Former housing minister Sankie Mthemba-Mahanyele is to ask the Constitutional Court for special leave to appeal a court ruling that she may not sue the Mail & Guardian for publishing a defamatory story about her. In a statement on Wednesday, Mthemba-Mahanyele welcomed a decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal that politicians did have standing to sue for defamation.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled on Monday that a news story published by the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> newspaper about former housing minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele was defamatory, but not actionable. The SCA in Bloemfontein dismissed an appeal by Mthembi-Mahanyele against a decision of the Johannesburg High Court in the newspaper’s favour.
The assets of Gauteng deputy director of public prosecutions Cornwell Tshavhungwa were attached by his own colleagues at the Assets Forfeiture Unit on Thursday. Tshavhungwa is currently in custody following his arrest on June 7 on fraud and corruption charges involving an amount of R1-million.
Although the economic powerhouse of Gauteng has only 1,4% of South Africa’s land area of 1,219-million square kilometres, it has 24% of the population aged between 25 and 59 years, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday. It also announced that the life expectancy at birth in South Africa is forecast to be only 50,7 years next year.
The Mpumalanga Parks Board has won a court judgement against the owners of a wildlife sanctuary who imported eight lions into the province illegally. The conservation authority removed the lions from Enkosini Wildlife Sanctuary in January 2003 after it was discovered they had been imported without a permit.
Nine municipal by-elections will take place in South Africa this Wednesday, but the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has already won another five wards uncontested. Trends indicate that the ANC could win all but two of the contested by-elections.
Give recognition where it’s due: Mike van Graan thinks it’s time to pay tribute to the public representative that demonstrates the most support for arts and culture.
A team from the national Department of Social Development is visiting the Western Cape to outline the processes of the establishment of the South African Social Security Agency, the government news agency said on Monday. The agency will ultimately take over from provinces the payment of social welfare grants.
In November 2003 the Cabinet approved a national plan for HIV/ Aids prevention, care and treatment. The plan estimated that 53 000 people would be placed on anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment by the end of March this year. Eight months on, fewer than 10 000 people with HIV/Aids are receiving anti-retrovirals through the public health system.
Second-hand book dealers, old-age homes and a whole assortment of so-called ”secondary merchants” are all eagerly awaiting the forthcoming Government Publications Warehouse Sales. As each fulfilling decade of the South African rainbow democracy comes to an end, government storage houses will be kicking off the next 10 years with a major clean-out. I managed to get a look at some.
The Scorpions have refuted a Sunday newspaper report claiming the elite investigating unit was probing three government ministers and a provincial premier for fraud. The report said the Scorpions were probing the four for fraud and corruption relating to travel vouchers.
Warders at the medium-security prison and the C-Max prison in Kokstad, KwaZulu-Natal, as well as warders at St Alban’s prison outside Port Elizabeth, have embarked on a strike, SABC Radio News reported on Saturday. The warders were reportedly demonstrating outside the prisons.
The South African Police Service will launch a crime prevention programme in the 63 areas of South Africa identified as experiencing the most contact crimes, Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said on Tuesday. Nqakula also touched on the Firearms Control Act that comes into effect on Thursday.
<i>Iphepha elisematheni lesiZulu, Isolezwe, seliyatholakala kwi-Internet</i>. Yes, <i>Isolezwe (Eye of the Nation)</i>, the KwaZulu-Natal-based, Zulu-language daily newspaper, is now available on the web. This makes the site the first Zulu news website. This is a bold step for the cheeky, two-year-old, ground-breaking newspaper, founded by well-known journalist Cyril Madlala.
Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka was misinformed if she believed nuclear power had a future as an energy source, Earthlife Africa said on Wednesday. ”Nuclear energy is not an option for South Africa,” said Sibusiso Mimi, a campaigner for the organisation in Cape Town.
SA ‘cannot avoid nuclear energy’
The Gauteng deputy director of public prosecutions, (Scorpions) Cornwell Tshavhungwa, had his R100 000 bail on corruption charges cancelled by a Pretoria magistrate on Wednesday. Specialised Commercial Crimes Court magistrate Desmond Nair found that Tshavhungwa had breached his bail conditions by contacting a witness.
