The retail price of all grades of petrol will increase by 31c per litre from Wednesday August 2, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Friday. The wholesale price of diesel with a sulphur content of 0,05% and with a sulphur content of 0,005% will rise by 22c a litre and 25c a litre respectively on the same date.
Business is helping tackle crime, with several initiatives by Business Against Crime bearing fruit. Vehicle theft and hijackings are down about 16% over the past five years from about 115 000 in 2001 to 96 000 last year. Even more impressive is the 30% reduction in Gauteng hijackings last year.
A quiet battle is being waged in the African National Congress over the powers of South Africa’s nine provinces, with a sizeable body of opinion coming to the realisation that they represent a huge drain without much gain. Look at the figures. In the past seven years, provinces have underspent — yes, underspent — by R4,7-billion.
Mining company Kumba hopes to avert a massive strike planned for Sunday by several trade unions, the company said on Thursday. The unions, however, were adamant that the strike will have a severe impact, with more than 6 000 of Kumba’s 9 000 workers taking part.
Politicians, including Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff, have formally acknowledged they owe the defunct Bathong travel agency tens of thousands of rands, a liquidation inquiry heard on Wednesday. Bathong is one of the agencies targeted by the Scorpions in their probe into the alleged abuse of parliamentary travel vouchers, and Bathong director Mpho Lebelo will be in the dock along with more than two dozen current and former MPs on Monday when their criminal trial begins in the Cape High Court.
South African police and wildlife officials are hunting for at least two crocodiles south of Johannesburg after several sightings. Wild crocodiles are not found naturally in the region, leading to speculation that the reptiles have escaped from farms or zoos.
Financial mismanagement and alleged corruption within the school transport system led to the non-payment of bus operators, Gauteng education department provincial minister Angie Motshekga said on Wednesday. She said criminal charges against bus operators who allegedly defrauded the system had been lodged with the Johannesburg police.
South African Ben Sassman admits his bid to help a lonely friend living with HIV/Aids started out as a ”feel-good project for myself” but is now an online dating service reaching people around the globe. The Positive Connection, in its third year, can even claim success in the matchmaking game, having brought together a few solid partnerships.
Gauteng education minister Angie Motshekga is ending her department’s contract with JCJ bus operators. ”I had enough of bus operators who hold us hostage and negotiate with us in bad faith,” said Motshekga in a statement. JCJ has indicated it intends withdrawing more than 40 buses, ”thus rendering 18 of Gauteng department of education schools ineffective”.
Staff at Johannesburg International airport are to receive skills training to improve customer-service levels in preparation for the Fifa 2010 Soccer World Cup, South African government news agency BuaNews reported on Monday. The Airports Company South Africa has already made R3,5-billion available for infrastructure investment in preparation for South Africa’s hosting of the Cup.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) providing hospice and home care for HIV/Aids patients in Gauteng are struggling because of late payment by the Department of Health, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. ”Some of these NGOs have not been paid for almost four months,” said spokesperson Jack Bloom.
Prison authorities asked the Law Society of the Northern Province on Friday to help some awaiting-trail prisoners and those eligible for parole to be released in an attempt to ease overcrowding in prisons. Speaking at a conference of the society, Johan Wilkens, acting regional head of corrections in Gauteng, said prisons in the province were 171% full.
Soweto pupils planned a march to the Gauteng premier’s office in Johannesburg on Friday afternoon in protest against a lack of school buses, the Congress of South African students (Cosas) said. ”Since this term began, many students have been left stranded due to the lack of transport and the Department of Education is to blame,” Cosas provincial chairperson Percy Ntsolo said.
Burger King’s claim to be ”the home of the Whopper” has been challenged by Johannesburg in the past couple of weeks. Although the United States fast-food chain’s advertising slogan refers to its trademark huge hamburger, Egoli’s bid for the title is based on a different meaning of ”whopper”: that of a great big fib.
Carlos Alberto Parreira, who quit his post as head coach of Brazil on Wednesday following the South Americans’ poor showing at the World Cup, has agreed to come to South Africa to take charge of Bafana Bafana. A source on the South African Football Association (Safa) executive says Parreira has agreed to the financial terms. All that is required now is his signature.
