Poor ticket sales for last weekend’s rugby Test between South Africa and Scotland has deepened the money woes of the Eastern Province Rugby Union, Herald Online reported on Tuesday. It said only 17 000 tickets were sold for the match in Port Elizabeth. This resulted in the crisis-ridden union’s debt to South African Rugby ballooning to R3-million.
Zimbabwe has set up roadblocks to prevent private buyers from purchasing maize from farmers, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday. ”We have our personnel on the ground to get hold of culprits that were illegally buying maize from farmers,” said Grain Marketing Board head Samuel Muvuti.
At no time has Standard Bank had any knowledge of — or "to the best of its knowledge" been party to — any unlawful actions of a fund administrator that has engaged the bank to provide the benefits of bulking by means of its cash-management service, MPs were told on Tuesday.
Striking security guards and industry employers were on the brink of signing a wage deal to end the three-month strike early on Tuesday morning. Talks were still in progress shortly before 6am as the parties worked through the night in deliberations around talks mediated by the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration in Parktown, Johannesburg.
An elderly man who was stung to death bees at a village near Butterworth at the weekend was probably taking part in a cultural ceremony to remove dangerous African honey bees. Eastern Cape police said on Monday that Victor Ndoda Nyembezi (73) had been part of a group of about 100 people who were trying to remove a hive from a homestead in Mgomanzi village on Friday.
There has been a break-in at the African Christian Democratic Party’s (ACDP) offices in the Kwazulu-Natal legislature, party spokesperson Cedric Sokhutu said on Monday. ”Paperwork files have been removed from MPL Joanne Down’s office and there is a possibility that the computer hard drive has been interrogated,” he said.
Arms control campaigners are to present the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the world’s largest visual petition at 10am at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg. They want the government to know that thousands of South Africans are calling for tough controls on the international arms trade.
The reaction of South African Airways (SAA) to Saturday’s attempted hijacking showed that the airline’s emergency policies and procedures were adequate to the task, SAA boss Khaya Ngqula said on Monday. ”All the rules were adhered to. Everybody was safe. Everybody reached their final destination,” Ngqula, the airline’s CEO, said.
The Springboks have been dealt a massive blow to their chances this year with the news that flanker Schalk Burger has been ruled out of rugby until January 2007. It is the latest in a string of injuries that are catching up with the Boks, and following the scrappy performance in beating the Scottish in Port Elizabeth at the weekend, coach Jake White must be a worried man.
A total of 419 primary schools in poor communities in the Western Cape have been given ”no-fee” status, the provincial education department announced on Monday. This would bring relief to parents of almost 150 000 learners, it said in a statement. An amount of R29-million had been allocated to fund the initiative in the current financial year.
The body of another murdered security guard was found hanging from a tree in Springs on Monday, Gauteng police said. ”He was found hanging from a tree, he had a wound possibly caused by a sharp object on his head and his legs had been tied up,” Superintendent Andy Pieke said.
The death of a female leopard three days after she tore herself from a gin trap in the Eastern Cape has reignited debate around what some conservationists call ”barbaric weapons”. The leopard tore free from the trap and was on the loose in the Baviaanskloof area for at least three days with the trap still attached to her paw.
South Africa’s proposals to clamp down on ”canned hunting”, or the killing of captive animals, will be useless unless the laws are clear and properly enforced, an animal welfare group said on Monday. ”The loopholes will be exploited,” said Neil Greenwood, Southern African spokesperson of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Twelve people were killed and four left in a critical condition when a tour bus overturned near Kroonstad on Monday, Free State police said. Captain Rosa Benade said 35 people were treated for serious injuries on the accident scene and moved to the Boithumelo and Kroon hospitals.
The police on Monday defended the conduct of the special task force aboard the South African Airways (SAA) plane that was subject to a hijacking attempt on the weekend. ”Obviously, from the police side, it is regrettable that some passengers feel they have been traumatised, but at the end of the day their safety was the primary concern,” spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said.
Representatives of striking security guards and industry employers were meeting at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration on Monday afternoon in the latest efforts to end the pay dispute. ”They are now meeting,” South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union spokesperson Ronnie Mamba said.
