A member of South Africa’s observer mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo has been sent home, the leader of the mission and Deputy Minister of Defence Mluleki George said on Tuesday. George said the man, who belongs to the South African NGO Coalition, had breached the mission’s code of conduct.
Heritage month — which is September — will see the holding of hearings into the causes of deaths at initiation schools. The Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural and Linguistic Communities said on Tuesday that this was decided as a matter of urgency at a meeting held to discuss the recent spate of deaths at initiation schools.
The so-called ”Waterkloof Four” will know their fate in November after their sentencing was postponed again in the Pretoria Regional Court on Tuesday. The four — Christoff Becker, Frikkie du Preez, Gert van Schalkwyk and Reinach Tied — were found guilty last year of the apparently racist murder of an unidentified man and the assault of another in 2001.
Coal — the doomed energy resource, great polluter and contributor to global warming — might just have a brighter future. This is if a new technology that captures carbon dioxide from coal plants can be fine-tuned in the next few years. South Africa has an abundance of coal, but the environmental problems coal plants cause is dampening the future of the mineral.
South African airline Comair — the JSE-listed aviation company that operates British Airways and kulula.com in South Africa — has selected a broad-based black investment company, Thelo Group, as its partner in a R100-million black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction. Comair will achieve a BEE shareholding of 16,1%, structured via a combination of a cash purchase of shares and a vendor facilitated share issue.
Gauteng education minister Angie Motshekga is ending her department’s contract with JCJ bus operators. ”I had enough of bus operators who hold us hostage and negotiate with us in bad faith,” said Motshekga in a statement. JCJ has indicated it intends withdrawing more than 40 buses, ”thus rendering 18 of Gauteng department of education schools ineffective”.
Pretoria police officers arrested three men and seized a police identity document, a firearm with the serial number filed off, counterfeit money and drugs early on Tuesday. They made the find after searching a car they had followed from Colbyn to a service station in Church Street, said Inspector Katlego Mogale.
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The corruption case against Jacob Zuma, once the front-runner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki, has exposed splits in the African National Congress (ANC), the party that under Nelson Mandela led South Africa from apartheid to multiracial politics. Analysts say the ANC is facing its worst crisis in years.
The first three days of hearings in an inquiry into the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) alleged blacklisting of certain political analysts have been completed, the commissioners said on Monday. They said the range of views and the quality of submissions had helped to clarify which factors influenced decisions around the use of analysts.
Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin praised Eskom on Monday for returning the Koeberg nuclear power plant back into service on time. He also thanked the people of the Western Cape for participating in an energy-saving campaign, ministerial spokesperson Gaynor Kast said in a statement.
The Department of Labour is providing R60-million to train urgently needed artisans, the Chemical Industries, Education and Training Authority (Chieta) said on Monday. ”We’ve just got the letter from the Department of Labour stating that we’ve got the money for this training,” said Chieta CEO Dr Raymond Patel.
Hundreds of Western Cape Grade 10 pupils — guinea pigs for the new curriculum — failed their June exams, the Cape Argus reported on Monday. Its website said some schools reported a failure rate of up to 60%. This year’s Grade 10 was the first to tackle the revised curriculum, referred to as the Further Education and Training Band, and will be followed by grades 11 and 12.
The developer of Stellenbosch’s upmarket De Zalze golf estate appeared briefly in Cape Town’s Bellville Regional Court on Monday in connection with fraud and theft charges involving bearer bonds worth over R11-million. Klaus Strauli, a Swiss national, had been formally arrested by the Scorpions at Cape Town International airport.
Residents of Lydenburg in Mpumalanga are to march this week against changing the name of their town, contending that correct procedures had not been followed. ”Proper procedures were not followed. We have all the proof of all the minutes of the name-change committee and the attendance registers,” said Democratic Alliance councillor Isabel Dickson.
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The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in the Eastern Cape may strike if there are repeated delays in former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s fraud and corruption trial, Cosatu’s provincial secretary said on Monday. ”If there are perpetual postponements in the case, then we will have no option [other] than to take a stance,” said Xola Pakati.
Cape Town’s metro police chief described newspaper allegations of corrupt practices at metro police offices in Gordon’s Bay as ”unfounded”. ”It is not as bad as the [newspaper] report. Eighty percent of the allegations in the report are unfounded,” metro chief Bongani Jonas said on Monday.
