Officially no one is a candidate and there is not even a campaign, but in reality the contest to become the next South African president is well under way ahead of a crucial vote in December. The African National Congress (ANC) meets at the end of year to choose the person expected to lead the party into the 2009 general elections.
South Africa still has a long way to go to throw off its ”ethnic blinkers”, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said, referring to his party’s leadership race. ”We are still held back by the prejudices and wrong-headed decisions of the past,” Leon told the party’s Gauteng congress at the Benoni High School on the East Rand.
Don’t think of becoming a soccer coach if you are looking for job security. The sacking on Friday of Wits University coach Boebie Solomons is confirmation enough, with former Bafana Bafana player and assistant coach Eric Tinkler hoisted into the hot seat for Sunday’s game against Moroka Swallows.
Five men who robbed a bank at the Atlasville shopping centre in Boksburg, Gauteng, on Tuesday afternoon were arrested within minutes, police said. Captain Jethro Mtshali said two men, armed with a 9mm pistol and an AK-47 rifle, went into the Standard Bank branch at about noon and assaulted some of the employees.
The body of a seven-year-old girl abducted from her Pretoria home last month was found on Monday with the help from a police investigator who broke the Leigh Matthews kidnap and murder case, said police. The body believed to be that of Sheldean Human was found in a small river in Pretoria West.
A new initiative to tackle crimes such as house robberies and hijackings was unveiled by police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi on Monday. He told an Interpol conference in Johannesburg the move included the deployment of hundreds more police officers in areas where these crimes were common.
The number of Gauteng schoolgirls who fell pregnant in 2006 was double that of the previous year, the Star newspaper reported on Monday. The newspaper said 2Â 336 schoolgirls were pregnant last year — up from 2004 when 1Â 373, and 2005 when 1Â 169 schoolgirls were reported pregnant.
The leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) in Khutsong denied claims on Friday by the Khutsong Anti-North West Forum that the party was divided about the incorporation of the town into the North West. ”As the ANC we are united in Merafong about the decision to support the government’s initiative,” said the party’s sub-regional secretary, Sanele Caiya.
South Africa’s retail petrol prices will rise by 24 cents a litre from March 7 after a spike in global fuel prices over the past month, the government said on Friday. The retail price of 95 unleaded petrol in Gauteng province, which includes the financial hub of Johannesburg, will increase to R5,99 a litre, the Department of Minerals and Energy said in a statement.
The Khutsong Anti-North West Forum on Friday called on African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma to mediate in the ongoing violent protests that have rocked the Merafong Community near Carletonville, west of Johannesburg. ”This is an ANC vs ANC fight,” said the forum’s organiser, Paul Ncawane.
A 12-year-old pupil brought a loaded gun to Kempton Park Primary School on Thursday, allegedly to settle a score over a cellphone, the Gauteng education department said. ”I remain baffled by the actions of this learner,” said provincial minister of education Angie Motshekga, who dispatched a senior team of officials to investigate the circumstances.
Two major bus lines were affected on Thursday as the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) embarked on a national strike. Union spokesperson Ronnie Mamba said 104 Translux and City to City bus trips were affected. Fifty-two buses had not left Johannesburg on scheduled daily national and international trips and a further 52 Gauteng-bound buses were also affected.
South Africa is prepared to increase seizures of white-owned land to fulfil a promise to restore property to the black majority, a regional land claims commissioner said on Wednesday. The government’s aim is to return land taken during colonialism or apartheid by 2008.
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/ 28 February 2007
The actor and singer Sam Williams has died after a long illness, the Arts and Culture Ministry said on Wednesday. Williams, who died last Wednesday, began his career when he founded a musical group, the Boston Brothers, and was active as a playwright and composer in the 1960s and 1970s.
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/ 27 February 2007
De Beers, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds, says it will seek offers for its Cullinan diamond mine (which includes its C-Cut diamond resource) and portions of Kimberley (including the dormant underground mines). "The move continues De Beers’s drive to position itself for future growth," said the company in a statement.
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/ 27 February 2007
The 2010 Soccer World Cup marks the beginning of a revolution in South Africa’s transport system, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Tuesday. ”The 2010 World Cup is a major milestone in our history and marks the beginning of a major revolution in South Africa’s transport system,” Radebe told the African Business Tourism Conference in Sandton.
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/ 27 February 2007
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) should publicly apologise to African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma, the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust in Gauteng demanded on Tuesday. This follows reports that Sars served Zuma with a summons after he apparently failed to submit his tax return, information that Sars denied leaking to the media.
