If you judged the world by newspaper headlines, black economic empowerment (BEE) is all about gargantuan deals with complex financing and titanic battles between white and black groups in charter negotiations over equity targets. Unfortunately, this fixation on the ”Art of the Deal” neglects the many small shifts at every level that are gradually changing the colour of South African business.
The Health Department would not be suspending anti-retroviral programmes for children as had been reported in the media, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. However, it had warned participating hospitals to make sure they had enough supplies of the medication before enrolling new patients, spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said.
Cape Town has switched on to MyWireless technology — or broadband wireless high-speed, no-limit internet access via regulated high-powered radio frequency — Sentech said in a statement on Thursday. Sentech, a state-owned but commercially run TV and radio signal distributor, launched MyWireless in Gauteng in January.
Gauteng’s drinking water is under threat as a result of a decision by the East Rand Proprietary Mines to stop pumping water from its Boksburg workings, the United Association of South Africa said on Thursday. The trade union on Thursday called on the government to intervene urgently in the matter.
In an ordinary society, Phillip Jabulani ("Be Happy") Moleketi would have become a medical doctor, but South Africa in the mid-1970s was not an ordinary society and did not cater for the aspirations of its young black elite. Now Moleketi has been appointed South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Finance.
More than 80 cases of child abuse are reported in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, each month, said a member of the family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit, Captain Shiluvane Malunyane, on Tuesday. He also said there were more cases being reported every month.
South Africa has to overcome the colonial and apartheid legacy of unskilled and jobless workers to create a workforce for the reconstruction and development of the country, President Thabo Mbeki said on Tuesday at the launch of the Expanded Public Works Programme in Limpopo.
One of Africa’s largest transportation projects, Gautrain, is making good progress and will be completed by 2010 when the Soccer World Cup is hosted by South Africa, Gautrain spokesperson Dr Barbara Jensen said on Tuesday. Gautrain will link Pretoria and Johannesburg with the Johannesburg International airport through Sandton.
The South African government is still waiting to hear when ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his entourage are to arrive in the country, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. Spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the government was waiting for an official communiqué from the Caribbean Economic Community as to the exact date.
Institutionalised, representative democracy in our country is in trouble. This is not because the African National Congress’s sizeable electoral victory supposedly heralds the imminent arrival of a one-party state. It is simply because, only a decade after the introduction of a universal electoral franchise in South Africa, just more than 50% of all eligible voters participated in the formal process of representative democracy.
South African media group Kagiso has been given the go-ahead to increase its stake in Gauteng radio station Jacaranda FM. The Competition Commission has unconditionally approved a merger in which Kagiso Media sought to increase its stake from 42,5% to 65% in Jacaranda FM.
Aggrieved banking clients received R11,1-million back from banks in 2003, the ombudsman for banking services said on Tuesday. This was an increase of R2,3-million over 2002, banking ombudsman Neville Melville said at the release in Johannesburg of his office’s fourth annual report.
The losers in last month’s election (Oom Krisjan isn’t PC enough to buy that ”we are all winners” gumph) seem to be at a loss to understand why the African National Congress peformed so well at the polls. Despite concerns about lack of delivery (Lemmer sympathises, Mr Delivery is boycotting the Dorsbult, too), the ANC increased its majority to almost 70% of voters?
South Africa’s National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has condemned the sale of Siamese fighter fish as corporate gifts. Apparently, the Siamese fighter fish have been confined into ”brick-style” glass containers and exhibited in Gauteng centres.
President Thabo Mbeki paid a short visit to comatose pop diva Brenda Fassie at the Sunninghill Hospital north of Johannesburg on Monday night. African National Congress spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said Mbeki sat next to Fassie’s bed for about 20 minutes. He also spoke to her family who are at the hospital and sought to comfort them.
Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa on Monday repeatedly promised to discharge the mandate handed him and the African National Congress to deliver the party’s mandate to voters, while opposition parties pledged to lend a hand. Shilowa was making his first address of his second term as premier to the province’s third legislature.
