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/ 24 September 2005
South Africa’s civil society groups are demanding a bigger role in the national self-assessment to be conducted under the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). APRM is the brainchild of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), an initiative that seeks to attract more foreign investment to the continent by improving the management of African states.
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/ 23 September 2005
The typhoid outbreak in Delmas, Mpumalanga, was caused by human waste in one of the boreholes, government biologists said on Friday. Vusi Kubheka, a bacteria specialist, said Salmonella typhi, the bacteria that causes typhoid, was found in a borehole in the area. ”Salmonella typhoid is carried in human waste,” he said.
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/ 23 September 2005
Listing the Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) instead of ”de-privatising” 20% could have promoted broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE), the Democratic Alliance said on Friday. ”This would have broadened the ownership of one of South Africa’s most successful parastatals,” said the DA.
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/ 23 September 2005
There is still very much to play for in the 2005 Absa Currie Cup premier division and with three rounds of action remaining, the tension is beginning to mount as the leading contenders battle it out for semifinal places. Six teams still have a realistic chance of making the last four.
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/ 23 September 2005
Although environmental lobby group Earthlife Africa is not part of a team probing health concerns at the Pelindaba nuclear facility, it will be allowed to make submissions, a spokesperson for the investigator said. ”We couldn’t have included the stakeholders because it would have taken away the independence,” the spokesperson said.
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/ 23 September 2005
It is clear many South Africans, including some in the African National Congress, appear to think their new democracy gives them the freedom to engage in corrupt practices, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. He said the party, government and people are deeply concerned about the incidence of corruption in South Africa.
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/ 23 September 2005
The typhoid outbreak in the Mpumalanga town of Delmas is the result of the African National Congress’s failure to heed warnings the area was facing a major public health risk, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. ”What is happening in Delmas is also happening in ANC-controlled municipalities across the country,” he said in his weekly newsletter.
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/ 23 September 2005
Journalists and spectators were banned from soccer ace Benedict Vilakazi’s rape trial on Friday because his alleged victim, a 15-year-old girl, testified in camera. The girl, who is eight months pregnant, looked demure in a black and white dress and white cardigan before her cross-examination by Vilakazi’s new lawyer.
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/ 23 September 2005
Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital has been given priority in the government’s hospital revitalisation programme after Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said she would hesitate to seek treatment there. On a tour of the hospital on Thursday, Tshabalala-Msimang saw how patients at the Soweto hospital had no bed linen and were given ragged blankets.
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/ 23 September 2005
South Africa’s wine drinkers will soon have the choice of imbibing their favourite wines out of a can for the first time, as Australian group Barokes introduces its patented canned-wine technology to the country. The group is currently in negotiations with several major wineries and wine regions in South Africa.
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/ 23 September 2005
Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla met Moutse residents on Thursday in an attempt to address their concerns over demarcation into Limpopo. Mpumalanga government spokesperson Lebona Mosia said Makwetla’s visit to the town followed protests and violence over the integration of the town into the Limpopo province.
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/ 23 September 2005
Earthlife Africa expressed concern on Friday over the exclusion of its nominees to a team conducting a health study at the country’s nuclear facility in Pelindaba. ”We now have no hope that the Necsa [Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa] study will be independent. It looks like a whitewash,” said spokesperson Mashile Phalane.
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/ 23 September 2005
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) on Friday welcomed the government’s view of a single police force in South Africa. On Wednesday, Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said the African National Congress is considering forming a single police force under one command.
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/ 23 September 2005
The roll-out of the taxi recapitalisation project has entered "a critical stage" and the Transport Department has targeted the scrapping of "at least" 10 000 old taxi vehicles from December 2005 to December 2006, says Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe.
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/ 23 September 2005
The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has concluded negotiations to acquire a 20% stake in the Airports Company of SA (Acsa) for R1,675-billion. The stake is being purchased on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund — the PIC’s largest client and will be acquired from Italian airports company, Aeroporti di Roma.
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/ 23 September 2005
A strike by about 300 staff and cabin crew at Nationwide airline was set to start at 5pm on Friday, trade union Solidarity and the airline said. ”At this stage we’re assuming that it will go ahead. There shouldn’t be any disruption at all. Unlike the SAA strike we’re able to do things differently,” said Nationwide’s financial director, Peter Griffiths.
