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.
The Eastern Cape’s Great Train Race has been cancelled this year due to differences between Athletics South Africa (ASA) and Eastern Province Athletics (EPA). The race — in it’s 25th year — had to be called off after ASA and EPA were embroiled in a dispute regarding a controversial ruling over foreign athletes.
Six hours of negotiations between striking unions and Metrorail were a ”total disaster and waste of time”, said United Transport and Allied Trade Unions (Utatu) general secretary Chris de Vos after Wednesday’s meeting. The strike, which has left thousands of commuters inconvenienced, will enter its fourth day on Thursday.
The Central Unions have retained South Africa’s fifth Super 14 franchise, South African Rugby Union president Brian van Rooyen confirmed on Wednesday. However, the South-Eastern Cape franchise will play in the 2007 and 2008 Super 14, with the South African team that finishes last in 2006 dropping out to make way for them.
The bulk carrier Kiperousa is still aground by the stern off the Eastern Cape coast and is awaiting a salvage tanker from Cape Town, the National Ports Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday. Shortly after 11am on Tuesday, a Mayday signal was put out by the vessel and a massive rescue operation was launched.
Out in a remote rural area of the Transkei last week an unusual cattle auction, held by a new black economic empowerment auctioneering company, took place. Buyers gathered near a school in the Peddie location, 100km by road from East London. They were bidding for animals that would otherwise end up being sold for ceremonial slaughter or to travelling smouse or speculators.
The CEO of the Border Cricket Board in East London and a South African National Defence Force major were among 12 people arrested on Monday on fraud charges, Eastern Cape police said.
The awarding of a Rugby Super 14 franchise to the Southern and Eastern Cape must be ”non negotiable” when the SA Rugby Union’s President’s Council meets to discuss the matter on Wednesday. This is the view of the SEC bidding franchise, comprising the Border, Eastern Province and South Western Districts Rugby Unions.
Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu said on Friday that 1,6-million houses have been built since 1994, but admitted the housing backlog is still enormous and her department can only do so much. She said poor communication with the public is the likely cause of protests about the pace of housing delivery.
What makes the Afrikaans tabloid Son such a runaway success? And why are the tabloids in general doing so well, while the more established broadsheets seem to be struggling to increase or even uphold their circulation? One cannot answer these questions without taking into account the far-reaching, liberalising changes that have taken place in South Africa over the past 10 years.
There should be no rejoicing over the guilty judgement in the trial of businessman Schabir Shaik, despite its vindication of South Africa’s prosecutorial and judicial systems. Deputy President Jacob Zuma may not have been in the dock, but the judgement indirectly indicts him in such a devastating way that it is hard to see how his political career can survive it.
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Buyelwa Sonjica has a tricky job. She needs to manage the implementation of the 1998 water Act, and try to ensure that black farmers gain access to water resources without cutting into the productivity of commercial farms. All of this work overlaps the responsibilities of other Cabinet portfolios, but Sonjica manages almost no implementation budget.
Very cold and wet conditions are due to hit parts of the country this weekend, but for many people a weekend of hot chocolate and romantic snuggling is a remote thought — finding ways of keeping warm safely is far more pressing. But makeshift measures such as illegal electricity connections can be deadly.
A surfer has received 100 stitches after being attacked by a shark at the mouth of the Kei River in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday. National Sea Rescue Institute spokesperson Craig Lambinon said Jay Catarall (32) was surfing with two other people when the shark bit him on both buttocks and the back of both legs.
More than R130-million will be made available for housing in the Nelson Mandela metropolis following four days of protests over slow housing delivery. Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela announced this on Thursday while appealing for calm. ”We shall not abandon the poor,” said Balindlela.
More roads were blocked in Port Elizabeth on Thursday as angry residents ignored the Eastern Cape premier’s call for calm, taking to the streets for the fourth day this week to protest against slow housing delivery, police said. A police spokesperson said the main roads in the suburb of New Brighton have been blocked.
