The prosecution of former deputy president Jacob Zuma could lead to turmoil in South Africa’s democracy, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) warned on Thursday. The Cosatu central committee condemned the earlier raids on Zuma’s residences on Thursday.
The two municipal workers’ unions involved in a pay dispute have rejected a revised pay deal, the unions said on Thursday. ”It was an overwhelming no,” a union spokesperson said on the deadline for acceptance of a proposal that unions and employers change their negotiating mandates.
The government is not working to destroy the taxi industry, but wants it to benefit the country’s population, Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe said on Thursday. ”Our government and our movement, the African National Congress, could not work against the interests of the taxi industry,” he said in Durban.
University of Pretoria students sang the apartheid-era national anthem Die Stem during a protest on Thursday against the alleged sidelining of Afrikaans at the institution. Protesters chanted slogans such as ”Engels se gat [English’s arse]” and ”Waar’s demokrasie nou? [Where is democracy now?]”.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>There were no sinister motives behind the Scorpions’ swoop on the Johannesburg home of former deputy president Jacob Zuma, that of his financial adviser Schabir Shaik and other residences and offices on Thursday, said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), also denying the raids were conducted in response to Congress of South African Trade Unions statements on Zuma.
A bid by the state to view an e.tv documentary on the murder of baby Jordan Norton before it is broadcast is nothing less than censorship, the station’s advocate told the Cape High Court on Thursday. The Western Cape directorate of public prosecutions is seeking an order that will allow it to preview the documentary.
Listed fashion retailer Truworths International has reported a 31% rise in its fully diluted headline earnings per share for the year to the end of June 2005, to 140,8 cents from 107,4 cents a year earlier. The company declared a final dividend of 37 cents per share, which brings the total dividend for the year to 69 cents.
Listed fashion retailer Truworths International has reported a 31% rise in its fully diluted headline earnings per share for the year to the end of June 2005, to 140,8 cents from 107,4 cents a year earlier. The company declared a final dividend of 37 cents per share, which brings the total dividend for the year to 69 cents.
Leading KwaZulu-Natal businessman Don Mkhwanazi emerged on Wednesday as a key mover behind a campaign to raise funds for embattled former deputy president Jacob Zuma, The Mercury website reported on Thursday. Zuma is expected to face several charges in a costly and lengthy corruption trial starting in October.
The Scorpions’ raids on the homes of former deputy president Jacob Zuma and his financial adviser Schabir Shaik were still under way by noon on Thursday. The front door of Zuma’s Johannesburg home in Epping Road, Forest Town, was open and the Scorpions could be seen walking inside the house.
It has been a busy week for former Inkatha Freedom Party chairperson Ziba Jiyane.
Frantz Kruger, South African record-holder in the discus, inflicted a rare defeat on the Olympic and world champion Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania at an international athletics meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, on Tuesday night. Kruger’s winning throw of 65,97m was his best of the year and 6cm further than that of Alekna.
Bush Bucks and Jomo Cosmos played to a scrappy, goalless draw in their Premier League soccer match played on Wednesday in East London. Both teams came out of the blocks forcefully, with Bucks’ promising striker Phikolethu Stelman coming the closest in the 17th minute.
The South African Council of Churches (SACC) has appointed a group of eminent leaders, led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to stop members of a church congregation from threatening each other’s lives and destroying property. The SACC said it can stand by no longer while ”the children of God” are at each other’s throats.
The latest data on building plans passed and residential buildings completed for the first six months of 2005 point to a sharp 43,5% drop in the number of lower-income, smaller houses completed and a 10% fall in the number of plans passed for such houses, according to Absa senior economist Jacques du Toit.
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille says the Democratic Alliance is a small white boys’ club.
The Johannesburg residence of former deputy president Jacob Zuma and the offices of his attorney in Durban were searched by the Scorpions on Thursday morning, his attorney said. This comes after a similar raid at the home of Zuma’s financial adviser Schabir Shaik who is currently appealing a fraud and corruption conviction relating to his relationship with Zuma.
The big freeze for Bafana Bafana in recent times continued in Reykjavik on Wednesday night when Iceland recorded an emphatic 4-1 win over South Africa in what was billed as a warm-up for next month’s critical World Cup qualifying game against Burkina Faso.
Did it snow in Cape Town’s city centre on Wednesday? Yes, say office workers. Unlikely, says the South African Weather Service. As the city shivered under a biting north wind and squalls of driving rain, callers to a local radio station reported seeing snowflakes falling in the city centre.
It is hard to know whether to be appalled or amused by the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) recent about-face on former deputy president Jacob Zuma, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the government says it will await a formal submission from Cosatu on Zuma.
The Department of Social Development’s anti-corruption campaign prevented R400-million from being stolen this year, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said on Wednesday. Skweyiya said to date the department and law enforcement have taken legal action against 109 officials, with more expected to face the same.
Distell, South Africa’s largest listed wine and spirits producer, has reported a 34,1% increase in its headline earnings per share for the year to the end of June 2005, to 245,8 cents from 183,3 cents a year earlier. The company declared a final dividend of 67 cents per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 123 cents per share.
South African motorists top the list in a study of road rage over 12 months in 10 countries. ”Eleven percent of South African drivers claim to have been at the receiving end of threatening behaviour in the past 12 months,” according to international market-research company Synovate’s report.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has blasted the government over its claim that the crime rate is stabilising. He repeated his party’s assertion that the murder rate is roughly the same as the death rate from terror attacks on civilians in Iraq, and further accused the government of failing to make crime a priority issue.
Vodacom has led the charge in Parliament among cellular network companies arguing before a parliamentary committee that the National Credit Bill should not be made applicable to cellular telecommunication service contracts. Vodacom said the respective rights and negotiating powers between cellular operators and consumers are "to a considerable extent" balanced.
KwaZulu-Natal’s public prosecutions director Shamila Batohi is working closely with police investigating the recent klebsiella outbreak that killed 22 babies at Mahatma Gandhi hospital in Phoenix. Batohi said: ”Once investigations are complete, I will take a decision on whether to prosecute or not.”
South Africa could be spending up to R200-million a year on treating people with serious abdominal gunshot wounds, researchers say in the latest SA Medical Journal. The researchers made the estimate on an extrapolation of a study of wounds at the GF Jooste state hospital on the violence-wracked Cape Flats.
It is unacceptable that the government fails to pay small business enterprises on time, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Tuesday. ”The turnaround time when it comes to servicing SMMEs [small, medium and micro enterprises] is something that I’m not proud of,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor on Tuesday encouraged women to study science and technology — fields where they are ”traditionally under-represented”. She said the government has placed ”specific emphasis” on increasing and improving the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in secondary schools.
South African Rugby’s president’s council has rubber-stamped a decision to return to strength versus strength for South Africa’s premier domestic competition, the Currie Cup, it was announced on Tuesday. At the same time, the organisation admitted to ”poor corporate governance”.
Listed staffing and marketing advisory company Adcorp Holdings has reported a 28% rise in its headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of June 2005, to 87,5 cents from 68,7 cents a year earlier. The company declared an interim dividend of 35 cents, representing a 40% increase from the halfway point in 2004.
Pension Funds Adjudicator Vuyani Ngalwane wants the government to put an end to the deduction of undisclosed costs from retirement annuities, Business Day reported on Wednesday. It said he had asked Finance Minister Trevor Manuel to declare such actions an ”undesirable business practice”.