Schoolgirls who fall pregnant could face having to spend two years out of the classroom before being allowed back if a proposal in circulation within the Department of Education is approved, the <i>Sunday Times</i> reported.
The Scorpions have not searched police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s office or obtained a warrant to do so, their spokesperson, Panyaza Lesufi, said on Friday. This follows a report in <i>Beeld</i> newspaper on Friday that Selebi’s office was searched as part of an investigation by the Scorpions into the police chief’s alleged involvement in crime.
The increase in electricity demand must be reduced, Eskom said on Thursday. "We have only so much generating capacity; therefore the only solution is to reduce the demand," it said in a statement. Rolling power failures affected parts of Gauteng and Mpumalanga on Wednesday evening.
Opposition parties on Friday demanded answers on the troubled electronic national traffic information system, following allegations the Auditor General had warned of problems before the system was introduced. The Inkatha Freedom Party said it has urgently tabled questions in Parliament to Transport Minister Jeff Radebe.
Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe was warned by the Auditor General about South Africa’s chaotic new traffic information system, a newspaper reported on Friday. It said the minister and his department were told in December last year that the electronic national traffic information system would be an "embarrassment" for the country.
A R12-billion monorail will be built between Johannesburg and Soweto in the next two years, it was announced on Wednesday. "By 2009, no one from Soweto should have to wait more than 15 minutes for transport," Gauteng finance and economic affairs minister Paul Mashatile said at the launch of the project in Sandton.
The queues for pickles and ice cream are set to be endless when more than 2 000 pregnant women gather in Johannesburg for an attempt at the world record for the largest gathering of pregnant women. The record attempt, if successful, will be recognised by the <i>Guinness World Records</i> book.
Eskom has launched a probe into the power disruption that left Bedfordview without electricity for three days this week. While national spokesperson Fani maintained that installation of closed-circuit television cameras along the R24 was to blame for the disruption, he conceded it was only partly responsible.
Businesses in parts of Ekurhuleni, the Free State and Northern Cape are counting losses running into millions of rands after power failures, media reports said on Tuesday. A prolonged power failure has affected Eastgate Mall, one of South Africa’s largest shopping centres, in Bedfordview, east of Johannesburg.
The electricity supply to Bedfordview on Johannesburg’s East Rand is only expected to be restored on Wednesday, Eskom said. The area has been without electricity since 3am on Monday due to faults in two 132-kilovolt lines, Eskom said in a statement on Tuesday.
Wimpy South Africa is probing an incident in which a customer was arrested and assaulted for lighting a cigarette at one of its restaurants at OR Tambo International Airport. The manager at the restaurant allegedly grabbed a cigarette from the man’s mouth when he declined to order something while waiting for his flight.
Telkom chief executive Papi Molotsane has quit after 18 months in the job, the company said on Thursday. The fixed-line telecommunication giant gave no reason for his resignation. It said Reuben September will take over as acting CEO, and that it will start looking for a permanent replacement.
A 40-year-old man who was arrested after pirate CDs and DVDs worth millions of rands were found at his Cyrildene house will appear in the Johannesburg Commercial Crime Court on Thursday, police said. Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said "boxes full" of pirated goods were found on the property
A two-month strike by Johannesburg’s Metrobus drivers ended on Wednesday, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union said. Buses are expected to run again from Tuesday next week. The strike, called over sick leave and the dismissal of some employees, had been marked by violent incidents, including murder, vandalism and armed robbery.
A national strike planned for Wednesday by bus workers’ unions was prevented by the Labour Court in Cape Town on Tuesday when it granted an interdict to the South African Bus Employers’ Association. The strike action would have put additional strain on Johannesburg’s public-transport system, which is already chaotic due to strike action by Metrobus employees.
<i>Sunday Times</i> journalist and columnist David Bullard was shot and wounded when four men broke into his Johannesburg house, police said on Thursday. Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said Bullard (55) had been shot once on Wednesday, with the bullet going through his arm and into his abdomen.