South Africa needs to wake up to the fact that its coal reserves are not infinite, and the use of nuclear power to produce electricity in the future is unavoidable, Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Tuesday. ”In addition to coal, nuclear energy will increase as an energy option for South Africa for the foreseeable future,” she told MPs during her Budget vote.
Power station ‘will inject R10bn into SA’
Mpumalanga police rounded up a gang of foreign drug dealers plying narcotics at local night spots in a major operation on Saturday morning, police said. Police, assisted by soldiers and officials from the departments of justice, health and home affairs, arrested 22 foreign nationals for dealing in drugs, among others.
The Department of Public Works did not get enough money in this year’s Budget to carry out all its appointed tasks, including tackling a maintenance backlog at government buildings, says Minister of Public Works Stella Sigcau. In February this year, her department was allocated more than R4,8-billion.
The South African Cabinet has approved a programme to develop human capital and improve research and innovation in relation to the pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR) project, which has been called the world’s sexiest baby nuclear reactor by its proponents.
Seven Nelspruit high school pupils were killed when their car overturned and caught fire near the town on Sunday, Mpumalanga police reported. Captain Benjamin Bhembe said the driver of the Mercedes Benz was apparently speeding when he lost control of the vehicle at around 2am.
Major General Derrick Mgwebi last week became the first South African to head a United Nations peacekeeping mission when he assumed the command of the UN Operation in Burundi. Mgwebi last Tuesday donned a UN blue beret at a ceremony in Bujumbura to mark the end of the African Union mission in Burundi.
The South African Chamber of Business has won a $20 000 award for its simple toolkit to assist small and medium enterprises address HIV/Aids in their workplaces. The chamber also won accolades for its strategy to monitor the implementation of this product through its chamber movement.
A 16-year-old KwaZulu-Natal schoolboy has died after allegedly being beaten by his principal, police said on Tuesday. Mthokozisi Zuma, a grade 10 pupil at Phezulu High School in Hammarsdale, was beaten with a stick, allegedly by his principal as
punishment for coming late to school. The boy was taken to a nearby clinic where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Police fired rubber bullets and teargas at a stone-throwing crowd of school children, some as young as 11, near Secunda in Mpumalanga on Tuesday. The pupils of Kusasa Lethu Secondary School accused headmaster James Jele of misusing school funds and demanded his removal and the return of the money.
Former Springbok rugby player Rudi ”Vleis” Visagie was arrested on Sunday after his daughter was allegedly mistaken for a car thief and shot dead, Mpumalanga police said on Monday. Visagie and his wife Frieda were asleep at home at their plot in Maggiesdal, outside Nelspruit, when his wife woke up early on Sunday morning shouting that someone was trying to steal their daughter’s car.
South African chemical and synthetic fuels group Sasol on Tuesday named Eyesizwe Coal, the largest black-owned, -controlled, -operated and -managed coal-mining company in South Africa, as its lead black economic empowerment mining partner. Eyesizwe’s total coal production is approximately 25-million tons a year.
According to a <i>Sunday Times</i> report, there are now nearly 700 "ultra-high-gross-worth individuals" with assets of at least R200-million each. I doubt that many of the local 25 000 "dollar millionaires" simply give away R100 000 each month. But this is exactly what the National Arts Council (NAC) is doing, writes Mike van Graan.
The Mpumalanga provincial government has suspended Riena Charles, the former health departmental head, from her post with the premier’s office, SABC news reported on Thursday. This follows the auditor general’s report on her activities while she still headed the health department.
About 150 family members and friends of alleged mercenaries held in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea handed over a memorandum addressed to President Thabo Mbeki at the Union Buildings on Tuesday, calling for government intervention. ”I believe my brother is innocent and does not belong there,” said one of the family members.
Trying to sell nature-based tourism in game reserves to people who would rather go to the beach on holiday, if they go at all, sounds like a case of real hard sell. Research shows that 51% of black South Africans prefer to go to the beach for their festive and other holidays. Blacks make up less than 12% of the local visitors who go to national parks. The M&G meets the new director of the Kruger park, a man determined to change local perceptions about ecotourism.
African National Congress secretary general Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele is to pursue a defamation claim against the Mail & Guardian in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein on Thursday. It relates to printed allegations that Mthembi-Mahanyele, while housing minister, had awarded a building contract to a close friend.