KwaZulu-Natal education minister Ina Cronje on Friday threatened legal action against the Inkatha Freedom Party Youth Brigade after it claimed a ”link” between Cronje’s husband and the company distributing stationery for the education department. The brigade on Thursday called on KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele to sack Cronje.
South Africa’s HIV/Aids epidemic appears to be stabilising with new data showing only a marginal increase in new infections over the last year, the Department of Health said on Friday. A national survey of pregnant women visiting ante-natal clinics showed an infection rate of 30,2% compared with 29,5% in a similar study done in 2004.
A container ship stolen from the Walvis Bay harbour in Namibia is not a South African vessel, the South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) revealed on Friday. ”The ship is not registered on any of our [South African] rolls at all,” said Samsa’s Captain Saleem Modak.
Zimbabweans too proud to cry about their troubles could soon find it too dangerous to joke about them. Parliament next month will debate proposals to give the secret police extraordinary powers to intercept, read or listen to the mail, e-mail, telephone or cellphone communications of any of its citizens without the approval of any court.
Maintaining physical health should not be one of the challenges faced by initiates attending an initiation school, Free State provincial minister of health Sakhiwo Belot said on Friday. ”Horrendous malpractices, often resulting in the physical … and psychological debilitation and even death of young men in these schools are well known,” the minister.
The death of veteran journalist Barry Streek had robbed news writing in South Africa of one of its most committed exponents, colleagues said in tribute on Friday. A long-time committee member and former vice-chairperson of the Cape Town Press Club, Streek died earlier in the day after a long struggle with cancer. He was 58.
The death of veteran journalist Barry Streek had robbed news writing in South Africa of one of its most committed exponents, colleagues said in tribute on Friday. A long-time committee member and former vice-chairperson of the Cape Town Press Club, Streek died earlier in the day after a long struggle with cancer. He was 58.
Soweto pupils planned a march to the Gauteng premier’s office in Johannesburg on Friday afternoon in protest against a lack of school buses, the Congress of South African students (Cosas) said. ”Since this term began, many students have been left stranded due to the lack of transport and the Department of Education is to blame,” Cosas provincial chairperson Percy Ntsolo said.
Prison authorities asked the Law Society of the Northern Province on Friday to help some awaiting-trail prisoners and those eligible for parole to be released in an attempt to ease overcrowding in prisons. Speaking at a conference of the society, Johan Wilkens, acting regional head of corrections in Gauteng, said prisons in the province were 171% full.
An appeal to uphold sexual harassment findings against former ambassador Norman Mashabane will probably only be heard in September, the Public Servants’ Association of South Africa (PSA) said on Friday. Mashabane was to have appeared in the Pretoria High Court on Friday, said the PSA’s Johan Blommestein.
Zimbabwe has resumed land allocations after they were halted by a corruption audit of the process, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Friday. Its website said Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe announced this at the opening the 2006 annual chiefs’ conference in Kariba on Thursday.
Kaizer Chiefs were handed a gift-wrapped second crack against Manchester United in the Vodacom Challenge series by virtue of a 2-0 victory over a lacklustre Orlando Pirates at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Rustenburg on Thursday night.
Burger King’s claim to be ”the home of the Whopper” has been challenged by Johannesburg in the past couple of weeks. Although the United States fast-food chain’s advertising slogan refers to its trademark huge hamburger, Egoli’s bid for the title is based on a different meaning of ”whopper”: that of a great big fib.
The grim state of public education in South Africa highlights the fact that — in spite of "pretentious rhetoric" about a national-democratic revolution and transformation — the African National Congress has failed to facilitate access to opportunity for most South Africans, says official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.
The insurance and investment giant Old Mutual has raised a Chinese wall over the bidding process associated with what could be Africa’s largest commercial property sale — the V&A Waterfront — for which multibillion-rand bids close on Monday for the parastatal Transnet’s property in Cape Town.
A Hartbeespoort woman has been warned her home would be auctioned of she failed to pay a debt of R3, media reports said on Friday. ”I think it’s ridiculous — the envelope alone cost them R1,89,” Bettie Hartzenberg said. Hartzenberg’s debt was in connection with arrears licence fees on an ancient Ford tractor.
