South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) says the state broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), is guilty of news manipulation and propaganda and it will consider a nation-wide campaign against it.
To some, it’s the symbol of one of the most powerful rugby-playing nations in the world, united by former South African president Nelson Mandela. Others remember it as an icon of racial oppression and exclusivity based on skin colour. There is even a drink named after it.
Former National Intelligence Agency (NIA) director general Billy Masetlha has told the African National Congress probe into the ”hoax e-mails” that he possesses a separate set of e-mails intercepted by his agency — and that they are different from the messages judged to be fraudulent by Intelligence Inspector General Zolile Ngcakani.
Former president FW De Klerk was in stable condition after undergoing an operation to remove a cancerous tumour from his colon, his spokesperson Dave Steward said on Thursday. ”He is still in intensive care, but his condition is stable,” Steward said.
The façade of legality thrown up around the deportation of Pakistani national Khalid Rashid is crumbling as embarrassing new evidence about his fate trickles out of the Pretoria High Court. Despite repeated assurances by Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, it is now abundantly clear that this was no ordinary deportation.
The four main South African banks will increase the prime lending rate to 11%, in line with the repo rate hike Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni announced on Thursday. The prime overdraft rate at Absa, Nedbank and Old Mutual Bank will rise by 0,5 percentage points — from 10,5% to 11% — with effect from Friday.
Former state president FW de Klerk had a second operation on Thursday after developing respiratory problems and is on a ventilator, according to Cape Town’s Panorama Medi-Clinic. De Klerk underwent surgery at the clinic on Saturday to remove a tumour, which was later found to be cancerous, from his colon.
Advocate Cezanne Visser, also known as Advocate Barbie, was forced to call her lover, Advocate Dirk Prinsloo, her ”sex god”, the Pretoria High Court heard on Thursday. Prinsloo was a narcissist and a control freak, and became abusive when he did not get his way, his former personal assistant told the court.
Pay negotiations between representatives of striking security guards and employers are expected to continue until after Thursday midnight, South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union spokesperson Ronnie Mamba said. ”It is too early to tell how the negotiations are going. We are not going to divulge the actual progress of the negotiations,” Mamba said.
The Western Cape treasury is disputing an amount apparently owed to the city of Cape Town, which by noon on Thursday had cut off the water and electricity supply to the provincial department of local government and housing. ”There was agreement in the last month between senior officials from the province and city,” Lynn Brown, provincial minister for finance, said on Thursday.
A new report on seven South African land-reform successes, released this week, says land reform can be successful, but it requires careful planning, post-transfer assistance, debt relief and an interest holiday. Most of all, it requires good old elbow grease from the communities involved. Communities also cannot depend on the government too heavily.
Five more men arrested following the massive heist at Johannesburg International airport in March appeared briefly before a Kempton Park regional magistrate on Thursday. The court heard that a sixth was unable to attend court having been admitted to hospital.
The Western Cape department of local government office in Cape Town had its water and electricity cut off on Thursday over an unpaid bill of almost R750Â 000. City of Cape Town workers cut off the water to the department’s city centre building at 1.12pm and the electricity shortly after that.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has scoffed at suggestions that the party’s newly-elected Tafelsig ward councillor Sheval Arendse be suspended. Briefing the media at Parliament after Wednesday’s by-election, Leon said he was unaware of any charges against Arendse.
Over 15 000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in the civil-engineering component of the construction sector began their wage negotiations with the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors, NUM said on Thursday.
The head of the Medical Research Council (MRC), Professor Anthony MBewu, on Wednesday dismissed as incorrect a set of minutes recording that he agreed to be a medical investigator in Matthias Rath’s South African vitamin campaign. The minutes, compiled by Rath aides, are part of a set of documents recording contact between the controversial German and the MRC in 2004.
The Tafelsig anti-eviction movement on Wednesday called on residents in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain, to boycott a by-election being held in the area. ”We don’t want to vote for anybody, because everybody sold us out,” claimed Ashraf Cassiem, chairperson of the anti-eviction movement in Tafelsig, part of Cape Town.
President Thabo Mbeki has reached new heights of public popularity, with current job-approval ratings matching the best ratings given to Nelson Mandela, the Afrobarometer survey said on Wednesday. According to the survey, conducted in January and February, nearly eight in 10 South Africans approved of the job Mbeki was doing as president. When asked about the way Mbeki had performed his job over the past year, 77% said they approved, with 28% strongly approving.
Talks aimed at resolving the ongoing security guard strike were ”progressing well” at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) said on Wednesday. Satawu and the Transport and Allied Workers’ Union of South Africa have been on strike since March 23.
A 33-year-old man was seriously injured when chemicals at a packaging factory near Durban ignited on Wednesday. Netcare spokesperson Chris Botha said the man had burns to 60% of his body and was airlifted to St Augustine’s hospital. The blast occurred at a division of the packaging conglomerate Nampak.
Representatives of security companies and two unions representing striking security guards resumed talks on Wednesday to resolve the 10-week-old strike. The meeting began at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) offices in Johannesburg at 9am, CCMA spokesperson Lusanda Myoli said.
A tiny minority of individuals has inflicted pain on millions of people in the violence associated with the security sector strike, attacks on local government councillors and those using murder to advance their social and political goals, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. He described the violence as ”an anti-democratic plague”.
There have been further sightings of the critically endangered riverine rabbit beyond its normal distribution, CapeNature said in a statement on Wednesday. ”This is very significant for conservation as it means there is now a whole new area to discover,” read a statement from CapeNature’s Natasha Rockman.
Lawyers for seven men accused of a multimillion-dollar heist at Johannesburg International airport have objected to a police demand for samples of their blood. The state wants the men’s DNA tested to determined whether any of it matches a trace of sweat found on a bolt-cutter left at the scene of the robbery.
President Thabo Mbeki is "not a dictator", but there is no way to hide the dissent within his government over leadership issues, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said it is unfortunate that Mbeki is head of state, government and his political party.
South Africa should consider the introduction of two time zones in order to alleviate Eskom’s electricity peak-demand woes, said Professor Christo Viljoen, a professional electrical engineer and former member of the then-Eskom council, this week. "If South Africa is … divided into two time zones … the peak demand of the two zones will not coincide.
The Department of Labour on Wednesday said it was too early to say if Sasol would be charged with culpable homicide for the September 2004 blast at its Secunda plant. The report on the explosion was with Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana and he still had to study it, his spokesperson Mokgadi Pela said.
The Springboks will field one of their most-experienced sides when they line up against Scotland in the first of two rugby Test matches against the British side on Saturday. The team was named on Wednesday morning, while Scotland are expected to name their team later in the day.
The dribble of voters casting their ballots for the Western Cape’s only by-election being contested in Tafelsig, Mitchell’s Plain, was expected to increase when people returned home from work on Wednesday. The by-election is seen as a two-horse race between Democratic Alliance candidate Sheval Arendse and the Independent Democrats’ June Frans.
Two more people have been taken in for questioning after two prisoners escaped from the Middledrift maximum security prison on Tuesday morning, the Eastern Cape correctional services department said. Authorities have also reviewed the closed circuit television footage which implicated four officers at the prison.
The labour ministry — reacting to a blast that injured 19 workers at a Sasol plant at Sasolburg on Tuesday — slammed employers who put profits before workers’ lives. Sasol spokesperson Andre Botha earlier said: ”Initially we reported that 13 people reported to the medical station for observation, but the number has now risen to 19.”
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The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has welcomed a statement by the African National Congress, which denied that Jacob Zuma would be summoned to answer certain questions. ”We trust that this matter is now closed,” said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven.