The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Wednesday condemned the proposed Western Cape fuel tax of between 10c and 50c a litre in addition to the current national levy. ”The effect of such a levy would be to move the greatest burden of this special tax onto the poor people,” Cosatu said in a statement.
The National Lotteries Board has denied responsibility for the alleged delay in appointing distribution agencies. The board was responding to media reports alleging that charity organisations depending on funding from the lottery were in difficulty as money due to them had not been forthcoming.
More than 240 experts have been placed at problem municipalities to help them improve their affairs, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Wednesday. Gigaba said a total of 112 experts, 18 graduates and 80 students had been mobilised and deployed to the 69 Project Consolidate municipalities.
An Eastern Cape initiate was to appear in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday after allegedly killing a traditional surgeon with a spade. Spokesperson Captain Ernest Sigobe said the 22-year-old initiate was apparently unhappy with the way in which he had been circumcised.
The Democratic Alliance is to invoke the Promotion of Access to Information Act in an attempt to force Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula to reveal how many police officers have been killed this year. Nqakula left for Burundi on Tuesday ”at a time when armed criminals are waging a war of their own against police … ”, DA spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said.
Human rights in health care is not just an apartheid-era issue, but one that still challenges health professionals in South Africa today, the director of the Steve Biko Foundation, Nkosinathi Biko, said on Wednesday. ”There is a tendency to think of it mainly in relation to politically derived violations of human rights,” he said at a conference on the subject.
The case of the former speaker of the Rustenburg municipality, Elizabeth Seduke, and three others accused of stealing cellphones was postponed in the Rustenburg Regional Court on Wednesday. The accused are alleged to have renewed cellphones contracts allocated to Rustenburg councillors and then kept the handsets, which were later sold.
![]()
The Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust is angered by what it calls sensationalising of the multimillion-rand defamation claims that the former deputy president is launching against several media groups, a statement said on Wednesday. ”We are tired of the blatant media bias against our friend, Jacob Zuma,” a statement read.
”Some money” was taken from Standard Bank clients when hackers gained access to the bank’s accounts, group spokesperson Ross Linstrom said on Wednesday. ”There has been some money [taken] but very little. That is not our concern. Our concern is tightening up [security]. In terms of people, it is less than ten,” Linstrom said.
Consumer confidence remained at record-high levels during the second quarter of 2006, according to the latest FNB/BER consumer confidence index (CCI) released on Wednesday. First National Bank (FNB) and Stellenbosch University’s Bureau for Economic Research (BER) said in a statement the CCI declined by an insubstantial one index point.
Fraud and corruption in prisons are on the decline, a senior official said on Wednesday. ”Although the road ahead remains arduous and long, I can confidently say we are winning this battle,” said acting National Commissioner of Correctional Services Patrick Gillingham on Wednesday.
The South African Trade and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) acknowledged on Wednesday it had a R3-million debt, but denied this was from the recent security guard strike. Spokesperson Ronnie Mamba confirmed union general secretary Randall Howard had issued a memorandum urging staffers to keep costs under control, but said this was routine.
The Second Network Operator (SNO) will deliver business services from the end of the year and general services for the public from next year. ”The SNO has adopted a phased approach to rolling-out its services,” managing director Ajay Pandey said in the statement. ”We are currently in discussion with various potential customers and are now in advanced stages of readiness to deliver.”
Western Cape road users will soon have to pay a provincial fuel tax of between 10 and 50 cents a litre in addition to the current national levy, the media reports said on Wednesday. The money raised through the levy would be used to pay for the rehabilitation and upgrading of transport infrastructure and to develop a high quality public transport system.
It is an awe-inspiring sight, watching a nine-tonne attack helicopter perform a loop and barrel rolls, the aeronautical equivalent of Luciano Pavarotti performing a perfect pike on the diving board. But this is exactly what Denel Aviation’s CSH-2 Rooivalk attack helicopter can do, although it is not part of its operational flying capabilities.
The president’s council of the South African Rugby Union (Saru) met in Johannesburg on Tuesday to discuss the extension of the contract of the Springbok coach, Jake White. The council afforded White an opportunity to address them on the matter, whereafter it deliberated further in order to make an informed and conclusive pronouncement.
