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/ 16 November 2006
The Scorpions on Wednesday night arrested a prominent businessman in connection with the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble in September last year, the elite unit said on Thursday. Talk Radio 702 named the suspect as Glenn Agliotti, a friend of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi and fixer for Kebble.
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/ 15 November 2006
"With a little bit of vision, a little bit of money, something new is beginning to emerge [in the inner city]," said Lael Bethlehem, the chief executive officer of the Johannesburg Development Agency, at Constitution Hill on Monday. Constitution Hill is located at the edge of Hillbrow, one of the most derelict areas in central Johannesburg.
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/ 15 November 2006
Following the recent announcement by the Department of Health on the revised dispensing fee, South African retailer Pick ‘n Pay announced on Wednesday that all medicine prices in its pharmacies will remain at the current levels until the end of this year.
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/ 14 November 2006
A 17-year-old pupil was in a serious but stable condition in hospital after he was stabbed at his school in Nyanga on Tuesday, Cape Town police said. The boy was in a classroom at Oscar Mpetha High when two youths stormed in at 10.15am and stabbed him in the head and back, Captain Randall Stoffels said. Two teenagers were arrested.
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/ 13 November 2006
”I am going to charge you with the murder of that dead person.” With these words Superintendent Ngubane of the Booysens police station turned what had been just another dreary encounter with dysfunctional police into a full-on fight over the state of policing in Gauteng. I am a Quaker and on Friday evening, November 3, I was attending a meeting in Rosettenville, writes Justine White.
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/ 9 November 2006
An unprotected strike by health workers in Mpumalanga has been replaced by lunch-time pickets, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) said on Thursday. Provincial secretary December Manana said Nehawu met its members to report back on a meeting with Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla.
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/ 9 November 2006
The Director General of Correctional Services, Linda Mti, has resigned, a government statement said on Thursday. It said the national commissioner quit at the beginning of the month. Johannesburg police on Tuesday confirmed that Mti had recently been arrested for drunken driving.
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/ 8 November 2006
The smell of petrol lingering around the Blaauwpan Dam, east of Johannesburg, might remain for days while a layer of fuel on the dam’s surface is causing "catastrophic" environmental hazards, according to conservationists. More than a million litres of aviation fuel is said to have leaked from OR Tambo International Airport on Tuesday.
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/ 8 November 2006
The Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) could face charges of criminal neglect after an aviation fuel leak at OR Tambo International Airport, Beeld reported on Wednesday. It said conservation organisations described Tuesday’s spill — the third since July last year — as an environmental disaster.
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/ 6 November 2006
While President Thabo Mbeki will only give up his Union Buildings office in 2009, the next president will effectively be chosen in just over a year’s time at the ANC’s watershed elective conference in Polokwane, Limpopo. How will it happen? And how are the cards stacked? Zukile Majova and Mbuyisi Mgibisa investigated to bring you this exclusive report, taking you into the mechanics of an elective conference.
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/ 5 November 2006
South Africa’s standing in the international golf rankings is set to rise a notch or two in January next year with the launch of the inaugural Jo’burg Open. A public-sector partnership has rallied round the first staging of the multimillion-rand event, to be hosted at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club from January 11 to 14.
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/ 5 November 2006
In another deadly weekend on Gauteng’s roads, at least five people were killed in three serious accidents, and two cars caught fire on the busy N1 highway, causing huge traffic jams. A Volkswagen Golf exploded on the N1 while travelling from Roodepoort to Pretoria on Saturday night, ER24 said.
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/ 4 November 2006
The Gauteng government’s public transport summit, convened by its Transport Minister Ignatius Jacobs this week, was a crude bluff. In the context of failed taxi recapitalisation, a bungled car-pool-lane experiment, a Gautrain project plagued with glitches and, most importantly, heightened debate about the necessity for public transport, the summit missed the opportunity to grapple with the mobility needs of Gauteng citizens.
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/ 2 November 2006
Over 8Â 000 health practitioners have been struck off the roll after failing to pay their annual fees, the Health Professionals’ Council of South Africa (HPSCA) said on Thursday. ”A total of 8Â 593 health professionals have been struck off the roll after failing to meet the deadline,” said HPCSA spokesperson Tendai Dhliwayo.
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/ 2 November 2006
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday urged Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana to intervene in a strike by workers at meat-distributing outlet Karan Beef. The company was ”arrogant” and had made it clear it was not going to meet with the workers, charged Cosatu Gauteng general secretary Siphiwe Mbcina.
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/ 31 October 2006
A child-trafficking racket involving Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa is under investigation, said Mpumalanga police on Tuesday. Inspector Eddie Ngobeni said the investigation arose after a report from the Amazing Grace children’s home in Malelane, near Nelspruit.
