Gauteng’s public works department denied a Democratic Alliance (DA) claim that hospital generators were no longer being tested weekly after maintenance contracts had been cancelled in June. Spokesperson Alfred Nhlapo said the system that had replaced the contracts, involving a pool of contractors, was better than what had been available under the previous system.
About 3 500 mine workers will continue their strike over low salaries on Tuesday, trade union Solidarity said. Spokesperson Reint Dykema said Solidarity members started striking at coal mines around the country on Monday over an inadequate pay offer, particularly for artisans.
The 24-hour power failure at Johannesburg’s Coronation Hospital on the weekend should serve as a wake-up call on maintenance work, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. Jack Bloom, Gauteng health spokesperson for the party, warned that hospitals in the province were at dire risk because maintenance contracts had been cancelled.
About 3 500 mine workers downed tools on Monday over low salaries, trade union Solidarity said. Spokesperson Reint Dykema said Solidarity members were striking at coal mines around the country over an inadequate pay offer, particularly for artisans.
Money is pouring in for the 2010 World Cup as the country anticipates an economic kick from hosting the world’s largest sporting event. With government providing billions of rands to upgrade infrastructure and depressed inner-city areas, there are indications that the private sector is following suit, particularly in Gauteng.
A total of 28 people died and hundreds of homes were destroyed by a series of forest fires that have swept through parts of South Africa and Swaziland since the end of last month, officials said on Thursday. ”Twenty-six deaths have been reported thus far” in South Africa alone, said a statement issued after a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The South African Cabinet has effectively vetoed the Soweto monorail project announced by the Gauteng government in May this year. There were major shortcomings in the process leading to the announcement of the project, government spokesperson Themba Maseko told journalists in Pretoria and Cape Town on Wednesday.
Tracking down rape suspects has been made a police priority, Deputy Minister of Safety and Security Susan Shabangu said on Wednesday. ”One of the issues we are going to make a priority is to ensure that where we have warrants of arrest for rape suspects, the police go down and hunt those individuals and bring them to book,” she said.
The average abused woman leaves her husband 37 times before she divorces him. After every lame excuse, every bunch of flowers and every empty promise, she takes him back again. And again. And again. Why? Women’s rights activists, social workers and clinical psychologists agree: abused women are kept in abusive relationships by a combination of fear, emotional or financial dependence, low self-esteem or a false sense of loyalty.
The Tshwane/Pretoria name change ”is neither here nor there”, said the Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) on Tuesday. ANC Gauteng secretary David Makhura told a press conference the party believed Tshwane was the capital. But it was still a ”matter of process” to make this ”attitude” a reality.
Limpopo is the country’s safest province, the South African Institute of Race Relations said on Tuesday. It had the lowest rate of murders, rapes and armed robberies, according to a study based on police statistics released in Polokwane. Limpopo is also one of South Africa’s poorest provinces with a very high rate of unemployment.
Winter had one last blast before making way for spring as snow fell in parts of South Africa on Tuesday. Snow had fallen near the Hex River in the Western Cape, in Sutherland in the Northern Cape, near Tiffendell in the Eastern Cape and in parts of Lesotho and the Drakensberg, according to South African Weather Service forecaster Elke Brouwers.
It is only logical that when a ruling party elects its own leadership it prefers also to be electing the leadership of the country, the Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) said on Tuesday. ANC provincial secretary David Makhura was speaking at a press conference after the provincial executive committee’s meeting earlier this month.
All the fuel industry workers who were on strike over the last week would return to work on Tuesday after accepting an 8,5% wage increase. ”We hope that at least by the afternoon shift everybody would have gone back to work,” said Keith Jacobs, spokesperson for the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union.
South Africa’s workers in the petroleum sector said they were hopeful that talks with their employers later on Monday could end their strike over pay, which has severely affected fuel delivery. "We have a meeting tonight [Monday] beginning at 8pm with the employers of the workers and we are hopeful," a union spokesperson said.
Students and medical staff at the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital say they feel unsafe — and that administrators need to do more to improve safety at the world’s biggest hospital. On July 30, a student was raped at the hospital. She had been on her way to the blood bank at about 7pm when two men approached her and one of them raped her.