Support for a third term for President Thabo Mbeki has not cost South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) leader Mlungisi Hlongwane his job. National executive committee member Donovan Williams said a Business Day article reporting that Hlongwane and deputy general secretary Master Mahlobogoane had been suspended was wrong.
New fire trucks bought by Cape Town’s municipality are put together with ”pop rivets”, a probe into the state of city’s overstretched fire services has been told. The claim is contained in an interim report, made public on Monday, by a committee headed by councillor Debbie Schafer.
Former South African president FW de Klerk is now ”communicating pretty freely” with people from his bed in an intensive-care unit, after a lengthy period under sedation, spokesperson Dave Steward of the FW de Klerk Foundation said on Monday.
First National Bank (FNB) will pay a total of R154-million to 50 000 ex-Saambou customers who were overcharged interest on their home loans, FNB announced on Monday. Saambou Bank was placed under curatorship in February 2002, when FNB acquired its home loans book.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has made a key contribution to making the African dream a reality and no more will Africa be perceived as a dark continent without any rule of law and development, the ruling African National Congress said on Monday in celebration of his 64th birthday.
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Only when former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial kicks off on July 31 will the defence teams and the National Prosecuting Authority know who will be the presiding judge. On Monday KwaZulu-Natal Judge President Vuka Tshabalala said: ”You will see when he presides.”
A slightly built Zimbabwean University of Cape Town student, Tinashe Rioga (21), appeared briefly in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court on Monday in connection with an alleged aircraft hijacking attempt. Rioga was overpowered by fellow passengers on board a domestic flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg on Saturday morning.
Fifty-seven security guards have died since a strike in the industry began in March, the chairperson of a provident fund for the guards confirmed on Monday. Kevin Derrick, acting chairperson of the Private Security Industry Provident Fund, confirmed a report in Beeld newspaper, saying this was based on a study of newspaper reports since the strike began on March 23.
The 21-year-old student who allegedly tried to force his way into the cockpit of a South African Airways (SAA) aircraft with a hypodermic needle on a flight from Cape Town on Saturday is to appear in the Bishop Lavis Magistrate’s court on Monday, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported.
Support for a third term for President Thabo Mbeki has cost South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) leader Mlungisi Hlongwane his job, media reports said on Monday. Hlongwane was suspended as president after his calls for a third term for Mbeki as head of state.
The Alan Paton Award for 2006 has been jointly won by Adam Levin for his book AidSafari and Judge Edwin Cameron’s Witness to Aids. ”The five judges believed strongly that both Levin and Cameron displayed exceptional integrity and bravery in laying bare as public testimony the details of their experience and their struggle with Aids,” said awards convenor Michele Magwood.
A 21-year old Zimbabwean man is in police custody after holding a hypodermic needle to an air hostess’s throat on a South African Airways flight on Saturday. Police said the man had apparently wanted to force the pilot to fly to Maputo. Cape Town resident Yunus Ismail told the Mail & Guardian Online he was sitting in his business class seat when he saw the man walking towards the cockpit with an air hostess.
South Africa’s trade relations with juggernaut China will be put to the test this week when Premier Wen Jiabao jets into Cape Town for talks centred around China’s mighty textile industry. The SA economy has been hit hard in its own textiles sector by cheap imports from China and President Thabo Mbeki’s government has come under increasing pressure to deal with the problem.
A 21-year-old man was arrested on Saturday morning after he allegedly threatened a South African Airways (SAA) crew member with a syringe shortly after a plane took-off from the Cape Town International airport. Cape Town resident Yunus Ismail was sitting in his business class seat when he saw the man walking towards the cockpit with an air hostess.
Leaders of four of the largest opposition parties were united on Saturday in their condemnation of floor-crossing and calling for its abolition. Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon and his Inkatha Freedom Party and Freedom Front Plus counterparts Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Pieter Mulder, and African Christian Democratic Party MP Steve Swart, shared a stage in an anti-defection rally.
An uninspired Springboks outfit managed to scrape through to a 29-15 victory over Scotland to end up 2-0 in their two Test series played at the Eastern Province Rugby Union stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. The home side offered little on the day as they came under some unrelenting pressure from a determined Scottish pack.