The nine provinces spent on average 98% or R214,8-billion of their adjusted budgets of R219,2-billion in 2005/06, the National Treasury said on Tuesday. This was a significant spending increase year-on-year of 13,5% or R25,5-billion over the audited R189,2-billion spent in 2004/05.
A new lane will be added to the N1 freeway between the Allendale and Buccleuch interchanges to alleviate congestion, the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) said recently. ”As of October 2 there will be a full additional lane between the two interchanges open to all road users in congested periods,” said Sanral project manager Alex van Niekerk.
United States rapper, producer and actor Snoop Dogg will not perform at Thursday’s People’s Celebration concert in Johannesburg after being detained in London following an incident at Heathrow International airport on Wednesday night, radio station 5fm reported.
The retail price of all grades of petrol will be increased by 39 cents per litre (c/l) on Wednesday May 3, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Wednesday. The latest changes bring the retail price of a litre of 95-octane unleaded petrol in Gauteng to R6,12 a litre and to R5,88 a litre at the coast.
The union representing striking security guards and their employers need to resolve their wage dispute without the Minister of Labour’s intervention, he said on Tuesday. Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said that both parties — and not himself — held the key to an amicable solution, he said in a statement sent from Cairo, where he was attending a labour summit.
Security officers were due to meet Gauteng safety provincial minister Firoz Cachalia on Monday in an attempt to find a solution to their wage dispute with employers. South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) spokesperson Ronnie Mamba said Cachalia agreed to meet the guards who were holding a vigil outside his office in Fox street, Johannesburg.
The family of former Zimbabwean opposition MP Roy Bennett has confirmed that he has applied for asylum in South Africa, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Friday. The Witness earlier reported that Bennett had claimed his life was in danger from state security forces.
Protesting security guards have threatened to disrupt next week’s Freedom Day celebrations at Pretoria’s Union Buildings if their 11% wage demand is not met. ”We are saying there can be no Freedom Day celebrations while there are people who are oppressed,” said Jackson Simon, security coordinator at the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu).
Police opened fire with rubber bullets on protesters against municipal boundary changes who had broken away from a dispersing crowd at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Friday. Earlier, about five or six small groups, from a few hundred protesters, set patches of the Union Buildings’ lawns alight.
It was a night of emphatic victories on day three of the Telkom South African National Swimming Championships in Durban on Thursday. Jean Basson came within just one-100th of a second of his best time as he cruised to victory in the 200m freestyle. The 18-year-old had little trouble from his rivals throughout the race.
Soweto’s Diepkloof hostel is to be demolished, the Gauteng provincial government confirmed in a statement on Thursday. This follows the announcement by Gauteng minister of housing Nomvula Mokonyane last week that the hostel would be torn down and that 1 086 family units would be built in its place.
South Africa has seen a ”phenomenal increase” in the number of asylum seekers in the past few years, the Department of Home Affairs said on Thursday. Although there are only 29 000 people with refugee status living in the country, there are 103 410 outstanding asylum applications.
Criminal charges have been laid against five Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital employees as the Gauteng department of health moves to clamp down on irregular practices in hospitals, the department said in a statement on Thursday. ”The employees have also been suspended with immediate effect,” the statement said.
Ryk Neethling made a token appearance on the opening day of the Telkom South African National Swimming Championships in Durban on Tuesday, but explained afterwards that he will now be taking a break from all competition and training for the next month-and-a-half.
First National Bank (FNB) on Wednesday announced a joint commercial-property and housing-finance deal that will see the provision of over 3 000 houses in Protea Glen, Soweto, over the next two years. The suburb of Protea Glen to be developed will be called Glen Ridge. The first batch of houses is expected to be available for occupation in September or October this year.
Five people were arrested on Monday in connection with the murders of Crazy Monkey — Straight Outta Benoni actor Brett Goldin and a friend Richard Bloom. Their bodies were found in a field next to the off-ramp from the M5 freeway to Klipfontein road in Mowbray, Cape Town, early on Monday, Superintendent Billy Jones said.
