A union representing striking truck drivers will meet in Johannesburg on Monday morning to discuss Sunday’s negotiations with employers. Negotiations between truckers’ unions and their employers ended after 1am on Monday, with the unions saying they have to report back to their members first before divulging details about the negotiations.
The Gauteng government plans to introduce a provincial tax to increase its revenues, provincial finance minister Paul Mashatile said on Thursday. The nature and rate of the tax were not made clear. He said the additional revenue raised will be used for socio-economic development, reducing poverty and unemployment.
About 80% of Gauteng’s budget of R33,5-billion is earmarked for social services, the province’s finance minister, Paul Mashatile, said on Thursday. The budget will try to address discrepancies in Gauteng, which shows impressive economic growth while battling with high levels of poverty and unemployment and a lack of infrastructure.
Transnet subsidiary Petronet is to spend at least R3-billion on a new pipeline to move petrol, diesel and jet fuel from Durban to Gauteng, in a move that is expected to shake up a fuel market still shaped by apartheid-era logistical constraints. Gas and liquid fuels transport capacity is among the most contested issues in the local industry.
Athletics South Africa on Tuesday announced that athletes Isaiah Nkuna (Gauteng North) and Francois Coertze (Free State) have been reinstated for competition after serving a two-year ban for an anti-doping control violation in 2003. Athletics South Africa also announced that Innis Viviers has once again tested positive for a banned substance.
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/ 27 February 2005
A former councillor has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a baby at Mpumalanga’s Ermelo hospital exactly 10 days after she was born, the province’s police said on Saturday. The baby was found at Boschfontein near Komatipoort on South Africa’s border with Mozambique, Captain Abie Khoabane said.
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/ 24 February 2005
It is easy to be blasé about the Budget and label it ”boring” — but we shouldn’t. Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has once again announced major increases in spending, symbolically important tax cuts and a reduced budget deficit — the headline measure of sound fiscal management.
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/ 23 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>The maximum old age, disability and care dependency grants will rise by R40 to R780 a month from April 2005, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel announced on Wednesday. In his national Budget speech he said that foster-care grants will be increased by R30 to R560 and the child-support grant goes up by R10 to R180 a month.
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/ 22 February 2005
Student leaders must ”sit down and talk” to resolve the issues sparking a series of student protests around Gauteng, a national Department of Education spokesperson said on Tuesday after a series of student uprisings around Gauteng and unrest at a school in the North West province.
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/ 22 February 2005
Gauteng is becoming the safest province in the country, figures from the provincial government and some independent organisations have confirmed, the South African government news agency said on Wednesday. Gauteng community safety minister Firoz Cachalia attributed all this to the increased number of police officers in the province.
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/ 22 February 2005
There is no justification for violence and irresponsible action by any student on any campus in South Africa, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said on Tuesday. She was commenting in the National Assembly on protest action by students on several Gauteng university campuses.
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/ 22 February 2005
Effective policing and social crime prevention programmes are making Gauteng a safer place, but there is still a lot to be done, said Community Safety MEC Firoz Cachalia on Monday. ”Levels of crime are still too high so we cannot announce victory yet,” he said at the media briefing in Johannesburg.
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/ 18 February 2005
The debate over interest rate cuts could knock next week’s discussions on the 2005/06 Budget from the headlines, an economist said on Friday. ”An expected decline in CPIX inflation to 3,8% may prove to be the most positive news on Budget day from a market point of view,” said economist John Loos.
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/ 18 February 2005
In contrast to the corporate environment, small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) will shy away from voice over internet protocol (VoIP) in 2005. These are the latest findings from a study conducted by World Wide Worx, which announced in January that 78% of corporations surveyed will be using the technology by the end of the year.
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/ 17 February 2005
The Zimbabwe touring team beat a combined Gauteng/North West team by seven wickets in the opening game of their South African tour, thanks to a splendid unbeaten century by Hamilton Masakadza. Masakadza weighed in with 103 not-out off 120 balls and struck 11 boundaries and one six.
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/ 16 February 2005
South Africa faces a looming health crisis as increased wealth, poor eating habits and sedentary behaviour point to an ”epidemic” of heart disease, especially among the black population. ”We are sitting on a time bomb,” said professor Anthony MBewu, interim president of the Medical Research Council.
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/ 15 February 2005
The Zimbabwe cricket team arrived at the Johannesburg International airport on Tuesday morning for their tour of South Africa, eager to put their ordinary tour to Bangladesh behind them. Zimbabwe play three one-day internationals against South Africa, starting at the Wanderers on February 25, and two Tests, in Cape Town and Centurion.
