The South African Chamber of Business says although the announcement of a proposed fuel levy to be implemented in the Western Cape comes as no surprise, the timing of the announcement by the region’s Transport MEC is ”unfortunate.” The figure of the proposed fuel levy has not yet been announced, although sources have suggested figures of between 10 and 50 cents per litre.
While South Africa will urge North Korea to stop its missile testing, it is not convinced that United Nations Security Council action is the best way to solve the crisis, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Friday. He said the issue will be on the agenda for a meeting on Tuesday with his North Korean counterpart.
Serious crime has decreased in Johannesburg, with a 5,6% drop in murders, a 9,9% drop in hijackings and an 18,8% decrease in attempted murders during the metro police’s Operation Token Days. ”There is a huge mountain of work which has been done,” Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said on Friday.
A mini-documentary will put destination South Africa on centre stage during the final 2006 Fifa championship match between France and Italy on July 9, South African Tourism said in a statement on Friday. The two-minute production will be screened on giant television screens in Berlin’s Olympiastadion during half-time.
Government’s social sector cluster of ministries is making steady progress with delivery, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said on Friday. Over 3,4-million children under the age of 14 now received the child-support grant, he said during a media briefing on the implementation of government’s programme of action.
The government has politicised policing to the detriment of South Africans, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday. ”Far from removing policing from the party political arena, this government has actually aggravated the politicisation of policing to the detriment of the safety of its citizens,” he wrote in his weekly newsletter on the DA website.
Thirty-eight people, including trade union officials, appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday in connection with the May 16 rampage through Cape Town by striking security guards. The cases were postponed to August 25 for further investigation.
The FF Plus said on Thursday that it would ask Finance Minister Trevor Manuel to investigate the constitutionality of an intended provincial fuel levy. The party’s minerals and energy spokesperson, Willie Spies, said he would ask Manuel to investigate whether the planned fuel levy for the Western Cape would be justifiable in terms of Section 228(2) of the Constitution.
Police will launch special operations in the coming six months to combat serious and violent crimes, Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula announced on Friday. ”We would bring to the attention of the criminals out there that we’re going to be on their necks,” Nqakula vowed.
The National House of Traditional Leaders is to appoint a four-member task team to get ”first-hand information” on ongoing problems with traditional circumcision ceremonies. The resolution follows the deaths of 16 youths and the hospitalising of dozens more in the Eastern Cape over the past few weeks.
Making cities like Johannesburg safer also involves helping the people who live there feel safer, urban experts said on Thursday. ”Fear is such a powerful element associated with cities,” said Professor Sophie Body-Gendrot, of the Centre for Urban Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.
South African Airways’ (SAA) profits fell by 90% from R648-million last year to R65-million in the past financial year, the company said on Thursday. SAA chief executive Khaya Ngqula said: ”We got what we deserved … We have no one to blame.” He announced that SAA plans to launch its own low-cost carrier by the end of the year.
The Free State Cheetahs coaching staff, led by Rassie Erasmus, believes their first real test of the Currie Cup season will come when the defending champions face the Lions on Saturday. The Cheetahs are coming off two massive wins, over Griquas and the Falcons, while the Lions are coming off successive losses.
The Springboks are nowhere near to being down and out, despite an unsatisfactory start to the international season that saw them beat Scotland 2-0, lose to France and relinquish their number two world ranking. Springbok coach Jake White remains optimistic that his squad will perform well, against expectation, in their overseas leg of the Tri-Nations competition.
The plastics on Thursday finally came off the controversial statue of the man said to have inspired the naming of the metropole of Tshwane. The 6,2m bronzed figure of Chief Tshwane was unveiled in a low-key ceremony outside the Pretoria city hall, months after it was erected and put under wraps.
Some of the accused in the multimillion-dollar heist at Johannesburg International airport claim they were forced to admit they were involved in the crime, the Kempton Park regional court heard on Thursday. The court heard that Nazir Ismail had said earlier in the week his statement was not made voluntarily but under duress, and that he did not intend testifying for the state.
The Airports Company South Africa on Thursday introduced a new convenient ”pick-up-and-go” parking area at the Johannesburg International airport. ”This facility will be free for the first five minutes to people picking up passengers from the international arrivals terminal as of tomorrow [Friday],” said the airport’s landside manager, Kesavan Naicker.