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/ 23 September 2005
The government has quietly agreed to end a ”dispensation” in which fuel giant Sasol was to repay subsidies — worth R6-billion since 1989 — paid to the fuel-from-coal giant when oil prices were low. The result is that while Sasol received billions of rands of direct support while oil prices were low, it is not required to repay these funds now that oil prices are stratospheric.
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/ 22 September 2005
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) has disputed an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report blaming high unemployment in South Africa on inflexible labour laws. ”Once again the IMF has failed to provide significant evidence that our labour laws are inflexible and a hindrance to employment growth,” Cosatu spokesperson Paul Notyhawa said on Thursday.
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/ 22 September 2005
Trade union Solidarity on Thursday asked the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to appoint a mediator to resolve its dispute with Nationwide Airlines. ”In view of the public disruption that was caused by the SAA strike earlier this year, everything possible should be done to avert a strike,” said spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans.
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/ 22 September 2005
The owner of the first South African commercial farm to be earmarked for expropriation said on Thursday he intends contesting the move. ”I do not recognise the [restitution] claim on my land and cannot be forced to sell at the government’s price,” farmer Hannes Visser said.
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/ 22 September 2005
Public transport needs to be safer, cheaper and more efficient to decrease congestion and encourage people to leave their cars at home, Gauteng transport minister Ignatius Jacobs said on Thursday. He was speaking at the launch of Public Transport Month and Car-Free Day at Johannesburg’s Park station.
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/ 22 September 2005
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance is taking the Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa (PetroSA) to court because R11-million of taxpayers’ money has still not been accounted for relating to the Oilgate scandal, the party’s chief whip Douglas Gibson said on Thursday.
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/ 22 September 2005
Nova is a new daily newspaper in Gauteng. Minette Ferreira became Nova editor after working as the Daily Sun‘s chief sub-editor.
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/ 22 September 2005
Randgold and Exploration, which has been suspended from the JSE pending the publication of its audited results, has now been thrown off the Nasdaq stock exchange. Randgold said that the publication of its audited results, originally targeted for September 30, 2005, would be further delayed.
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/ 22 September 2005
A private air search for the missing Durban yacht Moquini, which disappeared while taking part in the Mauritius-to-Durban yacht race last week, will start on Thursday. The search by a C130 Hercules air-force aircraft that had been looking for the yacht since last week was suspended on Tuesday.
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/ 22 September 2005
Apartheid’s legacy remains tenacious and despite a huge public investment in housing in the 10 years of democracy, the number of informal settlements has grown substantially, South Africa’s national Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Thursday.
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/ 22 September 2005
Kaizer Chiefs, not content with concessions made in an appeal to the South African Football Association against the penalties imposed on the club by the Premier Soccer League for the violence and vandalism of their supporters, have informed South African soccer’s controlling body they are taking the controversial issue to arbitration.
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/ 22 September 2005
While Orlando Pirates generally outplayed their opponents, it was Supersport United coach Pitso Mosimane who insisted ”we wuz robbed” after a curious, paradoxical 1-1 draw in the big Premier Soccer League showdown in Johannesburg on Wednesday night. Also, Jomo Cosmos played to a 1-1 draw against Kaizer Chiefs.
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/ 22 September 2005
The trade union Solidarity on Wednesday announced that it will go ahead with strike action against Nationwide Airline following a deadlock in negotiations. Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said the union has given Nationwide a 48-hour strike warning, which will expire on Friday.
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/ 22 September 2005
Just hours after Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula told the nation that burglaries at commercial and residential properties were down, his own party’s caucus was bemoaning the fact that there had been ”a spate of burglaries at parliamentary residential villages” in Cape Town.
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/ 22 September 2005
Social crimes, which are on the increase, are often committed behind closed doors and difficult to police, according to Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula. Addressing a Business against Crime dinner, he said combined efforts by government ministries have increased the number of arrests and improved investigations.
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/ 22 September 2005
South Africa needed more black accountants, President Thabo Mbeki told the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) on Wednesday evening. Mbeki was speaking at a dinner marking Saica’s 25th anniversary. ”I think we will agree that we should mobilise more resources” to help train black accountants, Mbeki said.