Acclaimed Flemish artist Frans Claerhout (87) has died in a Bloemfontein hospital, radio news reports said on Tuesday. He died in his sleep, two weeks after being admitted for pneumonia. Born in Belgium in 1919, he became a Catholic priest and came to South Africa as a missionary in 1946, ministering to the people of the Free State.
A senior member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was killed while on his way home on Monday night, the union said. Elias Mulaudzi, the NUM’s branch chairperson at Carletonville’s Driefontein gold mine, was murdered while on his way home from work. ”This is a great loss to us all,” NUM spokesperson general secretary Frans Baleni said on Tuesday.
The injury status within the Springbok squad is still uncertain two days ahead of the team’s departure for their overseas leg of the Tri-Nations. This was revealed at a Springbok press briefing in Johannesburg on Tuesday with assistant coaches Gert Smal and Allistair Coetzee.
Auditor General Shauket Fakie’s latest performance audit of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has revealed serious financial and administrative inefficiencies. The audit tabled in Parliament on Tuesday identified financial and administrative inefficiencies in the management of moneys in trust. It revealed that maintenance and inheritance moneys intended for the poor were not being effectively managed.
The recent spate of violent criminal attacks has raised South Africa’s security threat profile, the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) said on Tuesday. ”They are concerns that pervade both business and public sentiment, and reflect the low level of public confidence in the criminal justice system,” Sacob said in a media statement.
Violence in Western Cape club rugby reared its head again when spectators, including a knife-wielding man, invaded a rugby field in Clanwilliam, the Argus reported on Tuesday. Its website said the fight broke out towards the end of the game between the Clanwilliam Rugby Club and the Delicious club of Clanwilliam on Saturday.
French arms dealer Thint on Tuesday lost its application to have a search warrant declared invalid and documents seized from its offices by the Scorpions returned. The search-and-seizure warrants, granted by Judge President Bernard Ngoepe, form part of the Scorpions’ investigation into allegations of corruption, money laundering, fraud and related offences.
![]()
Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s former deputy president, took aim at the media on Monday, suing publishers, editors, reporters, a cartoonist and newspapers for their coverage and comment of his rape trial. The defamation claims run into hundreds of millions of rands, much of it directed at reporters and editors of Independent Newspapers.
Johnnic Communications group CEO Connie Molusi has been suspended with immediate effect, a board statement said on Tuesday. Business Day earlier reported that Molusi had had several run-ins with Johncom chairperson Mashudu Ramano over the company’s empowerment strategy and faced possible dismissal.
Transport parastatal Transnet on Tuesday reported a massive 57% jump in profits from continuing operations to R8,5-billion for the year ended in March 2006. This represented an increase of R3,1-billion — achieved on the back of a 7% growth in revenue to R26,3-billion.
Speaking during the July update on the government’s programme of action for 2006, the second report back since the State of the Nation address, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said in Pretoria on Tuesday that all of the programmes of the economic and investment cluster were "well on track".
The 37-year-old man who allegedly killed his wife before driving into Durban’s harbour in a bid to cover up the crime has claimed he is mentally unstable. Dhanendra Heeralall appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday to face charges of murder and defeating the ends of justice.
South Africa will pledge an additional R1-million this year to the global fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in Durban on Tuesday. ”We further remain committed to supporting the global fund consistent with our potential and ability to do so,” she said.
An awaiting trial prisoner shot during an attempted escape in Lenasia, Johannesburg, has died, police said on Tuesday. He was wounded during a shoot-out with two policemen who were transporting him and two other men to Potchefstroom in the North West province. Sergeant Modukeng Riba (44) was shot and killed and Inspector Piet Maleka (49) was critically injured.
Three of South Africa’s major banks said accounts had been hacked and that thousands of rands had been stolen, according to media reports on Tuesday. The hackers had found a way of gaining entry to personal or business accounts and then transferring money from these accounts to either cellphone or Telkom prepaid accounts.
![]()
Delaying Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial is ”not fair,” Schabir Shaik said on Monday. Shaik, the man described by Judge Hilary Squires last July as having had a ”generally corrupt relationship” with Zuma, said: ”I read it in the weekend papers. I don’t think it’s fair, but it really is up to Zuma and his team to make that call.”