It is ”distasteful” to tell students that toyi-toying does nothing to improve the country, the Young Communist League (YCL) said on Thursday. It rejected as unfortunate recent remarks to this effect by Education Minister Naledi Pandor. ”The YCL views these remarks as nonsensical and distasteful,” the league said in a statement.
Releasing the Khampepe commission’s report on the Scorpions at this juncture will ”cause prejudice” to South Africa’s national security, says President Thabo Mbeki. In a letter faxed to the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday night, Mbeki’s office refused the DA’s request in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act for access to the report.
The arrest of 12 people for the brutal killings of two foreigners in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, was welcomed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday. Two foreign nationals were killed on Tuesday when a crowd of people assaulted them and set their shacks alight in the Brazzaville informal settlement.
South Africa’s economy and civil society are strong, ensuring the country will not follow the downward spiral of Zimbabwe, FW de Klerk, the last white president of the country, said in an interview published in Germany on Wednesday. De Klerk also predicted a period of great uncertainty and warned that crime was driving skilled white people out of the country.
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni warned consumers on Wednesday to tighten their belts further as higher food and fuel prices fan out into wider inflation. South Africa’s targeted CPIX inflation has surged through the top end of the bank’s 3%-to-6% band and hit a high of 9,4% year-on-year in February.
About 800 workers face retrenchment at BHP Billiton’s Bayside aluminium smelter in Richards Bay, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Mziwakhe Hlangani said company management confirmed that it will be issuing final notices to the affected workers on the weekend.
South Africa has steadfastly refused to join in the chorus of criticism of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe despite paying an ever higher price for the crisis across its northern border. As Zimbabwe goes to the polls this weekend, analysts believe South African President Thabo Mbeki may feel little enthusiasm towards Mugabe but will never embarrass his fellow leader.
About 800 workers face retrenchment at BHP Billiton’s Bayside aluminium smelter in Richards Bay, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Mziwakhe Hlangani said management had confirmed that it would be issuing final notices to the affected workers at the weekend.
Cape Town’s director of health, former anti-conscription campaigner Ivan Toms, was found dead in his home on Tuesday morning, police said. Police spokesperson Superintendent Billy Jones said foul play was not suspected at this stage. He said police used a key from a neighbour to gain access to Toms’ Mowbray home at about 9.30am.
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Attitudes towards Jacob Zuma becoming president of South Africa appear to have shifted slightly in his favour, a survey of 2Â 000 people indicates. People were asked in February to agree or disagree with the statement: ”If Jacob Zuma becomes president in 2009, it will bring disaster to South Africa”, TNS Research Surveys said on Tuesday.
Ncumisa Kondlo, a member of the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) and deputy chairperson of the South African Communist Party, died in East London on Monday, the ANC said. Kondlo was elected to the NEC in December 2007 and also served on the party’s national working committee.
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma has vowed to create monuments for the fallen Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) soldiers who died in the Cuito Cuanavale battle in Angola, he said on Monday. Zuma said it was agreed that a committee would be established to identify the graves of ”our fallen MK heroes and heroines”.
Angola’s sacrifices would forever remain etched in the history of the South African liberation struggle, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma said on Saturday. Speaking at the 20th commemoration of the Cuito Cuanavale battle in Angola, Zuma paid tribute to the heroes and heroines of Angola, Cuba and Namibia.
A decision on what disciplinary measures, if any, will be taken against Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy over the Browse Mole report is expected ”soon”, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said on Thursday. ”A recommendation has been made to the minister and she will act,” said spokesperson Zolile Nqayi.
South African legislators have recommended that Parliament revise laws to give it more oversight over the Reserve Bank, raising concerns of political interference in monetary policy as inflation soars. The Reserve Bank has raised its repo rate by 400 basis points to 11% since June 2006 to try to tame inflation.