The release of global brewing giant SABMiller’s final 2005 results on Thursday have highlighted the continued robust growth in its South African beer business, with Beer South Africa recording a 20% rise in its earnings before interest, tax and amortisation in rand (constant currency) terms.
An off-duty police officer allegedly killed five relatives, including two four-year-old twin girls, in a bloody killing spree in the Cape Town area on Tuesday night, police said. The 48-year-old inspector, who had taken leave, shot each of his victims in the head, execution-style, said a Western Cape police spokesperson.
Protests over municipal service delivery and lack of housing in the Eastern Cape has entered its second week, with dissatisfied residents on Monday blockading roads and burning tyres near Port Elizabeth. There were unconfirmed reports of motorists being stoned along the M14 and Uitenhage roads, police said.
South Africa coach Ray Jennings basked in the glory of his team’s 5-0 series sweep of the West Indies on Sunday, sending a message to his bosses back home: retain him as coach. There have been rumours that the 50-year-old Jennings will be replaced after the West Indies tour by Mickey Arthur, who coaches the Eastern Cape Warriors.
The Eastern Cape health department vowed on Thursday to prosecute officials responsible for letting clinics in the East London area run out of chronic medicines. ”We view this as gross negligence,” a departmental spokesperson said. ”We are going to charge people. There are people that are going to face the music.”
Volkswagen cannot understand the rationale for a strike at a Gauteng parts depot because nobody has lost jobs. ”Volkswagen of South Africa cannot understand the reasoning behind this unnecessary strike which will lead to great financial hardship for the 62 employees involved who are losing money every day they remain on strike,” a statement from the company read.
The time has come to get out the winter woolies because very cold conditions and snow is expected over the Northern and Western Cape this coming weekend. The South African Weather Service said that very cold and windy conditions are expected over the high ground of the Northern and Western Cape on Friday, with rain over the Western Cape and the western escarpment of the Northern Cape.
A cigarette probably saved fisherman Johan Ehlers in a sea tragedy feared to have claimed the lives of 14 of his shipmates. Ehlers was on deck smoking when a Brazilian ship collided with his trawler about 16km off Sardinia Bay in the Eastern Cape, around 1.30am on Sunday.
The management committee of South African rugby will meet next week to discuss matters raised at the meeting between senior rugby officials and Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkhesi Stofile in Pretoria on Wednesday. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the African National Congress Youth League.
Emergency aid is on the way to a village in the Eastern Cape where an outbreak of a tapeworm-related sickness has seen more than 20 children hospitalised. Dozens more were awaiting immunisation on Tuesday from neurocystercercosis, a parasitic brain infection that results from tapeworms.
As they embark on a process to broaden relations with the People’s Republic of China, South African politicians and officials would do well to consider the advice of China’s reformist leader, Deng Xiaoping: ”Seek truth from facts.” China’s attraction as an ideological and strategic counterweight to the dominance of the West has led to a desire to cosy up to the Asian dragon.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance on Friday threw its support behind "the pyjama protest" action taken by South African nurses over their uniform allowances. DA spokesperson Diane Kohler Barnard said that the allowances in all provinces are far too low to actually buy uniforms.
The ministry of sport and recreation on Thursday called on the South African Rugby Union to clarify the decision of awarding the fifth Super 14 franchise.
A resolution was passed by the president’s council on April 15 to award Central Unions the new franchise, rather that the government-backed South-Eastern Cape region.
The first snow of winter has dusted peaks in the Western Cape. Hex River valley resident Andries Brown said that in the wake of the cold front that moved in on Tuesday, the Matroosberg had a fair coating of snow. Above Tulbagh, there was light snow on the Groot Winterhoek peak on Tuesday.
Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) on Monday announced that it will invest R750-million in a new, state-of-the-art paint shop in Uitenhage. Addressing the media, VWSA MD Andreas Tostmann said construction of the facility will start in May and is anticipated to be completed and fully operational in the first half of 2007.
After deliberations that delayed the intended media conference by three hours at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Friday, SA Rugby finally announced a reshuffle in provincial affiliations in the enlarged Super 14 franchises for the next three years, subject to an annual review and initial three-year trial period.