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.
Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka was misinformed if she believed nuclear power had a future as an energy source, Earthlife Africa said on Wednesday. ”Nuclear energy is not an option for South Africa,” said Sibusiso Mimi, a campaigner for the organisation in Cape Town.
SA ‘cannot avoid nuclear energy’
The Gauteng deputy director of public prosecutions, (Scorpions) Cornwell Tshavhungwa, had his R100 000 bail on corruption charges cancelled by a Pretoria magistrate on Wednesday. Specialised Commercial Crimes Court magistrate Desmond Nair found that Tshavhungwa had breached his bail conditions by contacting a witness.
South Africa needs to wake up to the fact that its coal reserves are not infinite, and the use of nuclear power to produce electricity in the future is unavoidable, Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Tuesday. ”In addition to coal, nuclear energy will increase as an energy option for South Africa for the foreseeable future,” she told MPs during her Budget vote.
Power station ‘will inject R10bn into SA’
Eight soccer referees and linesmen arrested in Operation Dribble appeared briefly before a Randburg magistrate in three separate hearings on Monday, following the police swoop against alleged match fixing. In the dock were Patrick Banda (31) Ishmael Fatyela (33) Justice Dywili (30) all from Kimberley, Reuben Kgatla (38) of Alexandra, Johannesburg, Jonas Mokonyane (37) of Mokopane and Kganagwe Michael Sikwe (36) of Soweto.
The surprise cloudburst that marked the winter solstice saw motorists around Gauteng skidding into each other with at least 10 accidents reported around Johannesburg on Monday. ”Motorists should increase their following distance and reduce speed,” said Johannesburg Metro police spokesperson Inspector Wayne Minnaar.
Have South Africa’s learners of today heard of Steve Biko or the Soweto uprising? Thanks to the Apartheid Museum, their legacies are living on through an exciting new comic book, Timeliners. Drawn by disadvantaged artists from Cape Town, the comic book will now be handed to each learner entering the Apartheid museum.
More than 300 people gathered at the Hector Peterson memorial on Wednesday for a wreath laying ceremony as part of Youth Day commemorations. Peterson, then aged 13, was shot dead by police in the June 16, 1976, schoolchildren’s uprising. He was the first victim of that event.
Allegations of soccer match-fixing involving referees will only be investigated by the South African Police Service and not by the Scorpions, the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions said on Tuesday. An undisclosed number of referees were expected to be arrested as police concluded their initial investigation.
In an effort to develop a classification of marine habitats for South Africa, the marine science community is working virtually round the clock to meet a July deadline for identifying marine priority areas for the country’s first National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.
The Department of Public Works did not get enough money in this year’s Budget to carry out all its appointed tasks, including tackling a maintenance backlog at government buildings, says Minister of Public Works Stella Sigcau. In February this year, her department was allocated more than R4,8-billion.
About 9 000 houses will be transferred to registered beneficiaries in Gauteng by June next year, provincial housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane said on Tuesday. ”The rate at which these transfers are going to take place is a show of commitment by the government to eradicating homelessness,” Mokonyane said.
A new strategy to link transport with social, economic growth and development in Gauteng is being prepared, provincial transport minister Ignatius Jacobs said on Tuesday. Part of the Transport Investment Framework will be to address traffic congestion and pressure on transport infrastructure resulting from urbanisation.
The Gautrain Rapid Rail Link project will provide more than 100 000 jobs, Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa said on Monday. ”By 2009 the train will be carrying passengers,” Shilowa said in a speech prepared for delivery at the opening of the provincial legislature in Johannesburg.
Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa bound his government on Monday to fulfilling all pre-election promises of democracy and prosperity. ”The Gauteng provincial government is ready to put shoulder to the wheel to realise our objective of a better life for all,” he said at the opening of the provincial legislature in Johannesburg.
New National Party Gauteng leader Johan Kilian has resigned from the party but says it has nothing to do with weekend talks the party held with the African National Congress. Kilian, who has been with the party for 24 years, said he is leaving politics to return to the business world.
In every worthy cause, in every struggle for emancipation, there is, perhaps, risk of fatigue. Feminism fatigue is widely felt, echoing other unannounceable fatigues. A new book that accompanies the art exhibition, Through the Looking Glass, provides a potent commentary on female identity, writes Carolyn Hamilton.
The South African Chamber of Business has won a $20 000 award for its simple toolkit to assist small and medium enterprises address HIV/Aids in their workplaces. The chamber also won accolades for its strategy to monitor the implementation of this product through its chamber movement.
The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said on Friday that the Air Quality Bill will be resubmitted to Parliament this year and air quality officers will be appointed to crack down on offenders in pollution hot spots. Adressing the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s Greening the Future awards breakfast in Johannesburg on Friday, Van Schalkwyk also paid tribute to the South African public, "the foot soldiers in our greening revolution".
On the eve of a federal council meeting to discuss the future of the New National Party following its poor performance in April’s national and provincial elections, the party’s Gauteng administrative office has closed. The move is in no way a sign of the party’s imminent dissolution in Gauteng, provincial leader Johan Kilian said.
Ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is not a refugee in South Africa, but a free person and a guest of the government, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Wednesday. She told reporters in Pretoria that Aristide will be allowed to make political speeches while in the country.
South African food and industrial group AVI has reached an agreement to acquire Denny Mushrooms for R197,5-million rand, less all interest-bearing debt as at the effective date. Denny is a producer of fresh, canned and value-added mushroom products in South Africa, with a market share exceeding 50%.
The United States and Britain were on Tuesday night putting pressure on the oil cartel Opec to lift production quotas at its meeting in Beirut on Thursday as the West’s leading countries took fright at an economic and political backlash from record oil prices.
Opec to ‘calm the market’