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Some cases in Port Elizabeth’s Magistrate’s Court have been delayed by up to 10 years and others are being withdrawn because of absent magistrates, media reports said on Monday.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.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is contemplating strike action against the Gautrain project, the provincial branch of the union federation said on Thursday. Gauteng provincial secretary Siphiwe Mgcina told reporters that the project failed to tackle the most significant transport problems in the province.
A workshop that went up in flames in Johannesburg on Wednesday, killing 12 people, was not suitable for accommodation and would have been earmarked for closure, a municipal official said. If the building had been inspected, it would have been earmarked for closure, the official said.
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If the rape allegation against Jacob Zuma was part of a political conspiracy against him, it was poorly planned, the state prosecutor told the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday. ”If there was a political conspiracy, it wasn’t the most well-planned conspiracy,” said Herman Broodryk.
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The Public Protector, the Gender Commission and the South African Human Rights Commission have expressed concern over the conduct of Jacob Zuma supporters and media coverage of his rape trial. The three bodies — all set up under chapter nine of the Constitution and referring to themselves as the C9s — said they met on Friday to discuss events around the trial.
The government plans to improve staff and management of tuberculosis (TB) services and to improve access to laboratory services where it is poor. This forms part of the TB crisis plan launched by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Friday, World Tuberculosis Day, at Durban’s King George V hospital.
Sexual relations between the president and women Cabinet ministers, opposition leader Tony Leon being for the ”white man struggle”, and racist talks between Scorpions investigators are all part of the National Intelligence Agency’s hoax e-mail saga. On Thursday, the inspector general of intelligence declared the e-mails to be false.
Phil Naledi has changed the lives of residents along a leafy street in the north-eastern Johannesburg suburb of Sydenham. He earns R900 a month for guarding the houses in the relatively affluent suburb, working 12-hour shifts. ”No one can make a life if they spend so much time working for this little money,” he explains.
Police were keeping an eye on striking private security guards in the Johannesburg city centre on Friday. About 100 guards had gathered at Beyers Naude Square by 9am, police said. In other centres, striking security workers were also expected to march in support of their demands for better wages and working conditions.
Protesting security guards in Pretoria began to disperse on Thursday afternoon after their strike turned violent earlier, with a security vehicle set alight and rubbish strewn in the inner city. At one stage police fired rubber bullets at the protesting guards in an effort to calm the situation.
Police fired rubber bullets at protesting guards after they apparently set alight a security van in Pretoria on Thursday afternoon. Guards made their way to Church Square, trashing rubbish bins and causing havoc in the city centre. Shops were also set alight. The violence came on the first day of a security-guard strike in seven provinces.
Security-guard employers were reporting little absenteeism in Johannesburg and the East and West Rand on Thursday, the first day of a two-day security-industry strike in six provinces. In the Cape and Pretoria, however, some companies experienced 80% absenteeism, and cases of intimidation were reported.
An estimated 90 000 security guards from 13 unions will strike for two days from Thursday, South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) security industry coordinator Jackson Simon said on Thursday. The figure is down from the 150 000 mooted on Wednesday.
Thirteen security guard unions will embark on a two-day strike in six provinces on Thursday and Friday, in support of higher wages and better working conditions — including the right to lunch breaks and using a toilet without being charged for deserting a position of duty.
Suffering and sacrifices made during apartheid were not in vain, Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa said at a Human Rights Day rally in Sharpeville, Vereeniging, on Tuesday. The 1960 Sharpeville massacre was a ”watershed moment” that helped bring democracy to South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki said in Rome on Tuesday.
Listed short-term insurer Santam has launched South Africa’s first affordable household insurance product aimed at the lower-income sector, the company announced on Monday. The new product, called Santam MultiHome, is initially being launched to homeowners in Soweto.
Metallica fans can expect a broad range of the band’s music — spanning more than 20 years of its career — at Saturday’s Coca-Cola Colab Music Festival at Supersport Park in Centurion. ”It’s just us doing our thing,” said drummer Lars Ulrich in Johannesburg on Friday. ”We always play stuff from all our different records. We’re playing our full headlining show … covering all different sides of Metallica,” he said.
The Pretoria High Court has reserved judgement in an application by a Gauteng chef to change intestate legislation that prevents him from inheriting his gay partner’s estate. Henley-on-Klip chef Mark Gory sought an order declaring unconstitutional a Section of the Intestate Succession Act of 1987.
Her next stop could be the Union Buildings, incoming Tshwane Metropolitan City Mayor Gwen Ramokgopa said on Friday. Speaking to the National Press Club in Pretoria only hours before she was due to be elected new mayor of the capital city, Ramokgopa joked that she was ”very close to the Union Buildings”.
Although South Africa currently has one of the fastest growing new vehicle markets in the world, the local motor industry still has a number of significant challenges to address, according to McCarthy CEO Brand Pretorius. Pretorius was speaking at the opening of the Durban Motor Show on Friday.
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The rape trial of former deputy president Jacob Zuma enters its ninth day in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday. After more than a week of sensational and at times graphic medical testimony, proceedings on Wednesday focused on the technicalities of the investigation.
Global positioning systems units in South Africa are retailing for twice as much as they sell for in the United States, bringing into question the markup on the latest technologies that are imported into South Africa. A Garmin E-trex Yellow GPS unit retails in the US for about $100 (R617).
Khutsong residents are not accepting their fate regarding the government’s decision to incorporate their municipality into the North West province. Instead they plan to challenge the government in the Constitutional Court on March 30. Khutsong is preparing to battle it out in the courts to remain part of Gauteng.