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/ 19 October 2006
Sexual-harassment claims against former Gauteng minister of social development Bob Mabaso will be internally investigated by the African National Congress (ANC), the party said on Thursday. ”I am ready to take part in the ANC internal disciplinary process to finalise the matter,” said Mabaso.
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/ 19 October 2006
What would it take for motorists to leave the comfort of their cars and venture on to daunting public transport? With traffic congestion choking economic activity, the government has caught on to international concepts like Car-Free Day — taking place on Friday — that aim to encourage people to do just that.
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/ 19 October 2006
The Department of Minerals and Energy could implement a retail petrol-price cut of about nine cents per litre (c/l) on November 1 2006, provided the daily over-recovery remains at or above the October 18 level. This would bring the total cut to 95c/l since the retail petrol price peaked at R7,04 a litre in August in Gauteng.
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/ 13 October 2006
The Gauteng Aids Conference concluded on Friday in Boksburg on the East Rand with delegates affirming the need to stop talking and take action. ”I have come to this conference for the last four years and heard the same thing; it’s time to take some action,” declared one delegate. The three-day conference was aimed at further developing a multi-sectoral response to HIV/Aids in the province.
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/ 13 October 2006
Two former Scorpions bosses appeared in the Pretoria Special Commercial Crimes Court on Friday on charges of theft, fraud and corruption, a police spokesperson said. Captain Dennis Adriao said the two handed themselves over to police and were arrested on Friday on charges relating to corruption, theft and fraud amounting collectively to over R1,5-million.
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/ 13 October 2006
Female deaths due to HIV/Aids quadrupled from 1997 to 2004, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Friday. Speaking at the Gauteng Aids summit in Boksburg, Dr Hester Phillips of Stats SA said the very sharp increase in death rate due to HIV and related diseases is of great concern. ”There is also a huge increase in mortality in women in prime ages of reproduction,” she said.
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/ 12 October 2006
The high-occupancy vehicle lane pilot project in October to reduce massive daily traffic congestion between Pretoria and Johannesburg would be conducted ”cautiously and progressively”, the Gauteng department of transport said on Thursday. Provincial minister Ignatius Jacobs was briefing the media on a planned dedicated lane for vehicles travelling with three or more people.
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/ 12 October 2006
Media will have to cough up R1 000 a seat to report on President Thabo Mbeki’s speech at a South African Communist Party (SACP) dinner at the weekend, the party said on Thursday. Another option for ”media houses” was to obtain a table for 10 at a cost of R10 000 for the event that will also be attended by SACP leader Blade Nzimande.
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/ 12 October 2006
South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Blade Nzimande was reluctant to hand President Thabo Mbeki an award for his contribution to the struggle, media reports said on Thursday. The SACP in Gauteng wanted Nzimande to present the award at a fundraising dinner in Johannesburg on Saturday, following acrimonious exchanges between the two men.
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/ 11 October 2006
The Gautrain is expected to be ready for the 2010 Soccer World Cup but there are no guarantees, the project leader said on Wednesday. ”The section for the people landing here for the soccer will be ready,” Gautrain Project Leader Jack van der Merwe told the portfolio committee on transport at a briefing in Johannesburg, but would not guarantee this.
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/ 11 October 2006
The Tourism Business Council of South Africa has a new CEO, Mmatsatsi Marobe, who stepped into her role on October 1. ”I am committed to taking the TBCSA to a new level of service delivery and to bringing together public and private partners to realise the potential of tourism in the country,” Marobe said in a statement.
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/ 11 October 2006
A senior Gauteng transport official has acknowledged that he failed to follow proper procedures in awarding a R5-million tender to a Cabinet minister’s wife. Media reports on Wednesday quoted provincial transport department head Sibusiso Buthelezi as saying he did not advertise the tender ”because it was a matter of urgency”.
South Africa and China have signed an extension to the memorandum of understanding in the labour field agreed to in 2002. Briefing the media at Parliament after the signing ceremony on Monday, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said the agreement focused on human resources development, job creation strategies and cooperation in the International Labour Organisation.
The South African Police Service’s claim that all Gauteng police stations have a family violence, child abuse and sexual offences (FCS) officer is ”a total untruth”, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. A DA survey showed the SAPS was misleading the public about the closure of police family and child violence units.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has asked all its elected members in provincial legislatures and Parliament to lodge letters of resignation, the Mercury reported on Monday. It said this was aimed at rooting out ”dead wood”, and the letters would only be activated in cases where representatives had failed to perform.
Gauteng provincial minister of education Angie Motshekga is to apply for a court interdict prohibiting members of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union from striking, her department said on Friday. If the application is refused, the planned strike will affect examinations in the Soweto area, said spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi.
