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.
”When President Robert Mugabe ploughs up neighbourhoods that coincidentally voted against him, he should be criticised,” former United States president Bill Clinton told guests at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg on Monday.
The Industrial Development Corporation can reflect on its results in one of two ways. It can bask in the glory of a robust nine-month period, as it did recently. The other view is to say that the stock market boom has given it considerable but artificial strength. The funder unveiled its results for the nine months to March as it prepares to move up a gear in its big project investments.
Tributes poured in for South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela who turned 87 on Monday.
The African National Congress on Sunday extended its ”warmest wishes and congratulations” to former president Nelson Mandela on his 87th birthday.
South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, is to become a comic-strip hero in a new project aimed at encouraging young people to read.
One person was killed and 61 people were injured when a bus overturned on the Mabopane highway on Friday morning, Tshwane metro police reported. Meanwhile, a passenger was killed and two people seriously injured in an accident involving four trucks on the R72 near Port Alfred on Friday morning.
Former president Nelson Mandela will not have a high-profile birthday — on July 18 — this year, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Thursday.
A 20-year-old rape suspect committed suicide by cutting his throat with an electric grinder at the Tsolo police station in the Eastern Cape, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday. A police official said the rape suspect grabbed the grinder, an exhibit in another case, from the charge office and connected it to a power point.
Although the business confidence index of the South African Chamber of Business increased in June to its highest level so far this year, there are economic developments that could adversely affect future confidence, the chamber said. The index increased to 128,2 in June this year from 127 in May.
Three more boys have died as a result of botched circumcisions in the Eastern Cape, bringing the death toll over the past few weeks to 12. Last week, the National House of Traditional Leaders called on the government to establish a special task force to deal with deaths in traditional initiation schools.
There was much ululating as President Thabo Mbeki and former deputy president Jacob Zuma entered this week’s gathering of the African National Congress’s policy conference. One was the overall leader of the country as well as the party while the other had fallen from political grace after being ”released” as the country’s deputy president by Mbeki before a joint sitting of Parliament.
The names of the three people killed when a parcel exploded outside a house in Grahamstown this week were released on Wednesday. The victims were Justin Martin (52), Johannes Kortrooi (58) and five-year-old Leonardo Lottering, who died in hospital on Tuesday.
The South African textile industry says cheap imports from China are threatening to wipe out the local industry, where 75 000 jobs have been lost since 2002. "We’re a very distressed industry at the moment. We’re actually on our knees … we’ve been devastated," said the managing director of Gregory Knitting Mills, Selwyn Gershman.
Thousands of workers protested against unemployment and poverty around South Africa on Monday in a nationwide strike that business says was poorly attended and unnecessary. The SA Chamber of Business said that only 10% of workers took part in the strike, which cost the economy an estimated R500-million.
A traditional circumcision surgeon was arrested and 28 young boys rescued from his house in Libode in the Eastern Cape on Sunday, a spokesperson for the provincial health department said. ”The suspect allegedly used one unsterilised knife to circumcise all the boys,” Sizwe Khuphelo said.
The refloating of the bulk carrier Kiperousa, stranded on the Eastern Cape coast, will begin at about noon on Thursday, the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) said. Samsa spokesperson Captain Peter Kroon said the fine weather in the East London area will assist in refloating the beached vessel.
A 23-year-old man has died while attending a school offering circumcision rituals illegally, the Eastern Cape health department said on Tuesday. The man died of dehydration at the school in Sada outside Queenstown on Monday, said department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo.
The SABC will be allowed to broadcast regional television programmes on two stations in official languages other than English, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) announced on Wednesday. Icasa chairman Mandla Langa said SABC 4 would broadcast in Setswana, Sesotho, Sepedi and TshiVenda, Xitsonga and Afrikaans.
A 14-year-old boy has died after apparently being asphyxiated by fumes from a brazier at an initiation school in Port Elizabeth, the Eastern Cape health department said on Tuesday. The police have opened an inquest docket, and a post-mortem will be conducted to establish the exact cause of his death.
The concept of willing-buyer, willing-seller has been underscored by Minister of Agriculture and Land Thoko Didiza in reply to a question about government’s target of 30% of white agricultural land being redistributed to black farmers by 2015.
Attempts to refloat the stranded log-carrier Kiperousa failed on Thursday, but the operation will be tried again on Friday evening, the South African Maritime Safety Authority said. Spokesperson Captain Peter Kroon said on Friday that the cable between the tug and the ship came undone on the first pull on Thursday evening.
South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle hero Nelson Mandela will be joined by pop superstars Peter Gabriel and Annie Lennox at charity concert.
The salvage tug Nikolay Chiker was on Thursday morning closing in on the stranded log-carrier Kiperousa, as part of an effort to refloat her, the South African Maritime Safety Authority said. Spokesperson Captain Peter Kroon said the tug would try to refloat her during the high tide on Thursday afternoon.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday the media have treated him in a ”grossly unfair” way and used the Schabir Shaik trial for political reasons. Meanwhile, hundreds of youths, participating in a protest against unemployment on Thursday, called for Zuma to become the country’s next president.