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/ 14 February 2005
The South African Football Association (Safa) is planning to use 10 stadia for the 2010 Soccer World Cup instead of 13, the association’s CEO, Danny Jordaan, said on Monday. ”In the bid book, we submitted 13 venues. We are now looking at 10 venues. Fifa wants eight,” Jordaan said.
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/ 14 February 2005
A feasibility study for the second phase of the multibillion-dollar Lesotho highlands water project will begin at the end of April, Lesotho’s natural resources minister said on Monday. The study — funded by the Lesotho and South African governments — is expected to take two years.
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/ 10 February 2005
Begging on street corners will soon be a thing of the past for Johannesburg street children and beggars in general, the Gauteng social services department said on Thursday. The department has begun a drive to register street children for birth certificates and identity documents.
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/ 9 February 2005
Security at all Gauteng public hospitals will be reviewed, the province’s health department said on Tuesday, after the alleged rape of a terminally ill elderly woman in her hospital bed in a gynaecological ward at the Pretoria Academic hospital. The patient’s subsequent death was probably more to blame on her illness than the attack, the department said.
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/ 9 February 2005
The psychiatry head of the Gauteng health department will consult a mentally ill woman after she attacked a fellow patient at a hospital. Departmental spokesperson Popo Maja said on Tuesday the woman, being held at Sterkfontein mental hospital after she slit the throat of a pensioner at the Cresta shopping centre in Johannesburg, would be visited on Thursday.
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/ 8 February 2005
The 35-year-old woman who slit the throat of a pensioner at the Cresta shopping centre in Johannesburg has attacked a fellow patient at the Sterkfontein mental hospital. Kanellie Hazikonstandinou was committed to the hospital after a court found that she was not fit to stand trial for the murder of 81-year-old Maureen Naughtin.
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/ 6 February 2005
The Democratic Alliance on Sunday refused to participate in any attempt to use Parliament to intimidate or interfere with the Scorpions in their investigation of Travelgate. In a statement, the DA said the African National Congress’s threat to summon the Scorpions is ”a naked abuse of power”.
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/ 4 February 2005
The Gauteng government has asked police to investigate the awarding of an information technology (IT) contract to Capstone 518 for the province’s ”Gauteng Shared Services Centre (GSSC)”, finance MEC Paul Mashatile said on Friday. The company Capstone 518 was contracted as sole provider of IT software services to the GSSC.
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/ 2 February 2005
Mpumalanga Economic Empowerment Corporation chief executive Ernest Khosa has resigned again, the province’s finance department confirmed on Wednesday. Spokesperson Thomas Nkosi said Khosa resigned on Tuesday. He resigned last week, but withdrew his resignation over the weekend.
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/ 2 February 2005
It is a common refrain: South Africa is a unitary state and it is reactionary and small-minded to engage in parochial battles about which town should fall under which provincial government. So why would councillors resign, tyres be burnt and stayaways be held because some residents of the far East Rand and far West Rand do not want to be moved away from Gauteng?
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/ 1 February 2005
Gauteng shebeen owners have until the end of February to apply for trading permits while they prepare themselves to comply with the province’s new Liquor Act. The Gauteng liquor licensing office extended the closing date for the application of shebeen permits from January 31 to February 28.
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/ 26 January 2005
After a recent spate of drownings across the country, police have emphasised the need for water-safety awareness. ”In Gauteng, we had 41 drownings in December and 22 in January,” police spokesperson Eugene Opperman said on Wednesday. The bodies of three children who drowned in separate incidents were recovered on Tuesday alone.
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/ 26 January 2005
Sixteen of the best horses currently racing in South Africa go to the post just after 5pm on Saturday afternoon to contest the R1,5-million J&B Met at Kenilworth in Cape Town. As always, this is no ordinary race — it is an event that brings the Cape capital to a standstill for many locals and overseas visitors.
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/ 26 January 2005
The Gauteng health department has identified four hospitals with management problems and poor patient care. ”We are reluctant to name them. We don’t want to inform them through the press. We want to inform them in our own way,” department spokesperson Popo Maja said on Tuesday.
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/ 25 January 2005
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union accused the Department of Education on Tuesday of taking the credit when pupils from disadvantaged schools do well, while downplaying the bad conditions under which they learn. Tuesday was the last day of the Access to Learning Material Conference in Parktown, Johannesburg.