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/ 29 September 2004
A police task team has been appointed to investigate corruption following an exposé on SABC television on Tuesday night showing policemen harassing prostitutes in Johannesburg. ”We view the allegations in a serious light… at the moment we will be investigating corruption,” said a police spokesperson, senior superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht.
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/ 23 September 2004
It’s nice to know that Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has a faithful bunch of people working for her at the ministry — folk who put the interests of the nation above such petty instincts as doing a day’s work. Lemmer’s musings were prompted by a call made recently to the Ministry of Health by a staffer at an Aids NGO, who was trying to trace an official to answer an important query …
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/ 22 September 2004
The Public Services Coordinating Bargaining Council stalled on Wednesday when the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) felt it had not gathered enough of a mandate to sign the government’s proposed agreement. However, the wage dispute ”technically” came to an end after the minister of public service and administration signed an increase proposal.
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/ 21 September 2004
Aggravated robbery was the only violent crime to show an increase over the past two financial years, national police commissioner Jackie Selebi announced on Monday. Murders dropped by 9,9%, attempted murder by 17,8%, serious assault by 4,3%, common assault by 2,6% and common robbery by 7,8%, he told reporters in
Pretoria.
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/ 20 September 2004
A fire has ravaged the Madalakufa informal settlement in Thembisa on the East Rand, the Gauteng housing department said on Sunday. Departmental spokesperson Mongezi Mnyani said the fire started on Saturday night and was extinguished in the early hours of Sunday morning.
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/ 19 September 2004
Thousands of mourners, of all races and creeds, packed the Aasvoëlkop Dutch Reformed Church in Northcliff on Saturday to pay their final respects to Afrikaans anti-apartheid activist Beyers Naude in a moving ceremony. ”Oom Bey” — once rejected by his own people for rejecting his church’s justification of apartheid — died on September 7 at the age of 89. President Thabo Mbeki said it was because of Naude that black and white South Africans could walk together.
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/ 16 September 2004
More than 700Â 000 public service workers were on strike on Thursday, making this the biggest strike in South Africa’s history, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union claimed. Schools appeared to have been the hardest hit. Health services were mostly functioning without disruptions.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=122284">Strikers told to stay home next week</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=122301">Jury out on strike impact in W Cape</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=122277">Blow the vuvuzela: Strikers are ‘gatvol'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Business&ao=122266">How strike will impact on economy</a>
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/ 16 September 2004
Hundreds of guests and delegates gathered for the opening of the Pan African Parliament’s (PAP) second sitting at the Gallagher Estate conference centre in Midrand on Thursday morning. Delegates from 46 countries that have ratified the PAP protocol are to take part in deliberations from this Friday until October 7.
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/ 15 September 2004
Black economic empowerment company Akani Leisure Investments has taken over the Halcyon Hotels Group — which includes in its portfolio the prestigious Bay hotel and Blues restaurant in Camps Bay. The acquisition represents the first major empowerment transaction at the top end of the Western Cape hospitality industry.
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/ 13 September 2004
The department of health is being taken to court again by Aids pressure group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which is demanding the department release its detailed anti-retroviral rollout programme. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has already filed notice of her intention to oppose it.
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/ 9 September 2004
About 3 000 municipal workers marched on the headquarters of the Tshwane metro council on Thursday to demand an end to privatisation. The group, members of the SA Municipal Workers’ Union and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union, called for meaningful negotiations with the employer and threatened further action if this did not transpire.
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/ 8 September 2004
Thousands of municipal workers will go on strike across Gauteng on Thursday, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Wednesday. Members of Samwu, the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union and the Anti-Privatisation Forum plan to stage marches.
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/ 7 September 2004
A chronic fuel shortage that has crippled Zimbabwe for the last three days will end ”within 48 hours,” the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said on Tuesday. The bank’s governor, Gideon Gono, said -million had been released to pay for desperately needed fuel already in Zimbabwe, but held in bond by oil companies.
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/ 6 September 2004
Former Gauteng finance minister Jabu Moleketi was not involved in finalising the details of a contract that allegedly contravenes the Public Finance Management Act, the province’s current finance minister said on Monday. ”The former MEC was briefed, but not involved in the final shareholders’ agreement that established the company [Capstone 518],” he said.
