Tournament co-favourites Southern Gauteng and Western Province both had emphatic wins on the second day of the Spar Women’s Interprovincial Hockey championship being played at the Randburg Astroturf in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Five labour leaders were found not guilty of public violence by the Pongola Regional Court on Tuesday after they were arrested at a demonstration at the Swaziland border in April, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said.
Three Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) members who went to the Durban Westville prison on Tuesday to screen prisoners’ CD4 counts were threatened with guns and dogs by warders, they said. ”They are removing us forcefully, pointing [at] us with guns and they don’t want to let us through,” the TAC’s treatment project coordinator for KwaZulu-Natal, Cindy Blose, said.
Barack Obama, the only black United States Senator, criticised South African leaders on Monday for their slow response to HIV/Aids, saying they were wrong to contrast ”African science and Western science”. Aids activists say Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is creating confusion by pushing traditional medicines and a recipe of garlic, beetroot, lemon and African potatoes to combat HIV/Aids.
The National Democratic Convention’s (Nadeco) national executive committee has come out in support of a Pietermaritzburg High Court ruling last week that the party’s members should choose their leaders. The court ordered two camps within Nadeco to hold an inaugural federal congress to choose the party’s office bearers.
Tata Steel KwaZulu-Natal on Monday celebrated the start of construction of its R670-million ferrochrome plant at Richards Bay with a groundbreaking ceremony in the Industrial Development Zone, at Alton North area, in the largest port city in KwaZulu-Natal. A plaque was unveiled by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
South Africa’s Lyndon Ferns cruised through the heats of the 100m butterfly at the Pan Pacific Championships in Victoria, Canada, on Saturday morning. South Africa’s 800m silver medallist at these championships, Troyden Prinsloo, meanwhile, qualified for the 400m freestyle final.
Minorities of whatever race, creed or culture are best protected when the rights and values of all citizens are defended and actively fought for, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon said on Saturday. Leon was speaking at the DA’s provincial congress in KwaZulu-Natal.
Parliament on Saturday said it has taken note of Constitutional Court rulings this week relating to the Abortion Amendment Act and the cross-boundary municipalities law, among others. ”The two judgements are of critical importance to the legislative procedures of Parliament,” Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete said.
The Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday ordered two camps within the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco) party to hold an inaugural federal congress to choose the party’s office bearers. Legal representatives of the Assan Mbatha and Ziba Jiyane camps said they hoped the congress will resolve disputes between the camps.
South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki cannot demand a new positive image of Africa while continuing to condone the flagrant abuse of office and squandering of public money that typifies so much of the continent, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.
Despite the difficulties they faced, women’s struggles during apartheid resulted in South Africa today having one of the most progressive constitutional-legislative frameworks for women’s rights in the world. It is not, however, a time for complacency — there exist devastating compromises and crucial omissions, writes Pregs Govender.
A decision to seize white-owned land if negotiations linger or end in deadlock is paying off with more and more farmers accepting the price offered by the state, a top land official said on Wednesday. ”These farmers have become more supportive because we are cracking the whip,” chief land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya said in an interview.
Roofs of houses and businesses were in danger of collapsing under the weight of snow in Barkly East and Elliot in the Eastern Cape, Arrive Alive said on Wednesday. Disaster teams and traffic authorities were using graders to clear snow off the road. ”But it is very, very cold and the snow is very thick,” said an Arrive Alive spokesperson.
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The South African Congress of Trade Unions (Cosatu) has admitted it cannot ”produce conclusive proof of a conspiracy” within the National Prosecuting Authority against former deputy president Jacob Zuma. On Tuesday Cosatu’s national spokesperson Patrick Craven said: ”The kind of proof that would have names dates, places [of meetings] … that’s what we can’t produce. But the evidence is all there.”
The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) KwaZulu-Natal leader, Roger Burrows, will step down when the party holds its provincial congress on Saturday. ”I decided to step down to let a new party leader take over as we head towards 2009,” said Burrows on Monday night.
A KwaZulu-Natal man was jailed for 18 years for killing a three-year-old girl and eating parts of her body, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Monday. Eric Delani Chala (29) was sentenced by the high court sitting at Ramsgate on the South Coast.
Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan welcomed a new board — nine women and 15 men — to the National Arts Council (NAC) at a ceremony in Newtown in Johannesburg on Monday. ”We see the appointment of the new board as a significant development in creating a stronger NAC that will make it easier for our artists to pursue their chosen professions,” said the minister.
Battle for control of South Africa’s newest political party, the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco), is set to enter the public arena this week when its leader, Dr Ziba Jiyane, opposes a court action to set aside the appointment of the party’s federal executive. Last Thursday Vincent Ngema filed papers in the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
Celebrated African poet Professor Mazizi Kunene has died, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Saturday. Kunene died in Durban after a long illness. He was 76. In 2005 Kunene was awarded the inaugural South African National Poet Laureate Prize.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Friday called on its members to boycott all Shoprite Checkers stores. ”Cosatu is calling on its members not to buy from Shoprite until the strike is resolved,” Cosatu’s regional chairperson Sdumo Dlamini told a 2Â 000-strong crowd of protesters in Durban.
Nearly 1Â 000 striking Shoprite workers marched down Durban’s West Street on Friday morning amid a heavy police presence. The workers were due to hand over a memorandum to the KwaZulu-Natal regional managing director of Shoprite at its flagship store in West Street. The Shoprite store in West Street was closed for business.
National Treasury figures showing that KwaZulu-Natal’s education department had only spent 1% of its capital budget did not take into account work done by the public works department, the province’s education chief said on Thursday. He said the department had spent R75-million of its annual infrastructure budget of R807,2-million.
National Democratic Convention (Nadeco) leader Ziba Jiyane has disputed his ”suspension” on Tuesday by the national executive committee (NEC) of his party. He said the members of the NEC seeking to depose him would be expelled. The NEC is ”an old structure” that is not mentioned in the party’s constitution, Jiyane said.
Ziba Jiyane, leader of the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco), has been suspended by the management committee of his political party. On Tuesday, Nadeco national chairperson Mandla Magubane said: ”They [Jiyane and Nadeco secretary general Jabulani Maphalala] have brought the party in disrepute.”
Nedbank on Tuesday became the first bank to offer bank accounts to thousands of informal traders operating in the Durban city centre in Ethekwini, KwaZulu-Natal. This project is being coordinated together with the Informal Sector Empowerment Cooperative, an organisation that manages over 10 000 traders who operate in the informal retail sector.
Civil servants who fraudulently claimed social grants include police officers, National Prosecuting Authority employees and a staffer in the president’s office. The list of 1 792 civil servants who are required to pay back fraudulently obtained grants was released by the Department of Social Development.
The National Democratic Convention (Nadeco) on Monday suspended two national MPs and a KwaZulu-Natal MPL from the party. ”We are currently investigating the conduct of certain members of Nadeco, and will, if necessary, institute disciplinary action soon,” Nadeco president Ziba Jiyane said in a statement.
As a non-South African, I will make no attempt to claim to understand fully how much Rhodes’s legacy negatively affected Southern Africans. It would be foolish, even heartless, if anyone ever condoned Rhodes’s racist, imperialistic actions. But is it fair or just to reduce Rhodes to the total sum of wrong things he did in his time? Surely there is more to Rhodes than what is highlighted in Adebajo’s article.
Water has been successfully pumped out of the bulk carrier that started taking on water in heavy seas off KwaZulu-Natal and the vessel is no longer listing, officials said late on Saturday night. A spokesperson for the Maritime Rescue Coordinating Centre in Cape Town said the ship was due in Durban at about 11am on Sunday.
The Sharks beat the Falcons 46-17 in the Currie Cup rugby series on Friday night in Brakpan after leading 17-3 by half-time. The men from KwaZulu-Natal got their campaign back on track after two losses with a perfect tally of five points. They outscored the Falcons by seven tries to two.
This week South Africa experienced weather extremes starting with a berg wind and a tornado, and ending with snow and floods. A report by South African Weather Service meteorologists Luis Fernandes and Lee-Ann Clark — from the National Forecast Centre in Pretoria — detailed the week’s strange weather.