Security guards’ unions and their employers were still locked in talks over a new wage offer on Monday night. The employers had been offering 8,3%, but on Friday revised the offer to a three-year deal with a 9,25% pay hike in the first year, 7,25% in the second year and 7% in the third year.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) opposed attempts by some organisations to limit affirmative action to benefit only people born before February 1990. Numsa was responding to a proposal made by the Tuks Afrikaanse Studente to limit affirmative action.
The South African government on Monday demanded a greater say over the way millions in United States HIV/Aids funding is spent in the country, arguing that giving the money directly to local programmes created a coordination problem. The Bush administration has pledged -billion to combat HIV/Aids over five years in 15 of the world’s worst-hit countries.
South Africa this week marks the 30th anniversary of a watershed in its anti-apartheid struggle when hundreds of children in Soweto protesting the forced teaching of Afrikaans died in a brutal police crackdown. The June 16 youth protest began in the black township of Soweto, spreading like wildfire across the country and marking a turning point in the liberation movement.
The challenging reality of access young girls have to termination-of-pregnancy services is acknowledged in a report by the national Department of Health, detailing the first seven years of abortion legislation in South Africa. The report focuses on the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act, implemented in February 1997 and amended in 2004.
A Pietermaritzburg man who is now dead offered R10 000 for the life of a police officer who bore a grudge against him, the high court in the KwaZulu-Natal capital heard on Monday. The allegation appeared during the first day of the trial of Nkosinathi Mbhele (27), who has pleaded not guilty to murdering Inspector Noel Landsberg.
The South African National Defence Force rejected claims on Monday that it is excluding whites from promotion — but steps have to be taken ”from time to time to try to correct an abnormality”, defence ministry spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi said. ”It is an exercise … that aims to meet representivity imperatives,” he said.
Another man has been arrested in connection with the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) hoax e-mail saga, police said on Monday. The NIA’s manager for electronic surveillance, Funokwakhe Madladla. was arrested on Monday morning after he handed himself over to the police.
Advocate Cezanne Visser will not take the stand in her sex-crimes trial, the Pretoria High Court heard on Monday. The state finally closed its case against Visser more than a year after the trial started. Her trial was postponed to August 15 for final argument. It is expected that judgement will take several days to complete.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was asked on Monday to investigate the disappearance from South Africa of Pakistani national Khalid Mahmood Rashid. Rashid’s lawyer, Zehir Omar, has spoken with and subsequently sent a fax to the ICC office of prosecutors in The Hague asking it to investigate the ”enforced disappearance” of Rashid.
A large number of striking security guards gathered at Beyers Naude Square in central Johannesburg on Monday to hear how wage talks with their employers were progressing. South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) members said employers have offered them an improved 9,25% wage increase.
Black farmers on Monday called for unity among all farmers to address challenges facing the sector. ”Without this unity we shall continue to fight about land from a political stance instead of solving the problem from a social and economic sustainability perspective,” the president of the National African Farmers’ Union of South Africa said.
Rand Merchant Bank has entered into a loan agreement with two international banks to implement an affordable housing-loan scheme for low-income earners. Spokesperson Kevin Wiles said on Monday that the multimillion-rand scheme was to benefit South Africans earning between R2Â 000 and R8Â 000 per month.
Fifteen employees of a rubber factory were on Sunday morning rushed to hospital with respiratory problems after inhaling tear gas in Elrode, Alberton, Ekurhuleni emergency services said. ”The affected people suffered skin and eye irritation,” spokesperson Sugan Moodley said.
Nuclear power station Koeberg was operating at 90% capacity on Sunday and would be fully operational by Monday, Eskom said. ”It is generating about 90% of its output … The staff at Koeberg will continue monitoring the situation and increase capacity to 100% by tomorrow [Monday],” said company spokesperson Fanie Zulu.
The search was continuing on Monday morning for two men who crashed into the sea with their microlight aircraft near Port St Johns, the National Sea Rescue Institute said. ”Both men are missing and presumed to be deceased,” spokesperson Craig Lambinon said.
