Much work must still be done to ensure optimal implementation of HIV and Aids policy in both primary and high schools, a conference heard on Thursday. Although the majority of schools have guidelines on the Department of Education’s HIV and Aids policy, a wide gap still exists between policy and implementation.
Whether or not there was enough water for the Roodefontein development should not have held up his department’s decision on its approval, former Western Cape environment provincial minister David Malatsi said on Thursday. He was testifying in the Bellville Regional Court, where he and former premier Peter Marais face corruption charges.
Deputy Minister of Defence Mluleki George will attend the 90th commemoration of the Battle of Delville Wood in France on Sunday, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday. During the ceremony — which commemorates the South Africans who perished in World War I — a new South African coat of arms will be unveiled at the South African memorial on the site.
Nelson Mandela and former United States president Bill Clinton teamed up on Thursday to raise funds for African children with heart problems.
Two-thirds of the cargo has been removed from the grounded Safmarine Agulhas and the rest will be steam-cleaned before being taken ashore, the National Port Authority (NPA) said on Thursday. NPA East London spokesperson Terry Taylor said 475 containers have been offloaded.
The name of the man to take the South African senior soccer team to the 2010 World Cup will remain a secret for a few more weeks, as he does not exist. South African Football Association CEO Raymond Hack on Thursday admitted that they are yet to receive recommendations from the technical committee led by Sturu Pasiya.
The Zimbabwean student accused of trying to hijack a South African Airways (SAA) domestic flight last month was denied bail in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. Tinashe Rioga (21) had failed to prove the exceptional circumstances necessary for bail to be granted, Magistrate Suzette Marais ruled.
The circumcision death toll in the Eastern Cape has reached 19 with news on Thursday of the death of another would-be initiate, the provincial health department said. An official said the 18-year-old youth died after being circumcised at an illegal initiation school in the Libode area of Transkei.
Free State police have launched a manhunt for a gang who robbed a chartered aircraft at the Bloemfontein airport of an undisclosed amount of money early on Thursday. Police spokesperson Captain Elsa Gerber said a group of between eight and ten men stopped their Ford bakkie in front of the Baron Beachcraft twin prop plane at around 7.45am, preventing the pilot from taking off.
There had been nothing inappropriate about socialising with Italian Count Riccardo Agusta while his own department was deciding on Riccardo’s planned Roodefontein golf estate development, former Western Cape environment MEC David Malatsi said on Wednesday.
South African mobile phone operator MTN has extended its offer for Investcom until further notice and said on Thursday 99,5% of Investcom’s shareholders had accepted the deal. MTN, Africa’s largest cellular operator, had previously said the second closing date of the offer to shareholders of Investcom LLC was July 12 2006.
As the anti-apartheid icon turns 88 and increasingly shuns the limelight.
Violence will not stop the minibus taxi recapitalisation programme, the Department of Transport said on Thursday. ”No amount of threats and thuggery by a tiny group will influence our determination to proceed with the implementation of our policies and programmes,” spokesperson Collen Msibi said in a statement on Thursday.
Jewish bodies on Thursday hit back at the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) following its call for boycotts against Israel. The union federation also denounced Israel’s military incursions into Gaza. Israeli jets bombed the Palestinian foreign ministry in Gaza and Beirut’s international airport on Thursday.
Six major South African businesses will officially back the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, the local organising committee announced in Pretoria on Wednesday. First National Bank has already announced that it will sponsor the soccer extravaganza to the tune of -million (about R212,7-million).
Distribution of water, reliability of water supply, water storage and vandalism were problems still facing communities hit by a cholera outbreak at the end of 2000, scientists said on Wednesday. The outbreak in 2000 claimed the lives of 265 people in five provinces and 120Â 000 others were infected.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is adamant that information exists to justify reopening the Chris Hani murder case, it said on Wednesday. ”It is not so much a question of new information, but old information that we believe was never adequately followed up,” said spokesperson Malesela Moleka.
