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/ 1 September 2005
Cape High Court judges worked overtime on Wednesday to deal with a barrage of legal action ahead of the midnight opening of the political floor-crossing window. The United Democratic Movement on Wednesday expelled six MPs and MPLs from the party, and the Independent Democrats gave the boot to its deputy leader and Gauteng MPL Themba Sono.
High-level expulsions rocked the United Democratic Movement on Wednesday, just hours before the doors were to open for South African politicians to switch parties. The floor-crossing window is open from September 1 to 15, and South African politicians spoke to the Mail & Guardian Online about its pros and cons.
The United Democratic Movement has expelled six of its senior members, including deputy leader Malizole Diko, with immediate effect. On Tuesday, Cape High Court Judge Basheer Waglay reversed the suspensions of the six, saying the party had not followed its own constitution in suspending them.
Floor-crossing battles kept two Cape High Court judges busy for the better part of the day on Monday. At stake in two cases involving the United Democratic Movement and the Independent Democrats are two seats in the National Assembly, one in the National Council of Provinces and five in various provincial legislatures.
The Dutch Reformed Church is unlikely to find a mutually agreeable solution to the ideological divide over membership for practising gays, experts said this week. But while some expect the church to split on the issue, others predict a mere glossing-over to the detriment of gay congregants.
The Gauteng department of public transport, roads and works announced on Monday that it will be increasing the pace of conversion of minibus taxi permits to operating licences. In the next few months, it plans to convert 40 000 permits to operating licences in the province.
Climate change is a ”very powerful and threatening reality”, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said in Port Elizabeth on Monday. ”It could have a direct cost to our economy,” he told the congress of the Institute of Environment and Recreation Management.
The United Democratic Movement hatched a deplorable scheme to oust six of its public representatives before the floor-crossing window opens, the Cape High Court heard on Monday. Advocate Jan Heunis was arguing on behalf of the six, who include UDM deputy president Malizole Diko.
Despite international oil prices having surged to fresh record highs on Monday, the situation is not yet a cause for panic, according to Absa industry analyst John Loos. He said petrol prices in Gauteng could reach R6 per litre by October, thus pushing CPIX inflation higher to around 5% in October.
The Cape High Court was set to be busy on Monday dealing with a wave of legal action ahead of the floor-crossing window that opens on Thursday. The court will hear argument on a bid by United Democratic Movement deputy president Malizole Diko and five other party officials to have their suspension from the party reversed.
A 50-year-old tree tumbled across a road in Newlands, Cape Town, on Friday as gale-force winds, driving rain and bitter cold hit the city in the early hours of the morning. The Elsieskraal River flowing through Pinelands had apparently burst its banks, but there was no major flooding reported so far, said senior traffic officer Lyndon Herbert.
About R1,2-billion of public hospital fees are still outstanding from the 2004/05 financial year, the Democratic Alliance said on Thursday. ”An astonishing 68% of fees billed for the 2004/05 financial year were not paid,” said DA health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard. The DA found that only R560-million (32%) was paid.
Suspended United Democratic Movement deputy president Malizole Diko plans to form a new party, according to affidavits filed this week in the Cape High Court. The documents are part of the UDM’s bundle of papers in reply to a bid by Diko and five other party officials for an interdict lifting their suspension from the party.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says it remains committed to pursue its rolling mass action in support of the jobs and poverty campaign, which runs until February next year and includes periodic national stayaways as well as sectoral action.
Condemning the Scorpions’ raid on the office of the attorney of former deputy president Jacob Zuma, the General Council of the Bar of South Africa on Friday called on them to return everything they had seized as soon as possible. The raid appeared to violate the principle of attorney-client privilege, the GCB charged.
The Tshwane Metro Council has been ordered to issue and pay for advertisements admitting that its marketing campaign referring to Tshwane as ”capital” was misleading. This was the effect of a judgement by the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa after a hearing on the matter by its Advertising Standards Committee.
South Africa is often considered to be in the unfortunate position of having some of the world’s best laws and poli-cies to protect women and children but an inability to implement them. Take the roll-out of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for rape survivors to prevent HIV infection, a lot of dissatisfaction with the programme has been widespread.
Old Mutual Healthcare’s deal with Kwacha announced recently is about improving their equity standings before they bid on the government’s civil service medical aid scheme, say analysts. The spokesperson for the Medical Schemes Council, described the deal as ”part of the mad scrambling to get BEE administration companies in place” to tender for the government medical aid scheme.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>There were no sinister motives behind the Scorpions’ swoop on the Johannesburg home of former deputy president Jacob Zuma, that of his financial adviser Schabir Shaik and other residences and offices on Thursday, said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), also denying the raids were conducted in response to Congress of South African Trade Unions statements on Zuma.
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille says the Democratic Alliance is a small white boys’ club.
One in every five ambulances will in future be dedicated for people in life threatening emergencies, the Gauteng health department said on Tuesday. This decision was taken on Monday at a meeting of health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa and councillors responsible for health in the province, said spokesperson Simon Zwane.
Old Mutual Healthcare and Kwacha, the holding company of 100% black-owned Sizwe Medical Services, have announced the proposed merger of their businesses that will result in the health-care subsidiary of Old Mutual being 36% black-owned, after taking into account its black economic empowerment (BEE) deal announced in April this year.
School transport will be back to normal on Monday for thousands of Gauteng pupils following an end to a two-week dispute between the education department and bus operators. Education spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi on Friday said pupils will have ”normal transportation” from Monday.
The risk of ever-higher fuel prices should be negated by the South African National Treasury, as one of the functions of the Treasury is to provide macro-economic stability, but currently the volatile and rising international oil price is creating instability.
Lawyers for six suspended United Democratic Movement (UDM) politicians will argue their case in the Cape High Court on August 29 — only three days before the opening of the September floor-crossing window. The six were suspended on August 5, apparently after rumours that they intended to defect to another party.
Johannesburg braced itself on Thursday for the next in a series of South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) pay protests which have so far been characterised by clashes with the police. Metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar warned they would not tolerate unruly behaviour.
Action aplenty, goals in abundance and controversial incidents were the features of the 2-2 Premier League draw between Supersport United and Santos at the Loftus stadium in Pretoria on Wednesday night. It was ultimately a result that will provide new Santos coach Roger de Sa with a great deal more satisfaction than it will to a disappointed Supersport and their handful of supporters.
The godfather of canned hunting in South Africa was a Portuguese man who owned a game farm in northern KwaZulu-Natal in the 1970s. He had a nice little scam going with Gauteng zoos, which sold him "surplus" wild animals. He took them in the back of his car to a piece of open veld in the Magaliesberg for "hunters" to shoot.
Sasol’s future transformation and black economic empowerment (BEE) plans received approval from the minister of minerals and energy in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Company CEO Pat Davies met Minister Lindiwe Hendriks to discuss the company’s future role in BEE initiatives.
Wearing grey gloves, Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu spent time on Monday morning laying bricks for 15 houses as part of Women’s Build 2005. ”I’m happy and proud of the beneficiaries and the women volunteers who have given up time to come and help build these houses,” Sisulu said at the official opening of the project in Soweto.
A nine-year-old boy was trampled to death in a rush for food during a lunch break at his school on the East Rand, the Gauteng education department said on Friday. Mabulelo Magqwana was trampled by fellow pupils in a rush for the food vendors at the Phumula Gardens Primary School in Vosloorus on Thursday.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) season, which gets into full swing this weekend, will be a gruelling one — particularly in the run-up to Christmas. Each of the 16 top division clubs must complete 20 league games and two domestic knockout cup competitions by December 22.