African National Congress (ANC) MPs with disabilities have threatened to embark on protests if the quality of service rendered to disabled people at South African airports is not improved. Briefing the media on Thursday, ANC MP Maxwell Moss said the Airports Company South Africa, as well as airlines, had failed to attend to the needs of disabled passengers.
A third state witness, testifying in the Pretoria Regional Court on Thursday, described his former boss, Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, as ”the mafia” and ”a liar”. Former metro police officer Patrick Johnston also said McBride was someone he was afraid of.
Political parties and union leaders were outraged on Wednesday over Eskom’s proposed tariff hike of 53% and the devastating effect it would have on the country. The Congress of South African Trade Unions said it was absolutely horrified at the proposal and demanded an extended consultation process on Eskom’s latest plans.
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A charm offensive by Jacob Zuma may not be enough to dispel deep investor anxiety over whether he will be able to take charge of Africa’s biggest economy, even though he has won over some doubters. Since unseating President Thabo Mbeki as leader of the ruling African National Congress in December, Zuma has moved to consolidate his power.
South Africa’s power situation has improved after a two-day crisis that threatened supplies to mines, state electricity firm Eskom said on Wednesday, but rolling cuts are set to continue. Eskom has been struggling to contain South Africa’s power crisis, the result of years of underspending on electricity generation capacity.
The African National Congress (ANC) will not make its arms-deal report public, the ruling party reiterated on Wednesday. In a statement, the ANC said it noted a call in the media by the Congress of South African Trade Unions to have the outcome of its arms-deal report made public.
Zimbabwe’s election body has no legal powers to stop security chiefs from threatening to reject an opposition victory in this month’s poll, a senior official said on Tuesday. Analysts say President Robert Mugabe faces the strongest challenge to his 28-year rule in presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections on March 29.
Jeremy Cronin, the deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party, suggested in Parliament on Tuesday that there should be a council of state, which would be a super-Cabinet with a strategic planning mandate. Croning was speaking during debate on the Appropriation Bill.
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma will on Tuesday lead the party’s delegation to Angola to mark the 20th anniversary of the battle of Cuito Cuanavale. The delegation is expected to return home on Monday. A parliamentary delegation left from Pretoria on Friday in a convoy to Cuito Cuanavale to commemorate the battle.
Willie Madisha plans to take legal action in both the high court and Equality Court over his dismissal as president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, media reports said on Tuesday. Madisha, who was axed last month, wanted to be reinstated, according to the reports.
The African National Congress (ANC) wants its new deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, in government, ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe said on Monday. There has been much speculation on whether the ANC’s new leadership would want one of its own present in President Thabo Mbeki’s government.
Media24, publisher of City Press, was on Monday ordered to pay prominent African National Congress politician and medical doctor Zweli Mkhize R150 000 in damages for a defaming him in a report in March 2007. Mkhize is chairperson of finance and economic development in the KwaZulu-Natal Cabinet.
Senior African National Congress leader Tokyo Sexwale has called on President Thabo Mbeki to explain his involvement in the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal, a media report said on Sunday. Sexwale made an impassioned plea to a hushed ANC national executive committee meeting on Friday for Mbeki "to take the ANC into his confidence".
The African National Congress’s (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) was locked behind closed doors on Friday at its second meeting since the Polokwane national conference in December, media reports said. The aim was to rid the party of internal wrangles simmering since its policy conference.
The 2010 World Cup soccer tournament is a prime target for corruption, editors were told in Johannesburg on Friday. ”There is a real fear that South Africa, in the staging of the World Cup, could look bad in the eyes of the world because of the dangers of corruption,” said Professor Danny Titus, of Transparency International.
The government and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) should bury the hatchet and unite in the fight against HIV/Aids, African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee member Zweli Mkhize told delegates at the TAC’s fourth national congress on Friday.
Nationalising the University of the Free State (UFS), ”to protect the national asset”, must start immediately, the African National Congress and its alliance partners said on Friday. About 1 000 workers from various unions marched to the UFS to hand over the demand, contained in a memorandum on racism at the institution.