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/ 1 September 2005
Cape High Court judges worked overtime on Wednesday to deal with a barrage of legal action ahead of the midnight opening of the political floor-crossing window. The United Democratic Movement on Wednesday expelled six MPs and MPLs from the party, and the Independent Democrats gave the boot to its deputy leader and Gauteng MPL Themba Sono.
The United Democratic Movement has expelled six of its senior members, including deputy leader Malizole Diko, with immediate effect. On Tuesday, Cape High Court Judge Basheer Waglay reversed the suspensions of the six, saying the party had not followed its own constitution in suspending them.
Floor-crossing battles kept two Cape High Court judges busy for the better part of the day on Monday. At stake in two cases involving the United Democratic Movement and the Independent Democrats are two seats in the National Assembly, one in the National Council of Provinces and five in various provincial legislatures.
South African cement producer Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) on Tuesday announced details of its Batsweledi cement-capacity expansion project. PPC will invest R1,36-billion to increase the company’s inland cement capacity in South Africa by just more than one million tonnes a year.
The United Democratic Movement hatched a deplorable scheme to oust six of its public representatives before the floor-crossing window opens, the Cape High Court heard on Monday. Advocate Jan Heunis was arguing on behalf of the six, who include UDM deputy president Malizole Diko.
The Cape High Court was set to be busy on Monday dealing with a wave of legal action ahead of the floor-crossing window that opens on Thursday. The court will hear argument on a bid by United Democratic Movement deputy president Malizole Diko and five other party officials to have their suspension from the party reversed.
The swine fever outbreak in the Eastern Cape has been brought under control, the Agriculture and Land Affairs Department said on Friday. Spokesperson Steve Galane said only small areas in the Western and Eastern Cape were still affected by the disease that was detected last month.
A 50-year-old tree tumbled across a road in Newlands, Cape Town, on Friday as gale-force winds, driving rain and bitter cold hit the city in the early hours of the morning. The Elsieskraal River flowing through Pinelands had apparently burst its banks, but there was no major flooding reported so far, said senior traffic officer Lyndon Herbert.
About R1,2-billion of public hospital fees are still outstanding from the 2004/05 financial year, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday. ”An astonishing 68% of fees billed for the 2004/05 financial year were not paid,” said DA health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard. The DA found that only R560-million (32%) was paid.
Suspended United Democratic Movement deputy president Malizole Diko plans to form a new party, according to affidavits filed this week in the Cape High Court. The documents are part of the UDM’s bundle of papers in reply to a bid by Diko and five other party officials for an interdict lifting their suspension from the party.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says it remains committed to pursue its rolling mass action in support of the jobs and poverty campaign, which runs until February next year and includes periodic national stayaways as well as sectoral action.
South Africa’s Department of Minerals and Energy on Tuesday announced that it has short-listed five parties — out of 11 applicants — for new peaking-power generation. The five applicants short-listed are the AES Consortium, the Inkanyezi Consortium, the International Power Consortium, Tata-J&J Consortium and the YTL Consortium.
The culling of an estimated 20 000 pigs in the Eastern Cape started in Idutywa on Monday, after an outbreak of swine fever hit the province. At least 3 500 emerging farmers’ pigs have been affected by the virus, and strict control measures to stop the spread of the disease have been set in place.
The body of a nine-year-old boy who went missing a week ago has been found with parts missing, an Mthatha police spokesperson said on Thursday. Captain Sherine Reddy said Yamkela Mabhuda’s body was found in Mt Ayliff on Tuesday. The boy went missing from his home in Manzana in Mt Ayliff in the Eastern Cape on August 10.
The Department of Social Development’s anti-corruption campaign prevented R400-million from being stolen this year, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said on Wednesday. Skweyiya said to date the department and law enforcement have taken legal action against 109 officials, with more expected to face the same.