The South African government needs to wake up to the reality and brutality of crime, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. The opposition party’s call came after Afrikaans newspaper Rapport, reported that 52 people are killed daily, 1Â 566 per month and 18Â 793 annually in South Africa.
"The educational system in this country should be Africanised," proclaimed Dr Mathole Motshekga this week at a seminar on cultural values within the human rights framework. "Our judgement is biased to the West and does not do justice to African culture and religion that is based on spirituality." Motshekga told an audience of commissioners and human rights workers.
”The only South African representation at the Soccer World Cup will be the street-football team in the [Streetfootball] World Cup,” said Klemens Hubert, South African director of the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ). An invitation to participate in the first-ever Streetfootball World Cup was extended to the Gauteng North Sport Council (GNSC) last month, in collaboration with GTZ.
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A church pastor told the Johannesburg High Court on Monday how he was expelled from college after a false rape accusation by Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser. Pastor Sithembile Masoka told the court that he and the woman, who alleges Zuma raped her on November 2 last year, studied together in Vereeniging in 1995.
Life insurers saved R347-million in 2005 by preventing dishonest policy holders and financial advisers, as well as crime syndicates, from making fraudulent claims. This was an increase of nearly 40% on the previous year, Gerhard Joubert, chief executive of the Life Offices’ Association said on Thursday.
A man was seriously injured when he was assaulted by a group of striking security guards in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The strikers had accused him of going to work while they were on strike. Striking guards handed over a memorandum to employers and insurers and marched to Johannesburg’s Park station.
Two guards were injured and another was abducted in Johannesburg on Tuesday amid tension between striking and non-striking security guard unions. This took place shortly after a non-striking union had warned that its members would fight back if they faced intimidation for ending their participation in the security guard strike that started last month.
Athens Paralympics gold medallist Oscar Pistorius and Commonwealth Games stars Hilton Langenhoven and David Roos were among a host of disabled sport stars banking on success as the 2006 Nedbank South African Sport Association for the Physically Disabled Games opened in Bloemfontein on Monday.
South African-listed food and pharmaceuticals group Tiger Brands has entered into an agreement to acquire Bromor Foods from Cadbury Schweppes for R1,16-billion, it said on Tuesday. Bromor is a non-carbonated soft-drink company and has a turnover of around R850-million per year.
Some cases in Port Elizabeth’s Magistrate’s Court have been delayed by up to 10 years and others are being withdrawn because of absent magistrates, media reports said on Monday. In the latest blow, 10 cases in which children were either raped or indecently assaulted were struck off the roll this week.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) on Monday called for a pay agreement that ended a security-guard strike by 14 other unions to be undone. Satawu distanced itself from the settlement reached on Sunday, saying it would continue its strike from Monday morning.
The fire in which 12 people died in Johannesburg’s CBD last week has highlighted the dangers faced daily by residents of the city’s numerous condemned buildings, who live without electricity or sanitation and are forced to cook on primus stoves and open fires.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) is not part of a wage deal reached in the security industry and will continue with intended strike action, a spokesperson said on Sunday. ”We did not sign the deal, we are not happy with it and we will continue to strike,” Randall Howard said.
Employers in the private security industry reached a three-year wage agreement on Saturday night with 14 unions from the sector, parties said in a joint statement. Negotiations began last year and resulted in a two-day strike in March. According to the agreement, there will be a 26% increase in benefits over a three-year period.
The retail price of petrol will go up between 21 cents a litre (c/l) and 24c/l on Wednesday, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. The latest changes bring the retail price of a litre of 95-octane unleaded petrol in Gauteng to R5,73 a litre and to R5,50 a litre at the coast.
The Cape Town Book Fair provides the ideal platform for getting South Africa’s new writing and publishing out there, but it is being launched with performance, not hype, in mind. Karen Rutter reports.