The Democratic Alliance has challenged Education Minister Naledi Pandor to back its private member’s Bill defining ”basic education”. The Bill in the name of DA MP George Boinamo was submitted to National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete on Thursday.
A European Union ban on ostrich imports and meat from two Western Cape districts will not be devastating, the South African Ostrich Business Chamber (SAOBC) said on Thursday. ”It is the low season for ostrich consumption in Europe so most of the abattoirs are closed …, so the effect will not be [as] big as it was in 2004,” said Anton Kruger, chief executive of the SAOBC.
South Africa is ”well placed” to discuss this week’s missile tests with North Korea, Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister said on Thursday, citing Pretoria’s good diplomatic relations with Pyongyang. North Korea on Wednesday fired a salvo of seven missiles of various types into the Sea of Japan that separates the Korean peninsula from the Japanese islands, sparking an international outcry.
An estimated three million children in South Africa are involved in exploitative labour, a conference on the matter heard on Thursday. ”The government of South Africa estimated that 32,5% of children aged five to 14 years were working in 1999. Between 248Â 000 and three-million children are engaged in exploitative child labour in South Africa,” Dr Helene Aiello of Khulisa Management Services told the Reducing Exploitative Child Labour in South Africa conference in Boksburg.
The Johannesburg Labour Court has granted an order preventing Ekurhuleni metro police from taking part in illegal protests. The court order prevents the South African Municipal Workers’ Union and its members from marching on Thursday as planned, said Ekurhuleni metro police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wilfred Kgasago.
A probe has been ordered into the leaking of SMS messages over an apparent secret love affair between a married Western Cape provincial minister and a journalist, the Cape Times reported on Thursday. Provincial Premier Ebrahim Rasool said there had been ”several incidents of breaches of provincial government security” in the past few weeks.
An injury-ravaged Springbok team leave South Africa on Thursday night for the southern hemisphere’s Tri-Nations competition with Australia and New Zealand with speculation rife their coach will head to England at the completion of the matches in September.
When former radio presenter and adventurer Patricia Glyn read her great-great-grand uncle’s diary three years ago, she immediately decided on a roots odyssey. She would walk in the footsteps of her ancestors and peek into the world they once knew, writes Yolandi Groenewald.
No less than a quarter of annual development aid — about -billion — is being used by donor countries to fund technical assistance of sometimes dubious worth, says ActionAid International in a new report. The study, titled Real Aid 2, was launched on Wednesday by the Johannesburg-based NGO.
The justice system is failing children because an important Bill that will protect the rights of children has virtually disappeared since 2003. This emerged on Wednesday at the Reducing Exploitative Child Labour in South Africa conference in Boksburg. ”The Child Justice Bill was the product of four years of work,” said Jacqui Gallinetti of the University of the Western Cape.
Images of the terrorist attacks on September 11 in the United States flashed through the minds of police when they heard of an attempted hijacking of a South African Airways (SAA) flight on June 17, the investigating officer testified in Cape Town on Wednesday. ”At the airport everybody was emotional and worried,” said Superintendent Lungisile Manyana.
The South African Trade and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) will investigate the leaking of a memo on its R3-million debt, believing this is linked to its forthcoming elections, Satawu said on Wednesday. ”We have no doubt that this memo was leaked deliberately,” a statement from the union read. ”It was never intended for media or even public consumption.”
In just three years, Johannesburg’s shiny Nelson Mandela Bridge has gone from being a symbol of the city’s upliftment to a vandalised, shabby hangout for criminals. ”It’s no longer heavenly and the essence of it is no longer so. It’s sad,” said Penelope Motubatse, who uses the bridge almost every day.
The ”recklessness” with which some South African lose their identity documents (IDs) is a concern, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba said on Wednesday. ”Some people in South Africa have been applying for an ID five times a year,” Gigaba said.
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Affairs has budgeted R1-billion to update its management of money in trust programme (MMIT), its chief operations officer Khotso De Wee said on Wednesday. His remarks come after Auditor General Shauket Fakie tabled a report in Parliament on Tuesday identifying serious financial and administrative inefficiencies in the MMIT.