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The African National Congress reaffirmed its confidence in former deputy president Jacob Zuma on Thursday, but the party’s national general council (NGC) meeting was instructed by President Thabo Mbeki not to discuss Zuma’s dismissal or the charges against him.
After three months and 12 editions the Afrikaans Sunday newspaper Die Wêreld has closed down, the publication’s management said on Thursday. It had been apparent from the paper’s beginnings that there was not satisfactory financing, Kobus Wolvaardt — head of a trust which funded the paper — said in a statement.
South African President Thabo Mbeki on Thursday cited fears about the ”diminution” of Afrikaans as an issue that the ruling African National Congress should address in leading the country’s social transformation.
Group of Eight leaders meeting in Scotland next week are unlikely to agree on a ”Marshall Plan” for Africa that will see massive aid flow to the continent, South African Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel told French news agency AFP in an interview on Wednesday.
Talks aimed at unblocking the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire entered a second day on Wednesday in Pretoria with leaders drafting a document that was to be adopted later in the day. The Pretoria accord ran into a major hurdle this week when rebel forces made clear they would not abide by the June 27 deadline to disarm.
The firearms amnesty, in effect since January 1, will end at midnight on Thursday, said Safety and Security minister Charles Ngakula. ”We would like to appeal to those who are in possession of illegal firearms or ammunition to hand over these to the nearest police station,” he said. More than 80 000 firearms have been handed in.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang says South African HIV/Aids patients should be given the option to turn to traditional forms of medication as an alternative to anti-retroviral treatment. She said garlic is a key ingredient in the fight against HIV/Aids and is particularly useful in fighting fungus ”in the intestines and in the vagina”.
President Thabo Mbeki is hosting Côte d’Ivoire leaders on Tuesday for a new round of talks aimed at reviving a stalled peace process in the war-divided West African nation. Two months after Côte d’Ivoire’s rebels and government signed the latest in a series of deals, the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire has only gotten worse.
Steps will be taken to boost the government’s ability to execute growth and development strategies, Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said on Monday. ”We need to focus on the ability to implement,” he told reporters in Pretoria.
A South African government spokesperson expressed irritation on Thursday at the so-called bogeyman approach being used to scare African countries into conforming with the West. ”I am really irritated by this ‘kgokgo’ approach,” presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said when approached for comment on a call by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw for African action against Zimbabwe.
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Former deputy president Jacob Zuma will appear in court on two corruption charges next Wednesday, says the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Zuma will not be physically arrested but will be ordered to appear in court.
A 55-year-old businessman who shot dead a policeman who arrested him for drunken driving in 2003 was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by the Pretoria High Court on Monday. Irish-born businessman John Raymond Whelan was sentenced for killing police officer Phillip du Plooy in March 2003.
Two-thirds of judges and magistrates must ultimately be black in order to reflect the country’s racial demographics, new justice department director-general Menzi Simelani said on Wednesday. Referring to a lack of female and black judges, he said: ”There is a clear misrepresentation”.
Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya will hold urgent talks with the chief executives of the big South African banks in a bid to end fraud in the distribution of social grants, his office said on Wednesday. In the past, Skweyiya had said government lost no less than R1,5-billion per annum due to fraud and corruption in social grants.
Debt relief to the world’s poorest nations must be accompanied by increased development assistance, which in turn requires greater transparency, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Monday. Manuel welcomed a decision of the Group of Eight industrialised nations to write off the multilateral debt of 18 poor countries.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is to broaden an internal probe to include staff members leaking ”incorrect information” to the media on the fate of Deputy President Jacob Zuma. The NPA denied a Mail & Guardian report that it was preparing to charge Zuma following the fraud and corruption conviction of Schabir Shaik.
Calm returned to the Putco bus company’s depot in Bloed Street, Pretoria, by Thursday morning after stranded commuters went on the rampage on Wednesday, police said. Commuters infuriated by a bus drivers’ strike, which left them without transport home, torched six Putco buses on Wednesday evening and set fire to a ticket office.
The Pretoria High Court had a chilling insight into the mind of a killer when a tape recording of the dying moments of his two victims was played as evidence on Tuesday. Judge Johan Els sentenced self-confessed double killer Barend (Ben) Bieldt (61) to 36 years’ imprisonment, of which he effectively has to serve 26 years.
Nando’s, the fast-food chicken outlet, has not been singled out by the government’s Healthy Lifestyle campaign, a spokesperson for the minister of health said on Monday. Media reports said the minister of health was sent a letter by Nando’s demanding she withdraw remarks allegedly made about its food being unhealthy.
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Only eight of the group of 61 of suspected mercenaries will be prosecuted in South Africa after they appeared in the Pretoria Regional Court on Friday. Their case was postponed to July 8 for further investigation. The men, who are out on warning, are facing charges of contravening the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act.
The trade union Solidarity will meet Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan in Cape Town on Thursday afternoon in a last effort to prevent the change of Pretoria’s name to Tshwane. The South African Geographical Names Council has recommended that Jordan approve the registration of the name Tshwane.
The government will shortly start moving the community on Modderklip farm to give effect to a recent Constitutional Court judgement, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said on Tuesday. The department, which gave no date for when the 70Â 000-strong community is to be moved, said the matter is a ”priority”.
The Competition Commission’s statement that it has found evidence of anti-competitive practices by motor manufacturers, dealers, importers and distributors came as a surprise, Volkswagen South Africa’s general manager of communications, Bill Stephens, said on Tuesday.
President Thabo Mbeki was one of the honoured guests at a parade at which the command of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) changed hands in Pretoria on Monday. The outgoing chief of the SANDF, Siphiwe Nyanda, handed Lieutenant General Godfrey Ngwenya the symbol of office, a metre-long gilded sword.
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An African agenda for the July meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations is to be canvassed when President Thabo Mbeki meets United States President George Bush in Washington next week. Bush extended an invitation to Mbeki a few weeks ago for talks at the White House, partly to discuss the upcoming summit at Gleneagles in Scotland.
The Cabinet has agreed to extend by two years, until March 2007, South Africa’s participation in a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Cabinet also approved the extension of participation in the UN and African Union missions in Ethiopia and Eritrea for another two years.
The Tshwane Metropolitan Council will table an R8,9-billion budget for the 2005/06 financial year at its council meeting on Thursday. While ratepayers will not pay more for electricity before July next year, charges for water will go up 8,3% and assessment rates — more commonly known as property tax — by 7%.
Hundreds of disabled, destitute and elderly people, children and volunteer welfare workers marched through the streets of Pretoria on Wednesday to press for increased government subsidies. Chanting ”Welfare is bleeding, the nation is dying”, the protesters made their way along a few blocks to Strijdom Square in the city centre.
A recent imbizo (meeting) to discuss the future of the Zulu nation had been unnecessary, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday. ”I am a Zulu. You didn’t see me at the imbizo,” Zuma told the South African Broadcasting Corporation at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
The future of South Africa’s energy lies not in oil or gas but in hydrogen and fuel cells, Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena said on Tuesday. He said hydrogen and fuel cells are globally believed to be the energy solution for the 21st century by enabling clean, efficient production of power and heat.