Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Wednesday that Women’s Day amounts to nothing if the celebrations take place against a backdrop of lack of delivery. "Women’s Day celebrations should be accompanied by the delivery of services … ," Rasool told thousands of women who had gathered at the Gugulethu sports complex to celebrate Women’s Day.
Veterans of the 1956 women’s march returned to Pretoria on Women’s Day on Wednesday to march on the Union Buildings as they did 50 years ago. The benefits of freedom must reach everyone, women told President Thabo Mbeki at the Union Buildings. ”This constitutes a failure when we say the fruits of our liberation have not reached our women,” Mbeki agreed.
With South African women remaining society’s most vulnerable members, the country still has not achieved the kind of nation the marchers 50 years ago would be proud of, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon said on Wednesday. He said that 50 years onwards, women actually have less to celebrate.
Captain Aaron Mokoena and five other foreign-based players make their return to South Africa’s squad for the first time this year in a friendly against neighbours Namibia in Windhoek on August 16. Caretaker coach Pitso Mosimane on Tuesday brought back the Blackburn Rovers defender plus Bradley Carnell, Quinton Fortune, Steven Pienaar, Nasief Morris and MacBeth Sibaya.
Former South Africa captain Mbulelo Mabizela has returned home to play for Mamelodi Sundowns after being released by Norwegian champions Valerenga, his new club announced on Tuesday. The 25-year-old, who was South Africa’s youngest-ever captain, is the latest in a series of recent high-profile signings by champions Sundowns.
South Africa plans to introduce a new law that will broaden the legal definition of rape in a bid to clamp down on widespread sexual offences, the justice ministry said on Wednesday. South Africa has one of the world’s highest rates of violent crime, including rape.
The suggested scrapping of the floor-crossing law must be expanded to accommodate other electoral changes that will give voters a greater say in who their president will be, says United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa. Even the poorest countries in the world have done away with the system applied in South Africa, he said.
Fifty years after 20 000 women marched on Pretoria to protest against the pass laws, women are marching again. Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the women’s march on the Union Buildings to protest against the extension of pass laws to black women. Thousands of people gathered at Strijdom Square on Wednesday morning.
Netball has been plunged into crisis following the resignation of two members of Netball South Africa’s national executive and the national coach. All three resignations are with immediate effect. The resignations followed a meeting of the national council at which all 34 netball regions were represented.
Lectures were suspended indefinitely at the University of Zululand on Tuesday after protesting students failed to heed an ultimatum to return to class. The university’s management decided to close down the university after a student meeting in the morning failed to resolve the crisis at the troubled institution.
A 50-year-old Pietermaritzburg pastor was on Tuesday sentenced to life in prison by the city’s high court for raping a nine-year-old girl. ”The rape has gained him very little, but killed the spirit of three women — the victim, her mother and his own wife,” acting Judge Aboobaker Mohamed said during sentencing.
International model and actress Caprice Bourret’s ,5-million tanzanite-and-diamond belt buckle that was reported missing at a Sandton nightclub in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning has been found. ”It was found by one of her security guards in the ladies’ toilet when they retraced her steps,” said a spokesperson.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has applied for permission to broadcast the upcoming appeal of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik live on television. According to papers filed at the Supreme Court of Appeal on Tuesday, the public broadcaster wants to broadcast both television footage and live radio.
South African rugby management expressed their continued support for Springbok coach Jake White and the springboks on Tuesday, despite recent poor results. South African Rugby Union (SARU) president Oregan Hoskins, chairperson of the Saru board Mpumelelo Tshume and the SA Rugby managing director issued a statement on behalf of both Saru and SA Rugby.
The police will arrest a ”drug kingpin” who escaped from the Johannesburg International airport at the weekend if the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) will give them his name. ”I call on the DSO [Directorate of Special Operations] to provide the South African Police Service [SAPS] with the name of the alleged ‘kingpin’,” Commissioner Sean Tshabalala said on Tuesday.