Jomo Sono has all but given up any ambitions of coaching Bafana Bafana when South Africa hosts the 2010 World Cup, claiming that Local Organising Committee chief executive Danny Jordaan wants a foreign coach at the helm. Sono was interviewed last month by the South African Football Association technical committee.
Chaos erupted in Reiger Park, Boksburg, when residents clashed with metro police over illegal electricity connections on Thursday. Inspector Jimmy Makobo said employees of a private electricity company, JAR, had been sent to the area to disconnect illegal connections when about 500 locals became violent.
Criminal charges have been laid against three Randburg teenage girls and a boy who allegedly tormented a mouse with a lit cigarette before spraying it with aerosol and setting it on fire. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) laid charges of cruelty to animals under various sections of the Animal Cruelty Act on Thursday, SPCA senior inspector Phillip Roberts said.
President Thabo Mbeki’s office stated on Thursday that it had no recollection of a meeting held with French arms company Thomson-CSF (now Thales), but said if such a meeting did take place it must have been ”in a situation with others or of such import that it held no meaningful significance”.
The Cape Town city council will prepare for Green Point to host a 2010 Soccer World Cup semifinal match in the hope that the national government will deliver on its financial promises. ”We accept in good faith the national government’s commitment to these costs, but we need to know for sure before we sign the final contracts,” mayor Helen Zille said on Thursday.
About 30% of people killed in farm attacks are workers, and between 14Â 000 and 30Â 000 have left farms in the past 20 years because of attacks, trade union Solidarity said on Thursday. However, deputy general secretary Dirk Hermann stressed that the police moratorium on crime statistics had not made research easy.
A private member’s Bill intended to compensate victims of violent crime has been submitted by the Democratic Alliance (DA) at Parliament. Crime was a national crisis and ”everyone knows a victim, or is a victim” of violent crime, said DA safety and security spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard.
The conservative Afrikaner enclave of Orania in the Northern Cape is to launch two support groups abroad, a spokesperson said on Thursday. Eleanor Lombard said an Orania member in The Netherlands, Koos Kooy, recently registered an association called the Buitelandse Vriende van Orania (Friends of Orania Abroad).
The findings of a government probe into alleged offences by Zimbabwe’s trade union federation have been handed to the police, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Thursday. Its website said Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche informed the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions of the move on Wednesday.
Paul Scholes insists Manchester United must mount a serious challenge for the Premiership title this season after admitting that the club have waited too long to secure domestic dominance. Scholes (31) is currently proving his fitness on United’s tour of South Africa after missing five months of last season with a blurred-vision problem affecting his right eye.
The African National Congress has condemned the killing of two police officers in Langa, Cape Town, on Wednesday, and called on anyone with information to come forward so that justice can be done. ”We hope the perpetrators of this crime will be brought to book and be removed from society,” ANC provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha said on Thursday.
The five-person panel appointed by the Treasury to study the possibility of imposing a windfall tax on petrochemicals group Sasol and state-owned PetroSA on Thursday issued a 102-page discussion document. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel first mooted the possibility of a windfall tax during his Budget speech in February.
A chemistry professor was bludgeoned on the head while working in his University of Cape Town (UCT) office on Wednesday afternoon, media reports said. The attack was the second in as many years on the campus. In January last year, mathematics professor Brian Hahn was assaulted with an umbrella and kicked in the face.
Three Randburg teenage girls and a boy are being questioned by animal anti-cruelty authorities after they allegedly tormented a mouse with a lit cigarette before spraying it with an aerosol can and setting it on fire. The group was caught out after a video recorded on a cellphone landed at the offices of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Randburg.
![]()
Papers in an application for a postponement of the corruption trial of Jacob Zuma and the French arms dealer Thint have been lodged in the Durban High Court. The defence teams of Thint and the former deputy president have indicated that they would oppose any postponement of the trial.
A Port Elizabeth company has taken the Coega Development Corporation to court after losing a R91-million tender allegedly because it had no black partners. Media reports said on Friday that Scribante Construction’s tender for a infrastructure contract was R8-million cheaper than the one that had been awarded.