Listed hospital group Medi-Clinic on Monday announced a black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction valued at R1,1-billion in which it plans to sell a 15% equity stake to strategic black empowerment partners (with 11%) and participating Medi-Clinic staff (4%), based on a share price of R18,40 per Medi-Clinic share.
Two months in state hospitals in North West and Gauteng changed a healthy pensioner of Lichtenburg into an ”empty shell”, News24 reported on Tuesday. Des Farrell (72) was admitted to hospital on July 23 with a broken leg. On September 21, he was discharged with mild brain damage and many bedsores.
It’s official. For an initial period of a year, former Springbok and Sharks coach Rudolph Straeuli will rejoin the management team at the headquarters of the KwaZulu-Natal Rugby Union in the new post of commercial manager. Originally the post had been advertised as being for a director of rugby.
If coach Stuart Baxter expected a transformation in old habits, with all Bafana Bafana 20 players assembling en masse at the squad’s training camp in Durban on Monday prior to the critical African Nations Cup match against the Democratic Republic of Congo, it was a case of Bafana’s leopards simply not changing their spots.
There were thrills, spills, breakages and plenty of action in the Trapani Louis Vuitton Act 8 off Sicily on Monday where the 12 teams from 10 nations across five continents entered for the America’s Cup in 2007 battled for supremacy on the penultimate day of match racing.
The sex-crimes trial of Pretoria advocates Dirk Prinsloo and Cezanne Visser resumes in the city’s high court on Tuesday after a six-month break. The hearing is expected to kick off with evidence from officials of a children’s home from where the couple is alleged to have collected minor girls who were subsequently abused.
Corruption is costing Africa’s oil industry billions of dollars annually, says Peter Eigen, founder and chairperson of Transparency International (TI) — a non-governmental group based in Berlin that monitors and fights graft. He made the comment to journalists at a gathering organised by TI South Africa in Johannesburg.
The state was in the dock on Monday for not seeking a prison sentence for convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni and other corrupt public officials. Pointing out that public corruption has become rife, two Pretoria High Court judges said it might be time to start imposing deterrent sentences.
Firefighting teams are battling to extinguish 15 forest and veld fires that continue to burn out of control in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, Working on Fire (WF) said on Monday. WF spokesperson Val Charlton said about 26 WF firefighting teams are battling the blazes across the northern parts of the country.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) claimed to have shut down the clothing industry in the Western Cape on Monday during a one-day strike in the province and in the Eastern Cape. But a Western Cape clothing-industry spokesperson described the shutdown claim as ”a joke”.
Only a few thousand people turned up to march through central Cape Town on Monday as the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) called a one-day strike in protest against job losses. About 27 000 turned up for a similar march in June this year, but police said Monday’s total was only about 5 000.
The credibility of Tony Yengeni’s claim that former prosecutions head Bulelani Ngcuka promised him a R5 000 fine in exchange for pleading guilty to fraud was questioned in the Pretoria High Court on Monday. Had such an agreement existed, one would have expected Yengeni to protest immediately at his prison sentence, one of the judges stated.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) is to submit a list of issues that it would prefer to be discussed behind closed doors at the Khampepe commission into the future of the Scorpions. Judge Sisi Khampepe requested the list after hearing submissions on Monday on whether the commission’s proceedings should be held in camera.
India has cancelled all deals with South African state arms manufacturer, Denel. Indian media reports say the South Asian country’s government decided that the South African company had violated contractual clauses by using undue influence and agents or agency commissions to win a contract for 400 anti-material rifles.
Cape Town High Court Judge Burton Fourie dismissed the Democratic Alliance’s floor-crossing appeal with costs on Monday. This means the DA has lost its fight to have the National Assembly seats of Dan Maluleke, Richard Ntuli, Enyinna Nkem-Abonta, Bheki Mnyandu and Craig Morkel retained by the party.
The validity of an alleged sentencing agreement between former prosecutions head Bulelani Ngcuka and politician Tony Yengeni was questioned in Yengeni’s Pretoria High Court appeal bid on Monday. Presiding judges Ferdi Preller and Eberhard Bertelsmann questioned whether such an agreement would have been enforceable.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) is due to reply to submissions made on Monday arguing for the Khampepe commission into the future of the Scorpions to be open to the public. The commission, headed by Judge Sisi Khampepe and appointed by President Thabo Mbeki in March, is sitting in Pretoria.
