Solidarity on Thursday welcomed a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ruling on a charge of unfair racial discrimination in the trade union’s favour. Solidarity declared a dispute with South African Airways Technical in February and referred the matter to the CCMA.
"I have interviewed African National Congress deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe seven times between 1999 and 2008, and I have watched him change. Yes, he has been buffeted by the winds of neo-liberalism, but in my last interview with him, I see a far more forthright socialist emerging," writes Ebrahim Harvey.
The Mail & Guardian takes a look at vehicles launched recently in South Africa: the Saab 9-3 (sensible and Swedish), the Peugeot 308 with its cool new features, the Renault Navigator (one of three new models newly introduced) and the Tata Xenon, which, as a double-cab lifestyle bakkie, is still quite a basic vehicle.
A recent spate of taxi violence in Gauteng is ”senseless barbarism” that will not be tolerated, the Department of Transport said on Wednesday. It has forged relations with law-enforcement agencies to ensure those responsible face the full might of the law, spokesperson Collen Msibi said in a statement.
Bestselling author Eoin Colfer, whose Artemis Fowl series of action-fantasy novels has sold more than nine million copies worldwide, may well wish to operate under a cloak of secrecy — as his famous teenaged creation does — when he arrives in South Africa this week.
Consumer rights champion Isabel Jones died in the early hours of Mach 11, said her son Adam Jones. Described at one time as all that stood between South Africans and high prices, Jones underwent heart surgery in November and made a full recovery, her son said.
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There is no statute determining exactly what provisions should be in a search warrant, the Constitutional Court heard on Tuesday as African National Congress president Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thint began a last-ditch bid to prevent key documents from being used against them.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma arrived at the Constitutional Court on Tuesday amid a heavy security presence and the sound of camera shutters as photographers attempted to shoot pictures. A heavy police presence was visible around the court buildings while journalists packed the press gallery trying to get a view of Zuma.
Consumer rights champion Isabel Jones has died, one of her agents confirmed on Tuesday. Jones, who underwent open heart surgery in December, was not feeling well on Friday and was admitted to hospital, said Stuart Lee, chief executive of Famous Faces Management, the agent for aspects of Jones’s commercial career. Jones died on Tuesday morning, said Lee.
About 45 people were hospitalised during the Argus Cycle Tour in Cape Town, two of them with suspected heart attacks, doctors at the race said on Sunday. Speaking from the medical tent at the finish line, the Dr Sue le Roux said there had been ”a lot” of cases of chest pain, which could have been heart-related or due to other causes like bronchitis.
If you’re worried about rocketing petrol prices — which hit R8,25 a litre in Gauteng last week and are set to increase further — you can take some comfort from the fact that reform of the fuel sector is finally under way, with the promise of a freer, more efficient fuel market kicking in early next year.
While large industry has met its 10% power-reduction commitments, the rest of South Africa is lagging behind, saving less than 5% on its electricity consumption. The continued strain on the national grid has meant that there remains the threat of load-shedding for South Africans.
Despite having to play for 10 minutes with 13 men, the Bulls beat the Lions 31-17 in a pulsating Super 14 match in Pretoria on Friday. The home side lost Springbok hard man Bakkies Botha to the sin-bin, and fullback Zane Kirchner to a red card, in the first period, but still had too much fire-power to overcome the Lions.
Anthea Buys speaks to Ross Douglas about the commercial possibilities of the country’s first art fair.
Company black-empowerment levels must be considered before firms benefit from international export agreements, Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana said on Friday. ”The government has opened the doors for not one race, or one sex … but for all the people of South Africa,” she told agriculture sector partners in Boksburg.
British spirits group Diageo and Dutch brewer Heineken said on Friday they had agreed to form two new joint ventures in South Africa to combine their drinks businesses and also build a brewery. Diageo, which makes Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky, and Heineken, famed for its lager, said they had teamed up with Namibia Breweries to form DHN Drinks.
Five years after its developers announced that the construction of the Kaizer Chiefs Stadium would be complete by this year, not a brick has been laid. Construction work on the Bob van Reenen stadium precinct in Krugersdorp, earmarked by Chiefs as their home venue, was expected to begin in July 2006 and it was to be ready to use in 2008.
