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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.
South African retailer Pick ‘n Pay is set to introduce 200 000 new Proudly South African shelf labels into its stores as a way of helping consumers keen to contribute to the local economy identify those products. Unveiling its initiative on Monday, Pick ‘n Pay said its pilot project will encompass 37 of its Gauteng stores.
The Boeremag wanted to throw poisoned oranges in the streets of Soweto as part of its strategy to create chaos in the country, the Pretoria High Court heard on Wednesday. Free State potato farmer Henk van Zyl testified about events leading up to "Operation Popeye", a trigger for a Boeremag plan to take over the government.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=120126">Boeremag had breeding plans</a>
The buyout of Secureco Armed Response (Gauteng) by Stallion Security has transformed Stallion into the largest privately held black economic empowerment (BEE) armed-response company in South Africa, according to Stallion Security CEO Clive Zulberg.
First National Bank, a division of FirstRand Bank Limited, has opened a portable branch in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni, for personal and business customers. The bank’s spokesperson Nono Bam said on Saturday that the branch provided all banking services. She said clients will have access to two tellers, two customer service consultants and two ATMs.
A basic income grant is affordable, sustainable and desirable, a coalition arguing for the adoption of such a scheme said on Thursday. The coalition told journalists at a press briefing at the Turffontein racecourse that giving every South African a basic income of R120 a month would cost between R10- and R24-billion a year.
Oom Krisjan has always been an admirer of those who exhibit grace under pressure, but those who can keep their dignity in the face of extreme cock-ups are, perhaps, equally worthy of our esteem. This is a tale of two luminaries who managed to escape the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune with their reputations intact.
There was laughter in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday when "Rottweiler" and "KGB" emerged as some of the <i>noms de guerre</i> assumed by the alleged Boeremag coup plotters. One called himself "Motherfucker" and another "Volla", accused-turned-state-witness Henk van Zyl told the court.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119751">Whites were to be ‘slaughtered'</a>
White fears of a massive slaughter by blacks were fuelled at meetings attended and addressed by some of the Boeremag treason trialists, the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday. The court was told of meetings where the predictions of Boer ”seer” Siener van Rensburg were used to incite whites to action.
Children are not obliged to attend school in the year they turn six, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said on Monday. Children should be taken to school in the year that they turn seven, unless their parents can provide proof that their child was ready for school at an earlier age, the minister told reporters in Pretoria.
Steps have been implemented to combat corruption at Gauteng vehicle testing stations, the community safety department said on Friday. This followed allegations that officials were fraudulently issuing roadworthy certificates at the Wynberg testing station. Officials allegedly colluded in this corruption by accepting bribes to ignore the fraud.