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/ 22 December 2005
The troubled Orlando Pirates’ ship continued to flounder in turbulent waters at Johannesburg Stadium on Wednesday night — with the Buccaneers surrendering their Premier Soccer League lead for the first time since the opening weeks of the season after a goalless draw against modest Classic.
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/ 22 December 2005
Red cards and penalties punctuated a night of drama as Sundowns scored a resounding 4-0 victory over a hapless Dynamos in a Premier Soccer League match at the Giyani Stadium on Wednesday. The win ensured Sundowns will go into the end-of-the-year recess at the top of the log, one point ahead of Orlando Pirates.
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/ 22 December 2005
The Eastern Cape health department has identified a possible 179 ghost workers on its books, which could mean savings totalling R1,59-million a month. A departmental spokesperson made the announcement on Wednesday at the end of a month-long exercise in which staff were asked to collect their pay cheques in person.
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/ 22 December 2005
It was a tearful reunion at the Johannesburg International airport on Wednesday night as two South African air-crew members held captive in Equatorial Guinea for more than a month were reunited with their family and friends. The two had been held in the country since November 17 as pawns in a commercial dispute.
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/ 22 December 2005
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The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has denied bowing to political pressure in deciding not to proceed with a planned interview with former deputy president Jacob Zuma, who reportedly raised his concerns about the cancellation of the interview in a letter to SABC group chief executive Dali Mpofu.
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/ 22 December 2005
South Africa- and United Kingdom-listed financial-services group Old Mutual on Wednesday reported a confirmed acceptance level from Skandia shareholders representing 64,28% of the total number of shares and votes in Skandia (on a fully diluted basis), an improvement on the 62,5% level of acceptances previously announced.
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/ 21 December 2005
This year’s matric exams were valid and credible, education quality assurance body Umalusi said on Wednesday in Pretoria. It found that the country’s matric, adult education and vocational examinations were conducted in line with policy and the results were valid, reliable, fair and credible, said Umalusi chairperson John Pampallis.
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/ 21 December 2005
Listed gaming and hotels group Peermont Global has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in the Tusk Casino Resorts and Hotels group for a total of between R440,3-million and R583-million in cash, the company announced on Wednesday. Peermont owns the Emperors Palace casino and hotel complex in Johannesburg, among others.
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/ 21 December 2005
Western Cape fruit farmers are over the worst of their diesel crisis, Agri WesCape chief executive Carl Opperman said on Wednesday. ”At the moment, there is diesel trickling in to the point where we can keep the [industry] going,” he said. ”The worst is over if the flow of diesel continues to increase.”
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/ 21 December 2005
The Happy People, as Orlando Pirates supporters dubbed themselves in happier times, are putting on a brave front. The ultimate indignity could emerge on Wednesday night if the Buccaneers surrender the log lead they have enjoyed for most of the season on the eve of the Premier Soccer League preparing for a two-month break.
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/ 21 December 2005
Two South African air-crew members, who have been held in Equatorial Guinea over a business dispute since November 17, have had their passports returned and will return to Johannesburg as soon as possible, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
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/ 21 December 2005
Gunmen on Tuesday shot out the windows of a jewellery store at the Menlyn Park shopping centre in Pretoria in order to steal the merchandise. According to a witness, robbers fired several shots just after 8pm at Arthur Kaplan’s, shattering the windows. Shoppers ran for cover at nearby restaurants at the sound of the shots.
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/ 21 December 2005
A man mauled to death by tigers at Bloemfontein Zoo on Sunday was a robber who ended up in the cage while fleeing arrest, police said on Tuesday. Captain Elsa Gerber said it appears the man and a friend had been robbing people at the zoo. He fled into the enclosure to avoid arrest.
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/ 21 December 2005
Beit Bridge border post is fraught with problems, an interdepartmental committee found in a visit to the port of entry from Zimbabwe on Tuesday. Apart from ”phenomenal” traffic congestion, there was little signage, too few toilets and immigration staff lacked commitment, dedication and discipline, found the committee.
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/ 20 December 2005
Wearing only Speedo trunks, goggles and a swimming cap, British endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh completed two record-breaking swims in the icy waters of Antarctica, a statement from his expedition said last week. Pugh took 18 minutes and 10 seconds to complete a 1km swim off Petermann Island on December 14.
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/ 20 December 2005
A concerned father checking up on his holidaying daughter called her cellphone only to be told she had been murdered, said police. The 16-year-old girl had only minutes earlier been declared dead by paramedics called by a security guard to the scene of her stabbing.
