Thousands of workers protested against unemployment and poverty around South Africa on Monday in a nationwide strike that business says was poorly attended and unnecessary. The SA Chamber of Business said that only 10% of workers took part in the strike, which cost the economy an estimated R500-million.
President Thabo Mbeki paid tribute on Sunday to the ”mighty legions of the freedom fighters” who sacrificed their lives to free South Africans from apartheid. Mbeki said it would take time to see the demands contained in the Freedom Charter become fully realised in the same way as it took a long time to achieve liberation.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions’ general strike on Monday could be politically damaging for the federation while offering workers no tangible benefits, say analysts. ”Cosatu might be left with egg on its face if the strike is not well supported, and it could lose further support,” said Dr Azar Jammine, chief economist at Econometrix.
Some three billion years ago, planetary explosions saw stars fall from the sky into the oceans that flanked Godwanaland, the great land mass of our infant planet. Deep below the waves, the carbon of shattered stars merged with the Earth’s mantle to form hard crystalline diamonds.
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism will — by the end of July — appoint a service provider to identify the top 50 air polluting industries or sectors in South Africa, said Minister Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Monday. "The web of life is more than just a poetic idea, it is a reality that defines our biggest social, economic and developmental challenges," he said.
The Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum in Soweto is busier than it has ever been, with people turning out to celebrate Youth Day, its chief curator said on Thursday. The museum preserves the memories of events surrounding the fateful march from the Morris Isaacson school in Orlando on June 16 1976.
The SABC will be allowed to broadcast regional television programmes on two stations in official languages other than English, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) announced on Wednesday. Icasa chairman Mandla Langa said SABC 4 would broadcast in Setswana, Sesotho, Sepedi and TshiVenda, Xitsonga and Afrikaans.
A group of gun owners and gun shop owners are demanding that police grant them firearm licences in a memorandum handed to the office of Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa on Tuesday. The statement read that black gun owners were ”sick and tired of the lies” from Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula.
Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats (ID) party announced on Monday that Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor Mervyn Cirota had resigned from the official opposition to join the ID. Cirota said the DA had created the perception that its policies were ”separate and contrary to the ideals of the majority of South Africans”.
The fight is not over in the Metrorail workers’ dispute, the United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu) said on Friday. ”We did not suspend the strike notice or sign an agreement,” said Chris de Vos, Utatu general secretary. ”We are still going to try to get the CCMA [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration] involved … and continue the battle,” he said.
The City of Johannesburg does not have a billing crisis, but a service crisis, its finance department said on Thursday. ”It is not really accurate to say we have a billing crisis, but rather to say we have a customer-service crisis,” said Roland Hunter, acting head of the city’s revenue shared services centre.
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Durban businessman Schabir Shaik said he would resign as director and chief executive officer of his Nkobi group of companies immediately after he was sentenced to 15 years in jail for fraud and corruption in the Durban High Court on Wednesday.
Lifestyle diseases are placing an increasing burden on the health system, Gauteng health minister Gwen Ramokgopa said on Monday. She was to tell the provincial legislature later on Monday that people needing treatment for strokes, diabetes and hypertension made more than a million hospital and clinic visits in the past financial year.
Members of a labour union taking part in strike action against Metrorail will march to the train operator’s head office in Johannesburg on Monday. Chris de Vos, the general secretary of the United Transport and Allied Trade Unions, said no Metrorail trains were running in Cape Town.
Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu said on Friday that 1,6-million houses have been built since 1994, but admitted the housing backlog is still enormous and her department can only do so much. She said poor communication with the public is the likely cause of protests about the pace of housing delivery.
It is possible that Pretoria will not be renamed Tshwane, Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan said in Cape Town on Thursday. He said he was still awaiting a recommendation in favour of the re-naming from the South African Geographical Names Council.
The curtain has fallen on the Premier Soccer League (PSL), but for the four teams in the promotion-Ârelegation play-offs, the season has just intensified. Manning Rangers, who averted automatic relegation from the premiership, this weekend enter the first round of their quest to retain a place in the top flight against aspirants from the Mvela Golden League teams (Hellenic, Classic and Durban Stars).
