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/ 9 September 2004
Women in labour so intoxicated they do not know they are giving birth, children fed alcohol to keep them quiet, and low grade wine cheaper than bread. These are realities in South Africa, the country with the worst foetal alcohol syndrome in the world.
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/ 2 September 2004
South African Democratic Teacher’s Union (Sadtu) members turned out in full force around the country to demonstrate their frustration with the government’s offer of a 5,5% salary increase. Sadtu spokesperson Jon Lewis said an estimated 30Â 000 people marched through the streets of Johannesburg.
Minister: Teachers’ strike ‘ill-timed’
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/ 1 September 2004
The Independent Democrats welcomed 18 municipal councillors — mainly from the New National Party — to its ranks on Wednesday, the first day of the two-week period for councillors to change parties without losing their seats. Former NNP Cape Town councillor David Sassman said the NNP ”sold out to the highest bidder”.
Deputy president Jacob Zuma on Saturday launched the extended public works programme, and said the greatest challenge was to mobilise all municipalities, provincial departments and other public sector bodies to implement the programme. After the Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal is the second province to launch the programme.
On a national tour ahead of the floor-crossing window for councillors, Inkatha Freedom Party national chairperson Ziba Jiyane is stressing its ”centre-right” position and its standpoint on family values. He also criticised the appointment of women with wealthy husbands in jobs above breadwinners.
The South African Human Rights Commission will hold an inquiry into alleged human rights violations against the Khomani San community of the Kalahari, the commission announced on Wednesday. The inquiry will be held in the community hall of Andriesvale, in the Askham area of the Northern Cape, from October 26 to 29 with submissions from individuals, organisations and interested parties invited.
A total of 118 South African women have discovered since the beginning of the month that they had been married without their knowledge, the Home Affairs Department said on Wednesday. This emerged from a campaign urging women to check their marital status on the department’s records in a bid to curb the problem of fraudulent marriages, the department said in a statement.
There was laughter in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday when "Rottweiler" and "KGB" emerged as some of the <i>noms de guerre</i> assumed by the alleged Boeremag coup plotters. One called himself "Motherfucker" and another "Volla", accused-turned-state-witness Henk van Zyl told the court.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119751">Whites were to be ‘slaughtered'</a>
The mayor, speaker and city manager of the Emthanjeni Municipality in De Aar have been arrested on charges of fraud, Northern Cape police said on Monday. The trio allegedly offered a local businessman a tender on July 2 in exchange for a kickback. The tender involved a municipal house that is to be sold.
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.
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.
New research by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has shown that 57% of South Africans are living below the poverty line of R1Â 290 a month for a family of four. And the ”poverty gap”, which measures the required income transfer to all poor households to lift them from poverty, grew from R56-billion in 1996 to R81-billion in 2001.
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.
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.
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 government should measure the success of its land reform process on whether productivity of the land is maintained after a change in ownership, the Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday. DA MP Kraai van Niekerk claimed that the present reform projects have left a trail of failures.
A South African NGO, the Social Change Assistance Trust was on Monday placed on the shortlist for the $1-million Alcan Prize for Sustainability by The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum. Of almost 500 entries received from 79 countries around the world, only 12 organisations made the shortlist.
The future of the New National Party (NNP) lies in strengthening its ties with the African National Congress (ANC), the party announced following a federal council meeting in Centurion on Saturday. The NNP and ANC have agreed to ”strengthen and deepen the relationship of cooperation between the two parties”, NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk told reporters.
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.
On the eve of a federal council meeting to discuss the future of the New National Party following its poor performance in April’s national and provincial elections, the party’s Gauteng administrative office has closed. The move is in no way a sign of the party’s imminent dissolution in Gauteng, provincial leader Johan Kilian said.
At least 42 traditional surgeons have been arrested in the Eastern Cape since the provincial government introduced legislation on circumcision in 2001, Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi said on Monday. He said of the 42, 18 have been convicted of crimes linked to initiation circumcisions gone wrong.
Dale McKinley (”New power to the people …”) reports the number of spoilt ballots as if these votes might indicate a preference for socialist revolution. He confuses the voting age population with the number of eligible voters, and arrives at grossly exaggerated claims of low voter turnout. From this he imputes that the election was ”rejected” by the majority of people. The majority of social movements do not oppose representative democracy, writes Michael Sachs.
The New National Party’s federal council is to meet in three weeks — on Saturday June 5 — to assess the party’s future after its poor showing in the national and provincial elections. A newspaper report on Tuesday said the Free State region of the party will motivate that the party should disband.
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.
Calls went out on May 1 — Workers’ Day — around South Africa, for better conditions of employment, more jobs, transformation and the eradication of poverty. However, foremost in people’s minds was the memory of 51 Northern Cape municipal workers who died on this day a year ago, outside Bethlehem in the eastern Free State, when their bus plunged into the Saulspoort Dam.
The leaders of the New National Party and Azanian People’s Organisation got senior posts in the new cabinet unveiled by President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday. New National Party leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk becomes Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism while Azanian People’s Organisation leader Mosibudi Mangena got the portfolio of Science and Technology.
South African Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Monday welcomed the reinstatement of 13 Northern Cape mineworkers, who were summarily dismissed for not going to work on election day, April 14. However, Mdladlana said Reho Mining company’s initial decision to dismiss the workers was completely unacceptable.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance has selected its team representing the nine provinces in the National Council of Provinces but former Western Cape premier and former Cape Town mayor Gerald Morkel failed to be selected for one of two Western Cape seats available.
When Oom Krisjan was a laaitie he and his mates used to annoy people by playing tok-tokkie (knocking on the neighbours’ door, ringing the doorbell and then running away before anyone answered). We later graduated to idiot phone calls.
The electronic age, however, has multiplied modern life’s piss-off quotient by several thousand.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress named its candidates for premiers in the nine provinces on Wednesday night, after a national working committee meeting was held in the Mother City. It is the first time that candidates have only been named after the election.