Sounds of Zulu war dances and a military parade filled the air on Sunday as South Africans hailed a Zulu hero whose rebellion a century ago sowed the first seeds of black resistance. Soldiers and Zulu warriors, dressed in traditional leopard skins, joined thousands to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Bhambatha rebellion, an event that had huge ramifications in South African history.
South Africa is taking small steps to stop Aids from wreaking havoc on its key farming sector in a nation with one of the world’s heaviest caseloads. A few NGOs and farmers have launched testing programmes, but the government has no specific policy for the sector that is emerging as one of hardest-hit by the pandemic.
After 100 years in existence, the Springboks celebrated with a clinical 36-16 victory over Scotland at King’s Park Stadium in Durban on Saturday. A revamped Bok outfit outscored their northern-hemisphere counterparts by four tries to none and also scored four penalties and two conversions.
The Western Cape department of local government had its electricity and water reconnected on Friday after it paid R242 000 towards its arrears bill. The department’s city centre building was disconnected on Thursday over what the City of Cape Town said was an outstanding amount of over R724 000.
The Department of Correctional Services has deployed a team of investigators to probe the possibility of a syndicate assisting prisoners to escape from the Middledrift and St Albans prisons in the Eastern Cape. Spokesperson Zukisa Nduneni on Friday said a team from the department’s investigation unit has been deployed.
South Africans of all races are gearing up to mark a historic Zulu uprising against British colonial masters a century ago, seen as the birth of black resistance that later ended apartheid. Soldiers in uniform and Zulu warriors on Sunday will commemorate the 100th year of the Bhambatha rebellion in protest against a British tax.
The Vereeniging laundry murder case will soon be re-enrolled at court, Gauteng minister of community safety Firoz Cachalia said on Friday. ”The police have assured me that the matters of concern raised by the magistrate are being dealt with and that the case will soon be re-enrolled at court,” Cachalia said during his budget speech.
Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni has filed papers with the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein in a final bit to challenge his four-year prison sentence passed in 2003 in relation to fraud. Yengeni is asking for leave to appeal directly to the Supreme Court of Appeal against his fraud sentence.
The United Association of South Africa has accused Transnet of intimidation after a witness in a disciplinary case against 14 of its members was arrested during the hearing in Johannesburg on Friday. The man, who had been called to testify in defence of 16 Transnet employees, was arrested by police during a recess in the hearings.
The traditional-medicines sector will soon be recognised in the department of health’s budget, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday. Speaking at a traditional-medicine workshop in Benoni, Tshabalala-Msimang said her department will also speed up the process of establishing an interim traditional-health council.
The Kruger National Park (KNP), veterinary surgeons and researchers are closely monitoring an outbreak of anthrax in the north of the park. ”We would like to assure the public that this is a minor outbreak … and, at this stage, there is no major cause for concern,” KNP executive director Bandile Mkhize said.
Hospitalised former president FW de Klerk is recovering well, his family said on Friday. ”He’s very relaxed at the moment and everyone is very positive, and it seems as if we’re over the worst and now it’s just the road ahead,” De Klerk’s eldest son, Jan, told the South African Press Association.
Put aside tactics, history and sentiment and just carve out a win. That seems to have been Springbok coach Jake White’s message to his team ahead of their season-opening Test against Scotland in Durban on Saturday. With much fanfare being made by the Scottish contingent about how they will take on the Bok forward challenge, White’s chief priority is victory.
Health for all is one of the central goals of South Africa’s reconstruction and development, says South African President Thabo Mbeki, who on Friday indicated that South Africa is putting too few resources into the development of sport, which is currently in the doldrums on the international stage.
Security guards will be urged to accept a revised offer made by their employers after marathon talks, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) said on Friday. ”We are going to report back to our members in a positive light,” Satawu general secretary Randall Howard said after the two-day discussions.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has extended a hand to President Thabo Mbeki to assist him in dealing with ”major problems and crises” facing the country. But Leon has warned that the president had in the past refused to accept that his party could oppose the government politically while at the same time cooperate in resolving problems.