Gauteng has to plan now for population growth of five million to an estimated 14,5-million people by 2015, Premier Mbhazima Shilowa warned on Wednesday. He stressed that immediate intervention is needed to avert future crises. ”If we have this congestion with 9,5-million people, how will it be if there are 14,5-million?”
The government’s plan to establish a seventh regional electricity distributor (RED) to take care of the power-supply distribution for all non-metro municipalities may end up "fixing" non-existent problems, says the official opposition Democratic Alliance.
Most bus operators transporting Gauteng’s pupils to public schools stayed away from work on Monday, protesting against the provincial education department’s non-payment of their claims. The bus operators are owed R14-million by the Gauteng education department, and education MEC Angie Motshekga has promised to partly pay it on Monday.
Gauteng’s school-bus transport saga is over, the provincial education department said on Friday. Education provincial minister Angie Motshekga said that misunderstandings about the payment of bus operators had been handled at an urgent meeting in the morning.
Gauteng residents have been promised more visible policing, more roadblocks and improved 10111 call centres as part of an intensive new crime-fighting strategy to be implemented over the next six months — although an analyst has pointed out that parts of the strategy look like "more of the same".
No school buses will be running when pupils return to their classes on Monday unless the Gauteng education department comes up with R14-million allegedly owed to operators. The department is not honouring its contractual agreement, South African Bus Operators’ Association executive manager Eric Cornelius said.
The Potsdam hotel room of South African Airways’ (SAA) chief executive Khaya Ngqula was cleaned out by robbers during the World Cup final between Italy and France, it was confirmed on Monday. It is understood Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa was also targeted, as were Zuzi Buthelezi, the son of Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and businessman Dr Dudu Kunene, but this could not be confirmed.
The case of a 28-year-old man accused of murdering a Taiwanese businessman and his family before burying them was postponed in the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court on Monday. Bao Xin Long, a Chinese national, is due to appear in court again on August 31.
When the world’s soccer fans descend on South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, most of them will disembark at OR Tambo International airport, as Johannesburg International airport will soon be known. Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan announced on June 30 that more than 50 place names will be changed, including that of the airport.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance has announced a reshuffle of four key posts in its shadow cabinet, including the shifting of fiery health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard to the safety and security portfolio. Kohler-Barnard takes over from Free State MP Roy Jankielsohn.
The embassy of Zimbabwe in South Africa on Friday criticised the media for what it believes are unsubstantiated allegations that former Zimbabwean soldiers are involved in crime. ”In an attempt to seek clarification on the veracity of these claims, the relevant authorities … have expressed shock … at these allegations, which have ho basis in fact,” ambassador Simon Moyo said.
The justice system is failing children because an important Bill that will protect the rights of children has virtually disappeared since 2003. This emerged on Wednesday at the Reducing Exploitative Child Labour in South Africa conference in Boksburg. ”The Child Justice Bill was the product of four years of work,” said Jacqui Gallinetti of the University of the Western Cape.
The Democratic Alliance is to invoke the Promotion of Access to Information Act in an attempt to force Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula to reveal how many police officers have been killed this year. Nqakula left for Burundi on Tuesday ”at a time when armed criminals are waging a war of their own against police … ”, DA spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said.
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The Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust is angered by what it calls sensationalising of the multimillion-rand defamation claims that the former deputy president is launching against several media groups, a statement said on Wednesday. ”We are tired of the blatant media bias against our friend, Jacob Zuma,” a statement read.
The recent spate of violent criminal attacks has raised South Africa’s security threat profile, the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) said on Tuesday. ”They are concerns that pervade both business and public sentiment, and reflect the low level of public confidence in the criminal justice system,” Sacob said in a media statement.
Speaking during the July update on the government’s programme of action for 2006, the second report back since the State of the Nation address, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said in Pretoria on Tuesday that all of the programmes of the economic and investment cluster were "well on track".
The government is developing an ambitious plan for every household in the country to use gas for its cooking and heating needs. The plan, which includes regulating the price of gas, foresees the development of special import facilities at the country’s harbours to ship in vast quantities of liquid petroleum gas from gas-rich countries such as Algeria.