The trade union Solidarity will meet Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan in Cape Town on Thursday afternoon in a last effort to prevent the change of Pretoria’s name to Tshwane. The South African Geographical Names Council has recommended that Jordan approve the registration of the name Tshwane.
The medical community was relieved on Tuesday as the influenza vaccine was back in pharmacies, following a two-month delay in its release. The medical community has ”heaved a sigh of relief” with the release, said the medical director of SAA-Netcare travel clinics, Dr Andrew Jamieson.
South Africa’s retail petrol price for all grades will drop by only 16 cents a litre (c/l) from June 1, as an extra 6c/l levy for the reduction of the slate with oil companies was added, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. This reduces the price of a litre of petrol to R5,06 from a record R5,22 in Gauteng.
Cigarette breaks at the office could be a thing of the past with the introduction of a new smokeless tobacco product — a discreet, miniature ”tea bag”. An alternative to cigarettes, Snus is a small bag placed under the user’s upper lip, said British American Tobacco South Africa MD David Crow.
Hundreds of disabled, destitute and elderly people, children and volunteer welfare workers marched through the streets of Pretoria on Wednesday to press for increased government subsidies. Chanting ”Welfare is bleeding, the nation is dying”, the protesters made their way along a few blocks to Strijdom Square in the city centre.
The spiralling use of the drug ”tik” in South Africa, especially among the youth, came under the spotlight in Parliament on Tuesday, with Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour vowing to ”break the back” of those peddling the deadly substance. He also spoke about the issues of prison gangs and overcrowding.
Unbearable smells and huge rats raiding their houses will soon be history for a community living near an illegal waste site in Alexandra, which was closed down on Tuesday. Gauteng environment minister Khabisi Mosunkutu visited the site to issue a final warning to SA Waste company management for operating an illegal waste site.
The price of petrol will drop to below R5 a litre from Wednesday next week, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Tuesday. The department said the price of petrol of all grades will decrease by 24c a litre. That means motorists in Gauteng using 93 octane petrol will pay R4,98 per litre, effective from June 1.
It was a simple question to a senior Cabinet member and head of the South African observer mission to the Zimbabwean election: "Why are you ignoring the custom of addressing whether elections were free and fair by only pronouncing on the freeness and being silent on the fairness of the election?"
It was good cheer, rugby and music in Pretoria’s Church Square on Saturday after a group of about 500 protesters submitted petitions to the Department of Arts and Culture against renaming the city Tshwane. A handful of black participants took part in the march, which was attended by the young, old and disabled.
The last surviving member of the Stander gang of bank robbers, who was released from Krugersdorp prison on Wednesday, has asked not to speak to the media, the Department of Correctional Services said. ”The general rule is that offenders who are released on parole are not allowed to speak to the media,” a departmental spokesperson said.
The low-income national banking account Mzansi exceeded one million accounts by May 15, Colin Donian, the Banking Council director responsible for the Mzansi initiative, said on Wednesday. Launched less than seven months ago, the Mzansi account provides account-holders with entry-level banking services.
Allan Heyl, the last surviving member of the Stander gang — a gang that grabbed headlines and was the subject of a Hollywood movie for committing a string of robberies in and around Johannesburg in the 1980s — was released from Krugersdorp Prison on Wednesday. He is to spend the remaining 10 years of his sentence on parole.
A body of African municipal structures was launched in Pretoria on Monday with calls for a renewed focus at the lowest level of government on improving the lives of indigent Africans. African Union chairperson Olusegun Obasanjo said he hopes the congress marks the beginning of strong local governance structures.
An initiative that will see 20 old townships in Gauteng upgraded was launched by the provincial housing department on Sunday. Acting provincial housing minister Dorothy Mahlangu said specific attention will be given to so-called backyard dwellers. Ten townships are targeted for the current financial year.