Fines imposed on teachers who helped Mpumalanga matric pupils to cheat are ”absurdly” low and not a deterrent, the Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday. ”Instead, it will make it clear to all teachers that the consequences of helping children to cheat are negligible,” DA education spokesperson Helen Zille said.
Ten protesters were injured, two seriously, in Germiston and over 40 arrested in Pinetown in clashes between police and protesting municipal workers on Monday. Ekhurhuleni metro police spokesperson Vusi Mabanga said that protesters marching in central Germiston started breaking traffic lights and littering.
Two men and a boy were due to appear in Mpumalanga courts on Monday on charges of raping two girls in separate incidents over the weekend, police said. In the first incident, a 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 23-year-old man when she went to visit him with a friend on Saturday.
South Africa’s municipal debt jumped about R4-billion from R31,8-billion in 2002 to R35,9-billion in 2003, while figures for 2004 are not yet available, said Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi. The figures show that Durban/eThekwini — once a shining light of budgetary prudence — has grown its debt from R2,8-billion to R3,2-billion.
Simmer and Jack Mines, the preferred bidder for DRDGold’s North West operations, was making ”excellent progress” in its growth strategy, the company said on Monday. ”The company was making excellent progress in … its turn around and growth strategy,” chief executive Gordon Miller said in a statement.
While South African Airways faced what could be the most crippling strike in its history, the Sunday Times has reported that the airline’s chief executive Khaya Ngqula on Friday ”abandoned” his post to attend a ”junket” at a luxurious Mpumalanga hotel.
The names of Department of Home Affairs officials found to have been corrupt or to have committed serious acts of misconduct were released by the department on Monday. Sixty-six officials were dismissed between April last year and June this year for serious acts of misconduct, Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said.
Zanu not our ally I thought it was glib of some of my friends to describe the South African government as playing a ”sub-imperial” role in Africa. But with reports of a loan to Zim-babwe worth maybe $1-billion (phew, if it’s even half that!) I begin to wonder. The United States, as world imperial power, […]
The power Shaiks Now that the high court has pronounced on Schabir Shaik and President Thabo Mbeki has done the country proud in axing Jacob Zuma, one remains puzzled at the role the Shaik brothers appear to play in the contention for influence and power, without visibly being representative of anyone or anything except themselves. […]
There was much ululating as President Thabo Mbeki and former deputy president Jacob Zuma entered this week’s gathering of the African National Congress’s policy conference. One was the overall leader of the country as well as the party while the other had fallen from political grace after being ”released” as the country’s deputy president by Mbeki before a joint sitting of Parliament.
South Africans were on tenterhooks on Wednesday ahead of the announcement by President Thabo Mbeki of his new deputy. Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel and Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka have emerged as the frontrunners for the post.
The African National Congress (ANC) will have to ”look after” Jacob Zuma as long as he remains its deputy president, ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said on Sunday. Zuma lost his salary of about R800Â 000 and perks when President Thabo Mbeki sacked him as the country’s deputy president on Tuesday.
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The KwaZulu-Natal branch of the African National Congress plans to invite former deputy president Jacob Zuma to its Freedom Charter celebrations on June 26, a spokesperson for the party said on Saturday. Zuma was fired by Mbeki after the Durban High Court found that he had a ”generally corrupt” relationship with his financial advisor Schabir Shaik.
Former deputy president Jacob Zuma pleaded with the youth on Thursday not to divide the African National Congress (ANC) by criticising President Thabo Mbeki for sacking him. ”Phansi ngo Mbeki. Phambili ngo Zuma,” [Down with Mbeki. Up with Zuma] the crowd chanted earlier as Zuma took a lap of honour around Nelspruit’s packed Matsulu stadium.
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.
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor’s assurances to whistle-blowers are hollow if her department cannot take the minor administrative steps needed to protect them, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. A teacher from the Kamhola school in Barberton — one of the schools implicated in the cheating — was dismissed last week.
About 1 300 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) again downed tools at Samancor Chrome’s Mpumalanga and North West mines after negotiations deadlocked, a spokesperson said on Monday. NUM deputy secretary Archie Palane said workers are protesting the company’s refusal to upgrade certain positions.
Traffic was disrupted between Nelspruit and Riverside in Mpumalanga on Monday when thousands of taxi operators marched to the premier’s office to hand over a memorandum outlining grievances, news reports said on Monday. The operators want the government to abandon its planned taxi-recapitalisation programme.
A two-year-old boy was found by a neighbour locked inside his house with the bodies of his dead parents and siblings in Mhluzi, near Middelburg, on Friday afternoon, police said. A police spokesperson said the neighbour saw the child at a window after receiving no response when she knocked on the door.
The name change of Pretoria to Tshwane took another step forward on Thursday when the South African National Geographical Names Council unanimously approved the recommendation. Tommy Ntsewa, chairperson of the council, said in Bloemfontein the approval was granted after thorough deliberation.
The African National Congress tried to swat away the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s Oilgate revelations last week like some pesky insect. But like the persistent gadflies that we are, we won’t disappear that easily. Hiding behind a paper-thin set of excuses, the party has argued that there is nothing wrong with a private company making donations to a political party.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) says junior miner Simmer & Jack Mines is "ready" and has resources and skills to take over DRDGold’s mining operations in the North West province. An NUM spokesperson said labour is convinced that thousands of mineworkers left without jobs in the North West might soon be redeployed.
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?"
The search for the Mpumalanga pupil feared drowned in the sea at Richards Bay resumed early on Monday morning, KwaZulu-Natal police said. Seven other pupils drowned after the group decided to go for an early-morning swim at Richards Bay on Sunday. All were between 16 and 17 years old and in grades 10, 11 and 12.
Rescue workers called off their search for a schoolboy feared drowned in the sea off Richards Bay late on Sunday afternoon, hours after finding the bodies of seven of his classmates. The eight children were among a group of about 250 children from Ndlela Secondary School in Mpumalanga who attended a sports day at Mondini High School in Ntambanana.
The court case against vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath is a distraction from the real work of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), its national chairperson Zackie Achmat, said on Friday. Earlier, Rath’s lawyer argued Rath should have a chance to reply to ”vilifying statements” Achmat and the TAC made against him in their papers.
A lower growth in house prices in the first quarter of 2005 is an indication of a residential property market that is cooling off, according to Absa. Nevertheless, it says real growth in house prices is expected to be positive for 2005 for the sixth consecutive year, with a nominal house price growth of between 15% and 20% forecast for the year.
South Africa will pay dearly for global industrialisation and other activities that generate greenhouse gases, a new study revealed on Thursday. A report by the South African National Biodiversity Institute, released in Cape Town, warns that rising temperatures will change the face of the country by 2050.
As they embark on a process to broaden relations with the People’s Republic of China, South African politicians and officials would do well to consider the advice of China’s reformist leader, Deng Xiaoping: ”Seek truth from facts.” China’s attraction as an ideological and strategic counterweight to the dominance of the West has led to a desire to cosy up to the Asian dragon.
If you don’t clamp down on the farms feeding the "canning" industry you will lose the battle, warn critics of the government’s attempts to stamp out unethical hunting. In submissions on proposed new regulations to stop canned hunting, both pro- and anti-hunting organisations are unanimous that the 50-plus facilities breeding thousands of predators across the country are the chief culprits.
Petrol, already topping a record R5 a litre in Gauteng and set to increase again next month, is widely seen as the main inflationary risk in South Africa today. However, a revision in the formula by which the fuel is calculated, could result in a small reduction in the fuel price, an economist says.