Sexual harassment of women in miniskirts at Johannesburg taxi ranks has been occurring for at least eight years, the Gauteng community safety portfolio committee heard on Thursday. However, only one incident has been reported to the police.
The government has approved an R8,6-billion road and rail improvement scheme to help cater for thousands of visitors expected for the 2010 soccer World Cup, a spokesperson said on Thursday. The Moloto rail corridor project will link Gauteng with Mpumalanga in the north-east close to the popular Kruger National Park.
The government is considering the division of South Africa into two time zones. This is according to Portia Molefe, Director General of Public Enterprises, who was on Wednesday briefing the minerals and energy committee in Parliament on the present electricity crisis.
Incandescent lamps will be exchanged for energy-saving lamps in all provinces from April onwards, Eskom said on Wednesday. The exchange programme for compact fluorescent lamps is already under way in several of the country’s provinces and has seen more than 12-million lamps distributed in three years.
Eskom may delay approval for connecting new construction projects that are bigger than a residential home to its grid for up to six months in a bid to alleviate a power crisis, it said on Wednesday. The crisis forced a shutdown of crucial mines for five days in January and since then mines have been operating with only 90% of their power.
Packages for the 2010 Soccer World Cup will go on sale in South Africa in June, sales agent Match Hospitality announced on Wednesday. ”We want to give priority to the domestic market,” the company’s chief operating officer, Pascal Portes, said at the launch of the hospitality programme in Johannesburg.
Stuart Johnston, one of the most knowledgeable motoring scribes in South Africa, has released the 2008 edition of the <i>Motorheads Diary</i>. Edited by Johnston and beautifully designed by Gauteng classic car buff Heide-Marie von der Au, the second edition of this page-per-day diary for car and bike enthusiasts is an absolute gem.
Sixty-one percent of all Gauteng policing precincts recorded a decrease in the total amount of violent crimes between July and December 2007, compared with the same period the previous year. Addressing the, Gauteng minister for community safety Firoz Cachalia said violent contact-crime categories decreased within the target range of between 7% and 10%.
The South African Communist Party has asked the South African Police Service to finalise its investigation into a donation scandal after an internal audit cleared their secretary general Blade Nzimande. The SACP audit was set up to investigate the whereabouts of R500 000 donated to the party by controversial businessman Charles Modise.
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/ 29 February 2008
Media24 on Friday announced the closure of the Gauteng and Free State editions of its Afrikaans tabloid, Son, citing weak growth prospects. The Western Cape and Eastern Cape additions would continue to publish, a statement from Fergus Sampson, CEO of the emerging markets division, said.
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/ 29 February 2008
The retail price of all grades of petrol will increase by 61 cents per litre on Wednesday March 5 after increasing by 17 cents a litre last month, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. The retail price of a litre of 95 octane unleaded petrol in Gauteng increases to R8,25, and to R8,01 at the coast — new highs.
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/ 29 February 2008
Wednesday afternoon and the sun beats down on a tattered strip of grass surrounded by embattled homes in the centre of KwaMashu township, north of Durban. Boy-men in excruciatingly tight shorts and sleeveless tops do violent pirouettes in the air — usually because someone else is clobbering them.
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/ 28 February 2008
A charge of insurance fraud against Clinton Nassif, former security head for slain mining magnate Brett Kebble, was withdrawn in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. ”The accused is a witness in other matters we are pursuing,” prosecutor Patrick Nkuna told the court in withdrawing the charge.
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/ 28 February 2008
Last week the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reported that the South African Communist Party planned to axe two senior Cape Town members for daring to criticise undemocratic practices at the party’s congress last year and suggesting that it is obsessed with "individuals" (read Zuma) to the detriment of its professed role as the party of the working class.
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/ 27 February 2008
Custom and ethnicity allow young women to wear miniskirts, the National House of Traditional Leaders said on Wednesday in reaction to a recent attack on a woman wearing a short skirt at a Johannesburg taxi rank. The traditional leaders said the actions of the woman’s attackers were not only ”barbaric”, but also unconstitutional.