Former president Nelson Mandela has taken a neutral public stance on reports that businessman Cyril Ramaphosa has his eye on the presidency of the African National Congress. ”Madiba will remain entirely impartial in this matter,” his spokesperson Zelda la Grange said on Monday, referring to Mandela by his clan name.
The collapse of global trade talks is bad news for Africa, condemning the world’s poorest continent to an uncertain future of high tariffs and lagging competitiveness, officials and experts said on Monday. World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy was expected to formally announce the end of the Doha round of talks on Monday.
Representatives of warring groups in Israel, Lebanon and Palestine should meet in South Africa to negotiate an end to hostilities between them, the South African Council of Churches said on Monday. Spokesperson Jo Mdhlela said the council is calling on the South African government to help broker peace in the escalating Middle East crisis.
A new body to curb the misuse of African diamonds has been established, a Belgian consulting group and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) said on Monday. They said the Diamond Producers of Africa (DPA) initiative came after extensive consultations on the development of a common platform for African diamond-producing countries.
The emotional, psychiatric and neurological effects of HIV/Aids should be made public and addressed, the South African Society of Psychiatrists (Sasop) said on Monday. ”Both the public and people treating HIV infection should be aware of the mental manifestations of HIV infection. These range from minor intellectual difficulties to serious memory problems,” Sasop said.
Johannesburg police have identified the gang that killed a Seychellois airline manager at the Rivonia off-ramp from the N1 highway on Saturday night. ”Behind the scenes, a lot is going on to try and apprehend the suspects,” said Superintendent Chris Wilken. But identifying them, establishing where they are from and apprehending them takes time.
The Congress of South African Trade Union’s (Cosatu) suggestion that South Africa should maintain high trade barriers for the purpose of developing its export sectors — purely because that is how developed countries did it in their day — is ludicrous, says the official opposition Democratic Alliance.
Staff at Johannesburg International airport are to receive skills training to improve customer-service levels in preparation for the Fifa 2010 Soccer World Cup, South African government news agency BuaNews reported on Monday. The Airports Company South Africa has already made R3,5-billion available for infrastructure investment in preparation for South Africa’s hosting of the Cup.
Wealthy businessman Cyril Ramaphosa is preparing a bid for leadership of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress and by extension a run for the nation’s Presidency when Thabo Mbeki retires in 2009, associates said on Monday. The ANC will hold internal elections in December 2007, and whoever wins the party leadership is a shoo-in for the country’s Presidency.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) providing hospice and home care for HIV/Aids patients in Gauteng are struggling because of late payment by the Department of Health, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. ”Some of these NGOs have not been paid for almost four months,” said spokesperson Jack Bloom.
Public funds for national roads will almost triple to R3,5-billion in the 2008/09 financial year from the R1,2-billion allocation of 2002/03, Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe has divulged. In reply to a question on Monday from Democratic Alliance MP Stuart Farrow, the minister said that provincial roads’ allocations will grow from R5,2-billion rand to R11,8-billion in the same period.
The Airports Company South Africa has reviewed the infrastructure and service requirements that the 2010 Soccer World Cup will place on smaller airports and was satisfied that these airports will be prepared — but there will be an R80-million expansion and refurbishment programme at four of these airports.
The Presidency should release the final reports of the Khampepe and Jali commissions of inquiry, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. ”Evidence is growing that the Presidency is being selective about which reports it deems fit for public discussion. It would appear that reports that damage the government’s record or reveal fissures in the ruling party are suppressed,” party leader Tony Leon said.
Two foreign delegates attending the International Sociological Association’s world congress in Durban were beaten and assaulted within three hours of arriving in the city on Saturday evening. Mexican sociologist Daniel Gutierrez Martinez (33) and Belgian sociologist Delphine Resteigne (28) were attacked by a group of at least 10 youths who attempted to mug them.
Manchester United’s South African tour was an investment in the club’s future despite losing Saturday’s Vodacom Cup final in a penalty shoot-out against Kaizer Chiefs, Alex Ferguson said. Misses by goalkeeper Ben Foster and midfielder Chris Eagles consigned United to a 4-3 penalty defeat against the Johannesburg-based Chiefs on Saturday.
Wage talks between mining company Kumba and employees have deadlocked, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Friday. The union was awarded a certificate for a right to strike following an absence of consensus at a meeting facilitated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, the NUM said in a statement.