Two missing Mthatha boys were found sodomised and murdered at a disused bus depot on Friday, Eastern Cape police said. The boys — aged six and 12 — disappeared late on Thursday afternoon. ”I have just come from the scene. It is terrible, terrible,” said police spokesperson Superintendent Nondumiso Jafta
Lawyers for six suspended United Democratic Movement (UDM) politicians will argue their case in the Cape High Court on August 29 — only three days before the opening of the September floor-crossing window. The six were suspended on August 5, apparently after rumours that they intended to defect to another party.
Ten protesters were injured, two seriously, in Germiston and over 40 arrested in Pinetown in clashes between police and protesting municipal workers on Monday. Ekhurhuleni metro police spokesperson Vusi Mabanga said that protesters marching in central Germiston started breaking traffic lights and littering.
Businessman and ANC funder Sandi Majali on Saturday lost a desperate bid to stop the Sunday Times from publishing an article about his background, the newspaper said. Majali, CEO of Imvume Management, the company at the centre of the Oilgate debacle, tried to interdict the paper from publishing details of his youth and photographs of his family home in the Eastern Cape.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa has suspended eight of his top elected officials with immediate effect following fears that they were intending to cross the floor next month. Holomisa would not supply details, claiming it is an internal matter, but denied they were asked to leave, as was previously stated.
Executives from Rover motor company were promised rugby Test tickets in exchange for a luxury car for rugby boss Brian van Rooyen, the Daily Dispatch website reported on Tuesday. This was done despite an earlier sponsorship by Ford to supply Van Rooyen and Saru with vehicles.
Two gifted first-half tries — both the result of errors that arose from apparent touch-rugby tactics — gave the trampled Eastern Province Mighty Elephants 10 points they badly needed to give them a sense of respectability in their Absa Currie Cup rugby encounter against a rampant Sharks side on Friday night.
The owner of an animal ranch near Addo in the Eastern Cape has died after being mauled by a lion, his family said on Thursday. Lourens van Straaten, owner of the Addo Croc Ranch, was attacked while repairing an electrical fence in the lion enclosure last Friday.
The remaining two crew members on board the yacht Mystic Lady were brought safely to Port St Francis in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday night, the National Sea Rescue Institute said. The two were stranded off the coast near Port Elizabeth on Tuesday morning after a third crew member fell overboard.
South Africa’s municipal debt jumped about R4-billion from R31,8-billion in 2002 to R35,9-billion in 2003, while figures for 2004 are not yet available, said Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi. The figures show that Durban/eThekwini — once a shining light of budgetary prudence — has grown its debt from R2,8-billion to R3,2-billion.
The current strike is costing South African Airways (SAA) R25-million a day, an economist said on Tuesday. T-Sec chief economist Mike Schussler said that is not the total cost of the strike — which is lower — as there are mitigating factors. Schussler also said the Pick ‘n Pay strike is very different.
More than two dozen ecumenical bodies across the world on Tuesday called for an investigation into the shooting by police of Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) protesters, the same day the organisation marched in Queenstown to hand over a memorandum deploring alleged police brutality.
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on Monday said in a statement that it has offered to intervene in the Pick ‘n Pay strike under Section 150 of the Labour Relations Act. The strike will continue until a settlement has been reached, the South African Catering, Commercial and Allied Workers’ Union said on Monday.
Trading at Pick ‘n Pay’s stores across the country was normal on Monday and the strike action was ”far more orderly”, the retail chain company said in a statement. The group, however, still appealed to the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers’ Union to ensure that its members obey the law.
The South African government needs to take a ”tough love” approach to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s outrageous and unprecedented appeal for a R6,5-billion loan, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Thursday.
The deputy president of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) has apologised after raising his views on who should lead the ANC in 2007. Reuben Mohlaloga apologised for raising his views outside the working structures of the ANCYL, league president Fikile Mbalula told reporters in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
”iNantsoke [there you are],” exclaimed Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg on Wednesday as he cut his huge white birthday cake at the children’s party.