The assets of Gauteng deputy director of public prosecutions Cornwell Tshavhungwa were attached by his own colleagues at the Assets Forfeiture Unit on Thursday. Tshavhungwa is currently in custody following his arrest on June 7 on fraud and corruption charges involving an amount of R1-million.
Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday promised South Africans an accessible, caring and high-quality health system. She was speaking at the media launch of the Department of Health’s Strategic Priorities for the National Health System: 2004 to 2009 in Pretoria.
More than half of the drivers on Eastern Cape roads do not have legal licences. Eastern Cape transport department spokesperson Tshepo Machaea said on Tuesday about 530 000 of roughly one million drivers in the province had either obtained fraudulent licences by bribing departmental officials or were carrying out-of-date licences.
Critics have likened KWV’s sale of a quarter of its shares to an empowerment consortium to filling rugby quotas with players from other sporting codes, and claim that instead of broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE), the deal "over-empowers" a select few in the black elite. The Food and Allied Workers’ Union says the Phetogo empowerment consortium is dominated by the "Lucky 14".
Although the economic powerhouse of Gauteng has only 1,4% of South Africa’s land area of 1,219-million square kilometres, it has 24% of the population aged between 25 and 59 years, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday. It also announced that the life expectancy at birth in South Africa is forecast to be only 50,7 years next year.
Nine municipal by-elections will take place in South Africa this Wednesday, but the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has already won another five wards uncontested. Trends indicate that the ANC could win all but two of the contested by-elections.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula has instructed police to ”leave no stone unturned” in tracking down the killers of kidnapped student Leigh Matthews, whose naked body was found dumped in a field south of Johannesburg on Wednesday.
The South African music industry should test the limits of the international market place, delegates at the first industry conference were told in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The challenge was to transform the national industry into a trans-national one, said Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan at the opening of the three-day Moshito 04 conference in Sandton.
The body of Leigh Matthews, believed to have been kidnapped almost two weeks ago, was found south of Johannesburg on Wednesday, police confirmed. Johannesburg police spokesperson Superintendent Chris Wilken said she was found in the veld at about 3.30pm.
New research by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has shown that 57% of South Africans are living below the poverty line of R1Â 290 a month for a family of four. And the ”poverty gap”, which measures the required income transfer to all poor households to lift them from poverty, grew from R56-billion in 1996 to R81-billion in 2001.
Residents evicted from their houses in Protea Glen, Soweto, will be relocated to free Reconstruction and Development Programme houses in Doornkop outside Soweto from Monday, Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu said on Sunday. Sisulu addressed a public meeting of more than 2 000 people in a bid to resolve the area’s housing problem.
A team from the national Department of Social Development is visiting the Western Cape to outline the processes of the establishment of the South African Social Security Agency, the government news agency said on Monday. The agency will ultimately take over from provinces the payment of social welfare grants.
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor on Tuesday urged the Education Labour Relations Council to get more of South Africa’s best school children to train as teachers. ”Around 17 000 teachers leave teaching each year, and only 3 000 new ones graduate from the 25 universities,” she said.
Gauteng housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane on Monday urged residents of the troubled Diepsloot township north of Johannesburg not to hamper the development of houses at the settlement. She said the recent violence at the township is affecting the government’s plans to provide adequate housing on time.
The department of housing in Gauteng and the residents of Diepsloot, north-west of Johannesburg, are expected to have a meeting at Muzomuhle Primary School on Monday afternoon. The meeting comes after last week’s violent protest by the residents amid rumours that they were about to be relocated to the North West province.
The South African Communist Party in Gauteng has elected a new leadership at its eighth congress, which ended on Sunday. The congress started on Friday in Johnnesburg. SACP spokesperson Kaizer Mohau said Vishwa Satgar maintains his position as provincial secretary. Bob Mabaso was re-elected chairperson.
In November 2003 the Cabinet approved a national plan for HIV/ Aids prevention, care and treatment. The plan estimated that 53 000 people would be placed on anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment by the end of March this year. Eight months on, fewer than 10 000 people with HIV/Aids are receiving anti-retrovirals through the public health system.
The African National Congress has blamed its local leaders and those of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) for the violent protests in Diepsloot earlier this week. ”They allowed the situation to get out of control,” Pule Buthelezi, the general secretary of the ANC in the greater Johannesburg region, said on Friday.
Police will maintain a strong presence in Diepsloot following violent protests in the township earlier this week, police said on Friday. ”We will continue to keep a strong presence in the area. We are prepared for any eventuality that might occur,” said Pretoria police spokesperson Inspector Percy Morokane.
Seven soccer officials appeared in courts in Polokwane and Bloemfontein on Thursday after being arrested during the police crackdown on football match-fixing. Twenty-nine soccer officials have been arrested so far in the investigation into match-fixing and corruption requested by the South African Football Association.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118388">Soccer refs ‘didn’t sleep at home'</a>
Gauteng housing MEC Nomvula Mokonyane lashed out at the illegal occupation of Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses in violence-ridden Diepsloot on Thursday. Residents of the part informal settlement, part housing estate, north-west of Johannesburg, have been protesting this week against their rumoured removal from Diepsloot to Brits, north of Pretoria, on July 14.
Police won’t be fooled
Oom Krisjan is concerned about what’s put in the drinks when the Democratic Whatever (DW) chooses someone for its trade and industry portfolio. First there was Nigel Bruce, renowned for his Financial Mail phrase about black waiters: ”truculent tribesmen with an eye on the clock and a thumb in the soup”. And now his replacement, Enyinna Nkem-Abonta.
Four more football referees were arrested in Gauteng on Wednesday as part of the police’s ongoing crackdown on match fixing, police spokesperson senior superintendent Selby Bokaba said. Three were Premier Soccer League (PSL) referees and the fourth was a retired referee connected with the Vodacom league.
Authorities were on Tuesday busy with negotiations as day two of unrest in the Diepsloot community north-west of Johannesburg played out. Residents of Diepsloot took to the streets on Monday in a violent protest against an alleged move to relocate them from Diepsloot to Brits.
The situation in Diepsloot remained tense after violence in the area on Monday, the police and members of the South African Civic Association (Sanco) said on Tuesday. "The situation is very bad for now. What I see is people running through the streets," said Nkosana Dube, the spokesperson for Sanco in Diepsloot.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=118259">Rubber bullets fly in Diepsloot</a>
Two NGOs working with the poor and working classes demonstrated on Thursday against their eviction by the Johannesburg Development Agency from a building in Newtown, Johannesburg. Approximately 50 people from Khanya College and the Workers’ Library demonstrated outside the old municipal compound.
C-Max Investments was named on Thursday as the preferred bidder for a combined retail, commercial and residential development in Newtown, Johannesburg. The construction would be part of a new development zone called Central Place, Newtown, and the Gauteng Tourism Authority has already signed a lease.
The South African Police Service will launch a crime prevention programme in the 63 areas of South Africa identified as experiencing the most contact crimes, Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said on Tuesday. Nqakula also touched on the Firearms Control Act that comes into effect on Thursday.
<i>Iphepha elisematheni lesiZulu, Isolezwe, seliyatholakala kwi-Internet</i>. Yes, <i>Isolezwe (Eye of the Nation)</i>, the KwaZulu-Natal-based, Zulu-language daily newspaper, is now available on the web. This makes the site the first Zulu news website. This is a bold step for the cheeky, two-year-old, ground-breaking newspaper, founded by well-known journalist Cyril Madlala.
Police arrested a match commissioner in Welkom on Sunday, bringing to 19 the number of soccer officials who have been picked up in Operation Dribble, the police’s swoop against alleged match-fixing in soccer. A club director in Gauteng was also arrested over the weekend, and was expected to appear in the Welkom magistrate’s court on Monday.
Police arrested two directors of the Bush Bucks soccer club in East London on Thursday night in connection with alleged match fixing. The men, aged 45 and 40, were arrested at the club’s offices on Thursday afternoon by a team of about 10 policemen from Johannesburg.