Nelson Mandela’s legacy of tolerance was celebrated in Johannesburg on Wednesday. ”For me, the meaning of Mandela is the idea of plurality and tolerance of ideas. That’s the biggest challenge facing our country today,” said Witwatersrand University academic Xolela Mangcu.
Gauteng residents have been promised more visible policing, more roadblocks and improved 10111 call centres as part of an intensive new crime-fighting strategy to be implemented over the next six months — although an analyst has pointed out that parts of the strategy look like "more of the same".
A senior official in the Western Cape’s department of environmental affairs was on Wednesday accused of racism by corruption accused David Malatsi. Malatsi, a former environment and development planning minister in the province, was being cross-examined by prosecutor Bruce Morrison in the Bellville Regional Court.
National convenor of selectors, Haroon Lorgat, on Tuesday announced the withdrawal of Proteas captain Graeme Smith from the Sri Lankan tour, which starts at the end of the month. Smith slipped and sustained an injury to his right ankle while running on Saturday evening in Knysna.
A man who allegedly shot and killed three people during a dispute over an electricity bill was killed by the police near Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday morning. Rodney Gxubane, who allegedly killed his landlord, the landlord’s daughter and a boyfriend of another of the landlord’s daughters last month was shot dead by members of the Serious and Violent Crimes Unit in Sweetwaters
The figures are certainly impressive. According to Statistics South Africa, the country’s tourism industry has experienced growth of more than 100% since the demise of apartheid in 1994. But in a country struggling to overcome the effects of apartheid, these figures do not necessarily add up to a success story.
Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates flew to Pretoria on Tuesday to discuss the Aids pandemic with President Thabo Mbeki. Gates is in South Africa to attend a Microsoft-sponsored forum of African government and business leaders on ways technology can improve competitiveness on the impoverished continent.
South Africa has expressed outrage at the series of bomb blasts that killed at least 163 people and wounded 464 more on the rail network in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday. ”We express our confidence that the Indian authorities will ensure that those responsible will face the consequences of their own actions,” President Thabo Mbeki said.
Millionaire Italian developer Count Riccardo Agusta doled out donation cheques to senior New National Party members in the Western Cape government after they intervened on his behalf in the Roodefontein development, the Bellville Regional Court heard on Tuesday. This was in testimony from former Western Cape environment and development planning provincial minister David Malatsi.
National convenor of selectors Haroon Lorgat on Tuesday announced the withdrawal of Proteas captain Graeme Smith from the Sri Lankan tour, which starts at the end of the month. Smith slipped and sustained an injury to his right ankle while running on Saturday evening in Knysna.
A performance audit of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) by Auditor General Shauket Fakie has shown that it was owed 71% of its total levies by municipalities — a total of R135,3-million — by the end of the 2004/05 financial year. At the same time, the organisation hiked its salary budget between 2004/05 and 2005/06 from R39-million to R49,4-million.
Transformation in rugby is no longer a moral issue; it is a strategic necessity if the sport is to survive in South Africa. That is the view of Dr Willie Basson, author of the transformation charter that the South African Rugby Union (Saru) adopted at its latest president’s council meeting. Presenting the charter to the media on Tuesday, Basson said rugby’s traditional resource pool is dwindling.
No school buses will be running when pupils return to their classes on Monday unless the Gauteng education department comes up with R14-million allegedly owed to operators. The department is not honouring its contractual agreement, South African Bus Operators’ Association executive manager Eric Cornelius said.
Technology can be used to empower individuals, promote economic growth and reduce inequality, former United States president Bill Clinton told a conference in Cape Town on Tuesday. He was speaking on the final day of deliberations at the Government Leaders Forum-Africa conference.
The cost of connectivity is the biggest factor inhibiting more access to computers, specifically in developing continents such as Africa, Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates said in Cape Town on Tuesday. ”That cost is much higher in places where there are less people connected,” Gates told an audience attending the final day of the Government Leaders Forum-Africa conference.