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/ 31 October 2006
Fifty-two Zimbabweans were arrested in the last two weeks in connection with armed robberies in Gauteng, police said on Tuesday. Superintendent Fanie Molapo of the special investigations unit said most of the robbers targeted Pick ‘n Pay and Spar supermarkets. On Saturday, a Zimbabwean was killed and two of his countrymen were wounded in an exchange of fire with police.
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/ 31 October 2006
Gauteng concession company Bombela has not allocated any work on the Gautrain project to companies linked to Schabir Shaik, according to a statement issued on Monday. The statement said Nkobi Holdings and Kobitech Transport Systems were among the companies listed on the Gautrain prospective supplier database.
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/ 30 October 2006
Crime levels on commuter trains are still unacceptable, but the dedicated rail-police unit is making a difference, government and commuter-rail officials said on Monday. They were speaking in Cape Town at the national launch of the South African Police Service Railway Unit, which began operating in the Western Cape in 2004.
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/ 27 October 2006
When Happiness Tshabalala burst into the ministry of transport with a basket of flowers on her arm and began hurling handfuls of rose petals over cubicle walls, her colleagues knew better than to ask. The fervour with which she celebrated national days of awareness was matched only by her inability to understand their general thrust.
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/ 27 October 2006
The retail price of all grades of petrol will decline by 21c per litre from Wednesday November 1, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Friday. The wholesale price of diesel 0,05% sulphur will decline by 2c a litre and that of 0,005% sulphur will fall by 1c a litre on the same date.
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/ 26 October 2006
OR Tambo International airport is one of hundreds of South African place names that have been officially changed since 2000. The airport’s new name and a bust of Tambo are due to be unveiled on Friday by President Thabo Mbeki. The South African Geographical Names Council lists 833 new names approved since 2000, including at least 145 names that were completely changed.
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/ 25 October 2006
The government will be spending close to R2,3-billion on its HIV/Aids programme by 2010, according to the mini-Budget tabled in Parliament on Wednesday. The figure was contained in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement, which gave no breakdown of how the amount was arrived at.
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/ 25 October 2006
South Africa’s nine provinces are to receive an additional R28,2-billion over the next three years, according to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement. Provincial government is projected to get R178,3-billion this year — 2006/07 — including R150,7-billion from the equitable share and R27,5-billion in conditional grants.
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/ 25 October 2006
President Thabo Mbeki warned earlier this month that strategic proposals conveyed by the South African Communist Party’s Blade Nzimande would result in the ”destruction of the African National Congress and the rest of the democratic movement”. But he decline of the ruling alliance was prophesied more than a decade ago, writes Ranjeni Munusamy.
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/ 24 October 2006
Johannesburg’s public transport system received a boost on Tuesday when Daimler Chrysler handed 38 new buses to Metrobus. Daimler Chrysler president Wolfgang Biez said the buses would form part of the World-Class Public Transport Programme, which would play a vital role during the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
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/ 24 October 2006
The Transport Department and Gauteng metro police on Monday night declared the first day of the pilot high-occupancy vehicle lane on the highway between Johannesburg and Pretoria a success, despite a rocky start. ”Considering it was the first day, it can’t go without hiccups but we are optimistic that it will work,” said a metro police spokesperson.
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/ 23 October 2006
A 13-year-old pupil was rushed to hospital after he was stabbed by a fellow Edleen Primary School pupil on Monday, said the Gauteng department of education. ”It’s disturbing because all along it’s been taking place in high schools and this time it is primary school pupils,” said spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi.
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/ 23 October 2006
Child-committed sexual offences processed by the state have nearly doubled in the past year, the Star reported on Monday. It said 82 children — some as young as six — are being charged in courts across the country every day for raping or indecently assaulting other children.
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/ 22 October 2006
The South African government has set aside R3,8-billion for public transport for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Sunday. Radebe also warned taxi operators who plan to go on strike against the taxi-recapitalisation programme to do so within the law.
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/ 21 October 2006
A bid to put medical scheme Pro Sano under curatorship was put on hold on Friday as legal teams sought to reach an out-of-court settlement. ”Pro Sano is pleased to announce that the matter with the registrar of medical schemes will be resolved in terms of a court order,” said Pro Sano chairperson Brian Jacobs.
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/ 20 October 2006
On Friday, Car-Free Day, it took officials of the Gauteng department of transport and public works 16 minutes on a minibus taxi to get from Soweto to Park Station in central Johannesburg — a trip that usually takes Sowetan commuters 30 to 45 minutes. However, private schools in Gauteng broke up for mid-term holidays on Thursday.