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/ 27 February 2007
Gauteng provincial minister of community safety Firoz Cachalia and his wife, Nazira, were mugged while walking at Emmarentia Dam, media reports said on Monday. The two were enjoying an evening stroll when they were attacked by two knife-wielding men on Friday at about 6.45pm.
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/ 27 February 2007
On the savannah plains of Africa, there is perhaps no greater body of myths than those about the city, and none are more fanciful than those about Johannesburg, variously known out there as Jozi, Jubheki and Egoli. It is the ill fortune of Pretoria always to tag along in the shadow cast by mammoth Johannesburg.
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/ 26 February 2007
Dr Wouter Basson says he will defend his medical practice after it emerged that he would be charged for his alleged role in the army’s weapons programme, media reports said on Monday. Complaints were lodged with the Health Professions Council of South Africa about Basson’s alleged role in Project Coast.
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/ 25 February 2007
One person was injured in an accident that left the N1 closed to traffic early on Sunday, Gauteng emergency workers said. ER24’s Werner Vermaak said a 30-year-old man sustained severe head injuries when his vehicle overturned several times along the N1 north near the Samrand offramp at about 2am
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/ 23 February 2007
The issue of lesbian and gay Africans’ human rights again came to the fore recently as Anglican Church leaders met in Tanzania amid the continuing row over the consecration of a gay United States bishop in 2003. An ultimatum was sent from the conference in Dar es Salaam to US bishops to make a commitment that same-sex unions would not be blessed.
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/ 22 February 2007
The ”overwhelming majority” of people arriving at Gauteng’s clinics and hospitals seek treatment related to unhealthy lifestyles, Gauteng’s provincial minister for health said on Thursday. ”If we can change this we will make a measurable impact on all facets of healthcare delivery,” Brian Hlongwa told a media briefing in Johannesburg.
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/ 22 February 2007
Creating two separate time zones in the country could lead to a massive annual saving of about 500MW of electricity generation, says an internal Eskom study. Eskom’s figures show that it currently costs R10-million per megawatt to build new power capacity, suggesting that energy savings from more efficient use of time zones could obviate the need for R5-billion in new capacity.
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/ 21 February 2007
Priority crimes are still too common, Gauteng provincial minister of community safety Firoz Cachalia said on Wednesday in announcing a second Operation Iron Fist. ”Specific types of violent crime remain at unacceptable levels, especially house robberies and business robberies,” Cachalia said in elaborating on Premier Mbhazima Shilowa’s state of the province address two days ago.
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/ 20 February 2007
Gauteng provincial minister of transport Ignatius Jacobs has given his department six weeks to clear the backlog in driving-licence examinations. This would be followed by increasing automation at all centres, Jacobs told a media briefing on Tuesday to elaborate on Premier Mbhazima Shilowa’s state of the province address.
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/ 20 February 2007
More than 297Â 000 people will benefit from housing projects in Gauteng in the next financial year, provincial minister of housing Nomvula Mokonyane said on Tuesday. The 58Â 552 houses to be built will include give-away, financed and rental houses, Mokonyane said in elaborating on Premier Mbhazima Shilowa’s state of the province address.
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/ 19 February 2007
Gauteng has more jobs and is becoming a better place to live, Premier Mbhazima Shilowa told the opening of the provincial legislature on Monday. Shilowa promised more action on crime and African education, more antiretrovirals and a fast clean-up of the collapsed driver’s-licence testing system.
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/ 19 February 2007
Jackie Maarohanye, the embattled principal of the Ithuteng Trust school in Kliptown, was taken to hospital after collapsing following her appearance in the Protea Magistrate’s Court in Soweto, media reports said on Monday. She was allegedly part of a group that held a reporter and driver from the Sowetan newspaper hostage at the weekend.
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/ 19 February 2007
Gauteng has more jobs and is becoming a better place to live, Premier Mbhazima Shilowa said on Monday. ”A better Gauteng is in the making,” he told the opening of the provincial legislature. By March last year there were about 3,3-million jobs, an increase of 426 000 jobs in four years, said Shilowa, promising to make even more of an effort in this regard.
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/ 19 February 2007
The embattled principal of the Ithuteng Trust School in Kliptown, Jackie Maarohanye, and 72 other people, have been arrested after a journalist was assaulted and held hostage. Reporter Vusi Ndlovu and driver Mabu Nkadimeng from the Sowetan newspaper were held hostage on Saturday for seven hours.
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/ 18 February 2007
A reporter and driver from the Sowetan newspaper were on Saturday afternoon held hostage for six hours by a group of people at the school of the embattled Jackie Maarohanye — the principal of the Ithutheng Trust school in Kliptown. Maarohanye handed herself over to the police in October last year for cases including public violence and malicious damage to property.