If you build it, they will come. When City of Johannesburg councillor Bongani Zondi looked at Soweto’s Arthur Ashe tennis courts, he didn’t see dusty tarmac and frayed nets. In his mind, a library stood there, welcoming Sowetans to a world of books and knowledge.
Jeremy Cronin, the deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party, suggested in Parliament on Tuesday that there should be a council of state, which would be a super-Cabinet with a strategic planning mandate. Croning was speaking during debate on the Appropriation Bill.
Eskom has applied for a 53% hike in electricity tariffs, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa announced on Tuesday. It said it had received the application earlier in the day. Eskom is seeking this hike in place of the 14,2% increase it was granted in December last year.
Heavy rains, cold weather and strong winds will continue in Gauteng for the rest of the week, the South African Weather Services (SAWS) said on Sunday. This was due to a cold front passing through the area, said SAWS forecaster Evert Sholtz. He said rain and heavy winds would continue on Sunday and Monday would see strong winds blowing throughout Gauteng.
Two men who shot and killed a two-year-old baby during a house robbery last year were sentenced to life imprisonment plus 20 years by the Johannesburg High Court on Friday, police said. Steve Hlongwane (18) and George Nyangale (22) broke into a house in Lyndhurst on April 12 last year.
The 2010 World Cup soccer tournament is a prime target for corruption, editors were told in Johannesburg on Friday. ”There is a real fear that South Africa, in the staging of the World Cup, could look bad in the eyes of the world because of the dangers of corruption,” said Professor Danny Titus, of Transparency International.
In the run-up to the Audi Jo’burg Fashion Week, three designers offer a glimpse of what to expect on the Newtown catwalks.
Johannesburg may be the site of Gauteng’s newest airport, it was announced on Friday. An economic feasibility study will be conducted by the Johannesburg metro council to determine the merits of building a fifth airport in the province. Currently Gauteng is serviced by OR Tambo International, Lanseria and Grand Central airports.
Driving drunk can change lives forever, yet many South Africans — perhaps lulled by a lack of effective law enforcement — do it every day.
Sophiatown is an ironically named bar lounge popular with Johannesburg’s ever-expanding hip set.
Municipal workers will down tools if ”attacks” on Nelson Mandela metropole employees do not stop, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Thursday. ”These attacks are aimed at getting rid of workers who stand against any form of crime,” said Samwu general secretary Mthandeki Nhlapo.
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.
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.
"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.
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.