The Johannesburg High Court found Sipho Dube guilty on Tuesday of murdering six children and a woman, raping three girls and indecently assaulting boys. Judge Seun Moshidi also convicted Dube (30) of 10 kidnappings, one theft, one robbery, one common assault and one assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
National Democratic Convention (Nadeco) leader Ziba Jiyane has disputed his ”suspension” on Tuesday by the national executive committee (NEC) of his party. He said the members of the NEC seeking to depose him would be expelled. The NEC is ”an old structure” that is not mentioned in the party’s constitution, Jiyane said.
It would be unfair and unjust to force alleged millionaire fraudster David King to enter his marathon criminal trial without legal representation, a High Court judge said on Tuesday. Judge Ronnie Bosielo directed the National Prosecuting Authority to assist King to have reasonable funds made available for his defence.
Police in Limpopo often assault and extort money from Zimbabwean migrants and fail to verify their identity or legal status before deporting them, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday. HRW released a report that it says ”documents how state officials arrest, detain and deport undocumented foreign migrants in ways that flout South Africa’s immigration law.”
The women’s march to the Union Buildings on August 9 1956 was critical in achieving democracy in South Africa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Tuesday. ”Cosatu pays tribute to those 20Â 000 women who protested at the extension of pass laws to women, and to the millions of women who have followed in their footsteps,” said Cosatu in a statement.
The aircraft that carried former national cricket captain Hansie Cronje to his doom had incomplete maintenance records, an inquest into the crash heard on Tuesday. A Civil Aviation Authority senior accident investigator confirmed that Airquarius Aviation subcontracted its aircraft maintenance work.
Inspectors from South Africa’s Department of Labour carried out "blitzes" in the Free State province this week but the vast majority of workplaces targeted were found to be compliant with the country’s employment equity laws, a spokesperson for Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Tuesday.
South Africa has been asked to use its political influence internationally to help end the conflict in Lebanon, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. He said at a media briefing in Pretoria that President Thabo Mbeki had received a letter from Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora asking the government to intervene politically and help with humanitarian aid.
A drive to perform 100Â 000 cataract operations worldwide over the next 100 days was launched by an international NGO, the Christian Blind Mission (CBM), in Cape Town on Tuesday. According to CBM president Prof Allen Foster about 17-million people worldwide are totally blind because of cataracts — a condition reversible in a relatively simple 10- to 15-minute operation.
After 12 years of a new South Africa, in South African newsrooms it’s still a question of ”same old”. In a male-dominated industry, women are still on the receiving end of discrimination. This is the conclusion of a report conducted by the South African National Editors’ Forum and launched on Tuesday in Johannesburg.
The conflict in the Middle East is a recipe for creating suicide bombers, Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Tuesday. ”I think God is crying that God’s children can do this to one another,” he said in Cape Town. ”Whatever the provocation, there can never be a justification for targeting civilians.”
Ziba Jiyane, leader of the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco), has been suspended by the management committee of his political party. On Tuesday, Nadeco national chairperson Mandla Magubane said: ”They [Jiyane and Nadeco secretary general Jabulani Maphalala] have brought the party in disrepute.”
Nedbank on Tuesday became the first bank to offer bank accounts to thousands of informal traders operating in the Durban city centre in Ethekwini, KwaZulu-Natal. This project is being coordinated together with the Informal Sector Empowerment Cooperative, an organisation that manages over 10 000 traders who operate in the informal retail sector.
South Africa’s animal authorities are battling an outbreak of a killer disease near the Kruger National Park in the country’s northern Limpopo province, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said on Tuesday. The department said the foot-and-mouth-disease outbreak was inside a buffer zone around the tourist attraction.
Players from a rampant Mamelodi Sundowns are poised to dominate when the Bafana Bafana squad to play Namibia in Windhoek next Wednesday is announced on Tuesday. However, it would not be surprising if a good number of South Africa’s leading overseas-based players ultimately turn out to be no more than phantom selections.
The new headquarters for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup will be completed and fully operational by the end of October, the South African government news agency, BuaNews, reported on Monday. This comes just 11 months after a sod-turning ceremony at what is to be the South African Football Association’s new home.
Springbok selectors added two uncapped players to their squad and recalled centre Jean de Villiers after an injury lay-off on Monday for their three remaining home Tri-Nations games. The Sharks duo of scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar, who can also play flyhalf, and prop Brendon Botha were named in the 28-man squad.