Allegations of embezzlement against South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande were unfounded, the Young Communist League said on Monday. YCL chairperson David Masondo said: ”We as the youth wing have engaged with Nzimande, and he said the allegations were untrue.”
Fraud and theft claims against South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande were an attempt to discredit the organisation. The campaign was being conducted by ”elements, including agent provocateurs” who were ”hell-bent” on destroying the party because they were opposed to the direction it was taking.
Fuel shortages will continue on Sunday as talks to resolve a pay strike deadlocked on Saturday night. The Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) and the National Petroleum Employers’ Association resumed talks with the bargaining council at the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg at 10am on Sunday.
Two Sunday newspapers have reported that South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande is being investigated for alleged theft and fraud. The Sunday Times and City Press wrote that a businessman claimed in an affidavit that he donated R500 000 to the SACP in 2002, but the money never reached the party coffers.
Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) and National Petroleum Employers’ Association negotiators were still locked behind closed doors at 9pm on Saturday. ”All I can say is that we are still talking,” said Ceppwawu spokesperson Keith Jacobs.
Representatives from the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) and the National Petroleum Employers’ Association resumed talks on Saturday in a bid to resolve a pay strike which led to countrywide fuel shortages and panic buying. Ceppwawu spokesperson Keith Jacobs said the union had repeatedly informed employers and the public about the strike.
Just days after allegedly raping three Durban women and robbing a Gauteng couple, a man gave his 16-year-old girlfriend a watch belonging to one of the victims, the Scottburgh High Court heard on Friday. Silindile Nyathi said her 26-year-old boyfriend, Wonder Mchunu, gave her the watch ”in those days just after we had celebrated the New Year”.
Moves are afoot for South Africa’s capital city to be renamed Tshwane, the Tshwane metro council confirmed on Friday. ”Pretoria is a suburb within Tshwane …. the city centre is Pretoria … the city is Tshwane,” said spokesperson Console Tleane. This lands in the middle of debate over the legal status of the name ”Tshwane”.
The name ”Pretoria” will be changed to ”Tshwane” on all route and direction signs across South Africa, the Tshwane metro council said on Friday. Communication and marketing head Console Tleane confirmed that media reports about the name change were true.
As fuel shortages continued countrywide and panic buying set in, the Department of Minerals and Energy insisted on Friday it would not intervene in the strike by fuel workers. ”It is a huge problem and we are not happy with it, but our hands are tied. It is a very tough one … it is an in-house issue,” said spokesperson Sputnik Rantau.
Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira named 23 players — including six strikers — for a mini-camp that will give fringe players a chance to show that they have what it takes to represent the national team in 2010. Parreira is hoping he and his staff will be surprised when they put members of the mini-camp squad through their paces on Monday and Tuesday.
More than 200 HIV/Aids lay counsellors marched on the Gauteng health department offices in Johannesburg on Friday complaining that they had not been paid since April. The community-based counsellors also said they were unhappy with the amount of the monthly R1Â 000 stipend they were supposed to get from the department.
One of three women raped last year in KwaZulu-Natal was so traumatised she had to be led away from an identification parade without identifying anyone, the Scottburgh High Court heard on Thursday. The report from the identification parade was submitted to the court after one of the three accused expressed dissatisfaction with the parade.
An investigation into the rape of a Wits medical student at the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg continued on Thursday, Gauteng police said. Superintendent Thembi Nkwashu said police were still waiting for the girl to make a statement.
A woman who was crying as a rapist removed her bikini pants was told by the man to ”shut up” or he would ”blow” her head off, the Scottburgh High Court heard on Thursday. The woman was the third of three rape victims to give testimony before the court in a trial in which three men are accused of rape.
A woman told the Scottburgh High Court on Wednesday she ”didn’t feel like” she was part of her own body as a man raped her on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast. The woman, who may not be identified, said: ”I didn’t feel like I was a part of my body. I wasn’t there. When something like that happens, you switch off.” The student was the second victim to testify at the trial.