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It was still unclear at lunch on Friday whether African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma and President Thabo Mbeki would both attend the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting on the weekend. The NEC will meet behind closed doors for three days at Esselen Park on Gauteng’s East Rand amid questions about a possible rift between Zuma and Mbeki.
Ten cases of the extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) have been reported in North West, the provincial department of health said on Friday. Spokesperson Lesiba Molala said four people have since died from the disease, while six others were being monitored at the Tshepong hospital complex in Klerksdorp.
Something is rotten in the Gauteng department of housing, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday following the revelation of R100-million in tender irregularities in the department. The Star revealed on Thursday the contents of a report by the forensic unit of the Gauteng Shared Services Centre detailing allegations of tender irregularities.
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Jacob Zuma was mum on Thursday on whether he would attend the weekend meeting of the national executive committee of the African National Congress (ANC). Speaking from his home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, a jovial Zuma said: ”I am not answering that question.” The ANC deputy president said he did not want the media to ”be speculating”.
The value of fraudulent claims submitted to the life insurance industry during the first half of this year dropped by almost 76-million rand compared with the first half of last year, from R175,2-million rand to R99,5-million. Lerato Mametse, communications manager at the Life Offices Association, says the reduction in claims fraud from January to June this year was a welcome respite.
The Airports Company South Africa says work on all its projects at Johannesburg International airport is in full swing and it is confident that by 2009 all the construction work will have been completed to ensure that there is no construction activity during the 2010 Soccer World Cup. As part of its R5,2-billion infrastructure development programme, Acsa is spending about R3,5-billion rand at the airport.
Any South African who uses national highways or main roads in our cities will sooner or later run into a government convoy. Depending on the rank of the politician being taxied, the convoy can stretch from two to eight cars. At the last count, President Thabo Mbeki had eight. Jacob Zuma may be out of government, but he has almost as many.
Gauteng’s commuters must be encouraged to use public transport, the province’s transport minister Ignatius Jacobs said on Sunday. He acknowledged that Gauteng’s public transport system was underdeveloped, but said it was also underused.
Hardly a week goes by without an article in either the Mail & Guardian or some other newspaper assailing Israel in the most extreme terms. There is little evident inhibition regarding the expression of moral outrage. Israelis are depicted as Nazis, colonialists, ”apartheidists”, brutal oppressors and, recently, child murderers, writes Mike Berger, an honorary research associate in the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research.
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/ 29 September 2006
The Directorate of Special Operations (DSO, Scorpions) of the National Prosecuting Authority on Thursday night arrested a senior state advocate stationed at the DSO’s Gauteng regional office. The state advocate, who may not be named until she appears in court, was arrested on charges of corruption, defeating the ends of justice, extortion and contravention of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act.
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/ 29 September 2006
The retail price of petrol will decline by 50c to 51c per litre from Wednesday October 4, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Friday. The retail price of Petrol 91 ULP will fall by 51c a litre, while that of 93 and 95 ULP and LRP will fall by 50c a litre. The wholesale price of diesel 0,05% sulphur will decline by 34c a litre (c/l) and that of 0,005% sulphur will fall by 37c/l on the same date.
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/ 28 September 2006
The Gautrain link between OR Tambo International airport and Sandton will be finished in time for the Soccer World Cup in 2010, Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa said at a sod-turning ceremony for the project on Thursday. ”Bombela [International Consortium] has given me their assurance that we will be well in time for the Soccer World Cup,” Shilowa said at Alexandra in Johannesburg.
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/ 28 September 2006
Gauteng public servant Crish Naidu has been paid R1,25-million in the past 27 months for doing nothing, media reports said on Thursday. Naidu was suspended after uncovering alleged fraud involving at least six members of staff. He worked as director of management services in the department of finance and economic affairs, with a monthly salary of R46 000.
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/ 27 September 2006
Wednesday’s eventual release of the annual crime statistics raised strident calls for the figures to be made public more regularly. Democratic Alliance spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard said the government’s continued refusal to publish crime statistics on a more regular basis meant the public had to wait another year before finding out just how serious the current crime spike affecting the country was.
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/ 27 September 2006
New cases of tuberculosis found in South Africa have raised fears there could be multiple versions of a highly drug resistant strain that has killed 62 people and threatens to spread across a region ravaged by HIV/Aids. An easily-transferred airborne respiratory disease, tuberculosis is the main direct cause of death for people with HIV/Aids in South Africa.
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/ 26 September 2006
Following rigorous testing of multi-drug resistance tuberculosis patients, the Gauteng department of health has confirmed six cases of extreme drug-resistance tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in Gauteng, the province said in a statement on Tuesday. ”Three of these patients are already receiving medical care at Sizwe Tropical Disease Hospital,” the statement said.