South Africa’s men and women’s hockey teams won easily on Sunday on day two of the African Cup of Nations hockey tournament at the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria. The women crushed Namibia 9-0, with Western Province’s Kate Hector scoring a fine hat-trick.
Popular boy band Westlife are set to join a host of other international and local artists in a charity concert in Johannesburg next month. Westlife will perform together with Christina Aguilera, Diana Ross and violinist Lucia Micarelli at the Coca-Cola Dome, Northgate, on November 4.
Improved food safety would help to reduce the 2 000 deaths estimated to occur every day in Africa from food and waterborne diseases, two United Nations agencies said on Monday. ”Food-borne diseases are a serious threat, especially for Africans already weakened from devastating conditions such as malaria and HIV/Aids,” said the agencies.
About 50 Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) members on Sunday shackled themselves to railings at Parliament in Cape Town to highlight their jobs and poverty campaign. Cosatu’s Eastern Cape provincial secretary said marches would start at 10am on Monday in East London, Port Elizabeth, Mthatha and Queenstown.
President Thabo Mbeki, a critic of boom gates, will soon be living in a gated community himself. The Tshwane metro council has approved an application for the closure of a number of streets in Bryntirion, the suburb that has been home to the president, members of the Cabinet and other important officials since the early 1900s.
Four people died when a Red Cross helicopter crashed near Uniondale in the Western Cape, the South African Red Cross Air Mercy Service said on Monday. The Eurocopter BO105 helicopter crashed on Sunday night with a patient and three crew members aboard. The wreckage was found at first light on Monday.
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has expressed concern over mounting political and ethnic tensions in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), warning that this might spark renewed conflict in the country. In a report issued recently, the group says additional fighting could undermine the DRC’s uncertain peace process
Supersport presenter Bo Moseneke (26) passed away on Saturday following complications as a result of diabetes. Moseneke was the son of Constitutional Court Judge Dikgang Moseneke. An award-winning presenter, Moseneke was considered to be an asset to the Supersport team.
Supersport presenter Bo Moseneke (26) passed away on Saturday following complications as a result of diabetes. Moseneke was the son of Constitutional Court Judge Dikgang Moseneke. An award-winning presenter, Moseneke was considered to be an asset to the Supersport team.
The family of jailed murderer Mark Scott-Crossley say they have ”substantial ammunition” to justify the granting of leave to appeal his conviction and life imprisonment for the killing of farm worker Nelson Chisale. His brother said the family have concerns about a number of procedural irregularities during the trial.
A burst of four tries that included a hat-trick in 14 minutes to flying Western Province right wing Egon Seconds blew away the 2005 Absa Currie Cup hopes of the Natal Sharks as they succumbed 45-21 to Western Province in a rugby match of great intensity in Durban on Saturday.
Boland and the Leopards produced a spectacle seldom seen on a rugby field by playing suicide rugby that produced a nine-try thriller in their Currie Cup clash at Wellington on Saturday. Boland won the match 39-26. The two premier-division minnows made their intentions clear early on with a high-tempo exhibition of daring rugby.
The Falcons were pushed all the way by the Mighty Elephants before emerging 35-31 winners in a pulsating Currie Cup first-division semifinal played at the Bosman Stadium in Brakpan on Saturday afternoon. Their reward is a final in Brakpan on October 14 where they will meet the Pumas.
The Lions edged the Cheetahs 37-36 in a thrilling Currie Cup encounter played in front of a small but appreciative crowd at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday evening. Nine tries were scored in all — five by the visitors — as both teams threw caution to the wind in their bid to qualify for the semifinals.
Like a pressure cooker suddenly reaching boiling point, Mamelodi Sundowns began to sizzle in the second half of a 4-0 Coca-Cola Cup victory against Lamontville Golden Arrows in Mamelodi on Saturday afternoon. In Cape Town, a goal in the 106th minute by Mfundo Shumana led Ajax Cape Town to victory over Bush Bucks.