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/ 27 February 2007
The government’s insistence on securing credible evidence for the listing of terrorists before acting against its citizens was lent support by a group of the country’s Muslim leaders on Tuesday. Last month, the United States listed a Johannesburg dentist and his cousin as suspected terrorists with links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
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/ 27 February 2007
South Africa is joining countries such as Brazil, India and Uganda in implementing open-source software in all government departments — and getting rid of widely used Microsoft Windows desktop programmes that come with expensive licences. Open-source software can be shared by many users without a need for licences.
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/ 22 February 2007
Roofs were blown off, trees uprooted and power lines cut by the force of a tropical cyclone that slammed into coastal regions of already-beleaguered Mozambique on Thursday, officials said. There were no immediate reports of casualties after Cyclone Favio made landfall in the Southern African nation.
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/ 20 February 2007
The fate of 300 of Johannesburg’s poorest residents hung in the balance on Tuesday as the City of Johannesburg appeals a court ruling preventing it from evicting them from some of the inner-city’s worst buildings. The Bloemfontein Supreme Court of Appeal heard argument in the city’s appeal.
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/ 10 February 2007
African National Congress Adelaide Tambo’s death at the end of January came at a time when she was needed the most, President Thabo Mbeki said on Saturday. The ANC and South Africans need to draw on the example set by Tambo, Mbeki told a crowd of thousands at her funeral in Wattville, outside Johannesburg.
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/ 9 February 2007
The happiness that comes with freedom applies equally to the challenge of dealing with crime, President Thabo Mbeki said in his State of the Nation address during the opening of Parliament in a rainy Cape Town on Friday. "Obviously, we must continue and further intensify the struggle against crime," he said.
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/ 30 January 2007
South African low-cost airline 1time is not backing down to increasing competition in its sector and is adding new routes and more flights to its current flight schedule. From March 25, 1time will fly daily between Cape Town and Durban and on Fridays and Sundays between Johannesburg and George.
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/ 27 January 2007
African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma on Saturday denied meeting businessman Tokyo Sexwale to discuss the latter’s bid for leading the ruling party, as reported by the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>. Zuma said caution should be applied to "the use of faceless sources that have questionable motives".
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/ 12 January 2007
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) reacted harshly on Friday to a charge of genocide laid against its head, Zackie Achmat, at the International Criminal Court earlier this week. In the 59-page criminal complaint, Achmat is accused of promoting the provision and use of antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV.
Former state president Marais Viljoen died in the Muelmed Hospital in Pretoria on Thursday, his daughter said on Friday. Elna Meyer said her father was taken to hospital over a week ago and died due to heart failure. Known as a relatively moderate member of the National Party, Viljoen was the last non-executive state president of South Africa.
Ekurhuleni metro chief Robert McBride will be investigated for reckless driving and not drunken driving after he rolled his car in late December, despite witness reports that he was "blind drunk". According to Gauteng police spokesperson Director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo, no evidence of drunken driving was received from metro police.
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/ 14 December 2006
All journeys undertaken by President Thabo Mbeki and Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka this year will be investigated by a commission of inquiry, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota announced on Wednesday evening. The deputy president has been at the centre of much travel-expense controversy in the past year.
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/ 12 December 2006
Three people, including a three-month-old baby, have died and more than 700 have been left homeless after severe flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) reported on Monday. Two people drowned after the Bhanya River burst its banks at Bhekuzulu township in Vryheid, the SABC said.
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/ 26 November 2006
Two Cabinet ministers, a deputy minister and National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete have shares in the consortium that is building the Gautrain, according to the <i>Sunday Times</i>. The shareholding structure in the Bombela Consortium, which won the R23-billion Gautrain bid, has been a closely guarded secret.
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/ 13 November 2006
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Monday distanced itself from a <i>Sunday Times</i> report that the Scorpions were in possession of a diary linking police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi to Glenn Agliotti. Spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said the report was written in a "dishonest way".
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/ 9 November 2006
Public Protector Mabedla Lawrence Mushwana has found that a R65Â 000 interest-free loan paid by Sandi Majali, of Imvume Investments, to Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya’s wife for renovations on Skweyiya’s Waterkloof home did not influence the awarding of a multimillion-rand contract to a company partly owned by Imvume.