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/ 20 December 2005
Talks to secure the release of two South African air-crew members held in Equatorial Guinea as part of a business dispute continued on Tuesday ”with good progress made”, one of the companies involved said. ”Yes, there has been progress with the negotiations,” Venatto Trading director Didier Pereira said.
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/ 20 December 2005
Rain and a drop in temperature to below 20 degrees Celsius are predicted for the entire coast from Plettenberg Bay to Durban on Christmas Day, according to the South African Weather Bureau. Mpumalanga and Limpopo will be hit by the colder, wetter weather late on Sunday, but Cape Town should experience fine Christmas weather.
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/ 20 December 2005
New Bafana Bafana coach Ted Dumitru has insisted on Monday that his pronouncement that ”some players on the initial shortlist of 35 for the African Nations Cup will bow out — while others not in the 35 will be included in an abbreviated list of 26 on Thursday” is in line with the squad’s evolution.
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/ 20 December 2005
Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has dismissed as false a news report that he had fallen out with party secretary general Musa Zondi. The report, in a KwaZulu-Natal newspaper, also said Buthelezi suspended Zondi at the weekend. ”Both claims are false,” Buthelezi said in a statement on Tuesday.
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/ 20 December 2005
The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) is to become a government agency with assigned powers, the Department of Labour said on Tuesday. ”The UIF will become an autonomous organisational component in the public service, but will still remain a statutory body of the department,” Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said.
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/ 20 December 2005
A national lottery ticket worth R10 066 972 expired on Sunday after the winner didn’t claim the prize, said Uthingo spokesperson Shenanda Janse van Rensburg on Tuesday. The Quickpick ticket was bought in Gauteng for the draw that took place on Saturday December 18 last year.
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/ 20 December 2005
The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) on Monday welcomed the resignation of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s pilot, Franz Gabriel, from Denel, saying his exposure to the country’s ”extremely sophisticated” information on weaponry was ”unacceptable”.
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/ 20 December 2005
An announcement to take the National Council of Provinces’ decision to do away with cross-border municipalities possibly to the Constitutional Court was well received by Khutsong residents at a public meeting on Monday. Sabelo Ngwane of the SA Communist Party’s Young Communist League announced the decision when he addressed hundreds of Khutsong residents at a local stadium.
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/ 20 December 2005
South Africa’s Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) company on Tuesday announced that it has signed a R17,5-million contract with United States group Westinghouse. The contract is for the basic design of automation safety sub-systems for the PBMR’s demonstration power plant at Koeberg in the Western Cape.
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/ 20 December 2005
South Africa and United Kingdom-listed financial services group Old Mutual is "very comfortable" with the 62,5% level of acceptances received from Skandia shareholders for its R38-billion bid for the Swedish insurer, according to CEO Jim Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe said he also expects to receive more acceptances from Skandia shareholders, with the offer having been extended until January 12 2006.
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/ 20 December 2005
Even though they may not understand God’s master plan, South Africans must trust him, Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder said in a Christmas message released on Monday. He suggested South Africans, or at least some of them, might be ”captives” in the same way that God willed that the Israelites be held captive in Babylon when they strayed from his ways.
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/ 20 December 2005
Boeremag convict Dawid Oosthuizen, who was sentenced in 2003 following a plea bargain agreement with the state, is set to be released from jail this week. Pretoria High Court Judge Willie Hartzenberg on Monday afternoon ordered in chambers that the remainder of Oosthuizen’s eight year sentence be converted into correctional supervision.
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/ 19 December 2005
Police kept a close watch on Khutsong residents as they gathered on Monday for a public meeting on the redemarcation of the Merafong municipality from Gauteng to North West. Armed police in and around Khutsong Stadium monitored a crowd of about 500 residents who sang and danced.
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/ 19 December 2005
The number of abalone poachers arrested on the Eastern Cape coast had risen from 129 in 2003 to 168 in 2004, according to Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk. Although the total abalone stock lost could not be determined, he said that between January this year and October 31, 93 poachers had been arrested.
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/ 19 December 2005
Since the beginning of December, 560 people have been killed on South African roads — mostly due to drunken driving, driver fatigue and speeding. At about the same time last year, 726 road deaths had been reported. Road accidents have also decreased, from 619 up to this time in December 2004 to 466 thus far.
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/ 19 December 2005
The Democratic Alliance on Monday accused President Thabo Mbeki of being ”obfuscatory” about his involvement in the arms deal. Mbeki had given a ”completely unsatisfactory” answer to a DA question on whether he met representatives of French arms company Thomson-CSF in 1998, said DA public accounts spokesperson Eddie Trent.