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.
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.