on a case-by-case basis in the interest of good government, DA leader Tony Leon said on Thursday. ”Although final election results are still awaited, it is clear that in a number of towns and cities around South Africa, no party has a clear majority,” he said in a statement.
![]()
Provisional results show a 46,72% poll with just more than 14-million votes cast from a pool of 21Â 054Â 957 registered voters. The African National Congress had swept the board in the Northern Cape by 9.45am on Thursday, and the DA’s worst fear seemed to have come true in the Western Cape.
![]()
The Democratic Alliance and the African National Congress were neck and neck in the local government election race in the Western Cape with the Independent Democrats trailing in third place on Thursday morning. Only 232 people voted for municipal ward candidates in the troubled Khutsong township in Merafong City on Wednesday.
![]()
South Africa’s third local government election since the advent of democracy in 1994 took place in a low key and peaceful manner on Wednesday. ”The voting process has proceeded smoothly throughout the country,” the Independent Electoral Commission said in a brief statement.
![]()
A holiday atmosphere took hold of strife-torn Khutsong early on Wednesday afternoon as residents opted for soccer instead of voting. However, Khutsong voters make up only a fraction of 1% of the country’s 21-million voters and should not be concentrated on to the detriment of the others, President Thabo Mbeki said.
![]()
Khutsong community stalwart Jomo Mogale on Wednesday called for a by-election in the troubled township where residents are boycotting the local government poll. He said the few voters who had trickled in to cast their ballots were mainly candidate councillors themselves.
![]()
South Africa’s third post-1994 local government election got under way without obvious hitches at 7am on Wednesday. President Thabo Mbeki was the first voter to cast his ballot at the Colbyn voting station in Pretoria. He was welcomed by Independent Electoral Commission chairperson Brigalia Bam and chief electoral officer Pansy Tlakula.
No image available
/ 27 February 2006
The political party formed to keep Matatiele in KwaZulu-Natal, the African Independent Congress, says it is disappointed in the Constitutional Court’s decision not to make a ruling on the demarcation issue before polling day on Wednesday. The court ruled that the election will go ahead as planned in the municipality.
No image available
/ 25 February 2006
The Pumas continued their good form in the Vodacom Cup and beat the Lions 35-29 in a tight match played in Witbank on Friday night. The Blue Bulls had to come back from an eight-point deficit at half-time to secure a 39-21 victory against the Bulldogs in East London, and the Falcons condemned the Cheetahs to another loss.
No image available
/ 21 February 2006
![]()
Even if there is a problem at midnight, people should be able to go to their councillors’ houses and wake them up to sort it out, President Thabo Mbeki told supporters at an African National Congress election rally in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, on Monday.
No image available
/ 21 February 2006
Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela has sacked provincial youth commission chairperson Mlungisi Lumka and youth commissioner Nonkuselo Nkayitshana, her office said on Monday. The working relationship with the commissioners had ”irretrievably broken down” after the publication of articles and advertisements by the commission.
No image available
/ 20 February 2006
Three tourists were killed and four others were injured in an accident at the Shamwari Game Reserve near Grahamstown, Eastern Cape police said on Monday. Spokesperson Superintendent Michelle Matroos said the driver at the reserve was taking seven visitors sightseeing on Sunday afternoon when he experienced difficulties on an uphill slope.