Pretoria was a hive of activity on Monday with last-minute preparations for Tuesday’s inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki at the Union Buildings and the celebration of South Africa’s 10th year of democracy. With security forces keeping an eye over the city, VIPs have started trickling into Gauteng from all over the world.
Inauguration ‘sullied’ by Mugabe
The official opposition Democratic Alliance has selected its team representing the nine provinces in the National Council of Provinces but former Western Cape premier and former Cape Town mayor Gerald Morkel failed to be selected for one of two Western Cape seats available.
A Gauteng couple accused of forcing their domestic worker to have sexual intercourse with a dog were found not guilty in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court, according to news reports on Saturday. Siblings Cheri Wang and Ken Wang were accused of beating up their 19-year-old employee in April last year.
In 1999 pregnant women in Khayelitsha were able to access the drug AZT and two years later, highly active anti-retroviral therapy was introduced to the area. The Western Cape is one of the best-resourced provinces in the country and spends a healthy R1 377 per capita on health, second only to Gauteng, which spends R1 668.
Only 75 health-care workers out of an estimated 11Â 000 who dispense medicine have the licences they require by law, a Department of Health spokesperson said on Thursday. Under the Medicines and Related Substances Act, by May 2 workers who dispense medicine must have a dispensing licence.
Doctors threaten to down tools
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress named its candidates for premiers in the nine provinces on Wednesday night, after a national working committee meeting was held in the Mother City. It is the first time that candidates have only been named after the election.
The jostling over the spoils of Cabinet posts in the Western Cape and possible representation for the New National Party in the national Cabinet will begin this week. The NNP on Monday went out of its way to underscore the point that there was no suggestion of any calls for its leader to resign.
Champagne corks popped, fireworks exploded and balloons dropped from the ceiling as this week’s general election was declared free and fair in Pretoria on Saturday and the ANC celebrated a hands-down victory. The party has for first time taken the majority of seats in all nine provincial legislatures.
Although no economists forecast a change in interest rates when the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) monetary policy committee (MPC) meets next week, this does not necessarily mean that the MPC may not raise the repo rate by a cautionary 25 basis points.
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As the African National Congress passed the 10-million vote mark on Friday, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said that the turnout for the third democratic elections had been an impressive 76,9%. At present the ANC has 69,6% of the votes counted so far.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>With just over 88,2% of votes captured by early Friday morning, the African National Congress has nearly garnered 70% of the votes. With the preliminary count updated at 3am, the ruling party was heading the national race with 9,39-million of the votes counted, which translates into 69,67% — continuing to make gains on its apparent two-thirds majority.
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The election race in KwaZulu-Natal closed in on the halfway mark on Thursday evening with no indication whether the African National Congress or the Inkatha Freedom Party would win the province. The Democratic Alliance, which may tip the province into the IFP’s hands, was at 9,46%.
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The Independent Democrats said on Thursday it went after South Africa’s youth vote by using innovations in technology to campaign to its voters, such as use of SMSes and the web. Speaking to the Mail & Guardian Online, ID leader Patricia de Lille claimed the party has a database of more than 90Â 000 cellphone numbers of its constituents.
DA ‘elated’ at turnout
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The election in KwaZulu-Natal was a neck-and-neck race between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress on Thursday. The counting of the votes has been slow in the province due to rigorous auditing of the electronic capturing of votes.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The Independent Democrats, contesting its first election on Wednesday, surpassed the long-established New National Party in early poll counts on Thursday morning. By mid-morning, the ID had garnered 123 292 votes or 2,24% of the votes counted, putting them in fourth place. The NNP was in fifth place with 121 928 votes, or 2,21%.
"What the third democratic election has emphatically indicated is that the country is well on its way to being a mature democracy. The fact that, when we compare the electoral process from 1994 up to now, things are generally getting better, says volumes about the country, voters, political parties, politicians, civil society and many other sectors of society." Thabisi Hoeane reflects on the 2004 elections.