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/ 6 September 2004
South Africa’s online publishing industry is attracting millions of highly educated, high-earning users, mostly from Johannesburg and under 34 years old, the Online Publishers’ Association announced on Monday. More than 3,5-million users supported the industry in August, clocking up 106-million page impressions.
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/ 2 September 2004
The strike by some South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) members is ill-timed and has the potential of disrupting learning and teaching in schools, Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Thursday. Sadtu planned protest marches on Thursday in all nine provinces.
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/ 2 September 2004
South African media and entertainment group Primedia on Wednesday announced it has received regulatory approval for its proposed acquisition of 100% of the issued share capital of New Africa Media Holdings and, as a result, the acquisition of 66,5% of the entire issued share capital of KFM.
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/ 2 September 2004
Municipal workers in Gauteng will strike for one day next week to highlight grievances with the restructuring of municipal services, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Wednesday. Samwu provincial secretary Silas Letsimo said workers were unhappy with the lack of consultation by the South African Local Government Association.
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/ 1 September 2004
The Independent Democrats welcomed 18 municipal councillors — mainly from the New National Party — to its ranks on Wednesday, the first day of the two-week period for councillors to change parties without losing their seats. Former NNP Cape Town councillor David Sassman said the NNP ”sold out to the highest bidder”.
Teachers will hold marches around the country on Thursday to protest against government’s offer of a 5,5% salary increase, the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) said. At a press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Sadtu secretary general Thulas Nxesi said the union was confused by the government’s offer made at the bargaining chamber on Monday.
On a national tour ahead of the floor-crossing window for councillors, Inkatha Freedom Party national chairperson Ziba Jiyane is stressing its ”centre-right” position and its standpoint on family values. He also criticised the appointment of women with wealthy husbands in jobs above breadwinners.
The Gauteng Taxi Council on Thursday embarked on a march around Johannesburg demanding the Gauteng government recognise its members and deal with problems facing the industry. In seven days the organisation plans a countrywide march if the provincial government does not meet certain demands.
The number of schoolchildren bunking from 15 Johannesburg schools for drinking sessions has doubled in recent months, police said on Wednesday. The head of Johannesburg’s Adopt-a-Cop programme, Inspector Alpheus Matsaba, said Gandhi Square has become a hotbed of drugs, rape and alcohol misuse, despite frequent arrests.
South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says the burden of the funding for the African Union — including the Pan African Parliament — will fall on the biggest economy in Africa, South Africa. Asked about funding problems for the Pan African Parliament, she said there is "always a shortage of funds".
Old Mutual South Africa has announced the resignation of Sello Moloko, CEO of Old Mutual Asset Managers (Omam) South Africa. He will be replaced by Thabo Dloti, currently executive general manager of Group Schemes at Old Mutual. Sparks said it was with "deep regret" that he had accepted Moloko’s resignation.
Thabiso Mahowa is one of about seven million South Africans who live in squatter camps, deprived of basic services like clean water, proper sewerage, roads, and a house he can proudly call home. Now the country’s major economic centre, Johannesburg, is bracing itself for one of its biggest challenges since the demise of apartheid — to do away with the squatter camps, known as informal settlements, within three years.
A total of 118 South African women have discovered since the beginning of the month that they had been married without their knowledge, the Home Affairs Department said on Wednesday. This emerged from a campaign urging women to check their marital status on the department’s records in a bid to curb the problem of fraudulent marriages, the department said in a statement.
Despite living on a continent devastated by millions of deaths because of poverty, wars and HIV/Aids, there are, sadly, few dramas that grip our attention as much as the so-called War on Terror and its various twists and turns. Empire, to borrow from the title of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s latest work, continues to fascinate and infuriate.
A nurse at Sterkfontein mental hospital has been suspended for allegedly using the same needle on several patients, an action that could spread the HI virus. The Gauteng health department said on Tuesday the senior nurse was conducting routine glucose needle-prick tests on patients at the hospital in Krugersdorp last Wednesday.
A summons for R80 000 in respect of outstanding legal fees has added to the woes of former Western Cape Environmental Affairs and Tourism MEC David Mickey Malatsi, who is on trial in the Bellville Regional Court on corruption, theft and fraud charges. He lamented the fact in court on Monday, when his trial resumed before magistrate Andre le Grange.