Most of South Africa’s 14 provincial rugby presidents jetted into Johannesburg International airport on Monday to attend an urgent meeting at Ellis Park stadium as a cloud of uncertainty decended over the whole power-struggle saga. The meeting was hastily called by South African Rugby Union president Brian van Rooyen late on Sunday.
More and more people are committing family killings because they are "catching", Family and Life Centre director Liz Dooley said on Monday. Her comments follow a bloody fortnight for some South African families. Just over the weekend, 15 people died when men opened fire on their families.
Absa Corporate and Merchant Bank (ACMB) has bought a 20% stake in a black-owned financial services company, Vunani Corporate Holdings, the banking group said on Monday. ”We see in Vunani, to a certain extent, what Barclays sees in Absa — a significant upside in the future,” said Robert Emslie, ACMB’s managing executive.
The Western Cape education minister was not interfering with the language policy of Mikro Primary School, the Supreme Court of Appeal was told on Monday. The Mikro school governing body refused to admit several grade-one pupils, even when the department directed it to do so, saying admitting the pupils would be against its language policy.
Nineteen miners were injured, three seriously, in rockfalls at Carletonville’s East Driefontein mine on Monday morning, Gold Fields said. This follows seismic activity measuring about 3,5 on the Richter scale at 8.10am. ”There are injuries, but no fatalities. It looks like everyone is accounted for,” spokesperson Willie Jacobsz said.
The design of the proposed basic income grant is ”fundamentally flawed”, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Monday. Speaking at the launch in Cape Town of the 2005/6 tax-filing season, he said there is no country in the world that has been able to implement it. The grant will cost South Africa about R89-billion.
An alleged syndicate member linked to the e-mail scam attack against South African banks last week is being questioned by the Scorpions following an intensive investigation by Standard Bank. A ”runner” had been recruited to launder money from customers’ accounts to an Eastern European fraud syndicate.
The search for the Mpumalanga pupil feared drowned in the sea at Richards Bay resumed early on Monday morning, KwaZulu-Natal police said. Seven other pupils drowned after the group decided to go for an early-morning swim at Richards Bay on Sunday. All were between 16 and 17 years old and in grades 10, 11 and 12.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) launched its annual tax-filing season on Monday in a bid to encourage the country’s 4,5-million taxpayers to get their returns in by July 8. Speaking at the launch in Cape Town, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said this figure includes 2,4-million individual taxpayers.
Rampant Kaizer Chiefs successfully defended their Premier Soccer League (PSL) title after beating Bloemfontein Celtic 2-0 at the Free State Stadium on Sunday. Meanwhile, Moroka Swallows came from behind to share the spoils in a 1-1 draw against Black Leopards at the Rand Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Athletics South Africa announced on Monday that a team of 22 men and 16 women will compete in the African Junior Championships in Alexandria, Egypt, from September 22 to 25 this year. This is the largest team yet selected by South Africa to compete at the championships.
Absa, one of South Africa’s "big four" retail banks that will soon be 60% owned by United Kingdom banking giant Barclays, has unveiled a major programme to enhance its brand, called My Bank. Absa said the programme will capitalise on the bank’s well-known pay-off line, "Today, tomorrow, together".
South African Rugby Union president Brian van Rooyen has called the country’s 14 provincial rugby presidents to an urgent meeting in Johannesburg on Monday, local media reported. The meeting follows disclosures that a dossier has been compiled of alleged irregularities in Van Rooyen’s running of the game, media reports said.
Rescue workers called off their search for a schoolboy feared drowned in the sea off Richards Bay late on Sunday afternoon, hours after finding the bodies of seven of his classmates. The eight children were among a group of about 250 children from Ndlela Secondary School in Mpumalanga who attended a sports day at Mondini High School in Ntambanana.
Orlando Pirates finished runner-up to their Soweto rivals Kaizer Chiefs on the final day of the Castle Premiership season on Sunday. The Buccaneers had to settle for a disappointing 1-1 draw against Bush Bucks, who scored at the death through Gomasha Marnilisi after Pirates had done all the attacking.
Former president Nelson Mandela’s son-in-law is wanted by United States authorities for the alleged rape of a student in 1993, the Sunday Times reported in its early edition on Saturday. The Connecticut state attorney’s office told the Sunday Times a warrant for Dr Isaac Amuah’s arrest was issued in January 1994.
At least 19 people were injured, six seriously, when a cloud of cooking gas ignited at a beer festival on Saturday at Johannesburg’s German School, police said. German and Swiss nationals were among the injured. Youths were believed to have unsafely opened a gas canister at a concession stand selling German-style grilled sausages.
It was good cheer, rugby and music in Pretoria’s Church Square on Saturday after a group of about 500 protesters submitted petitions to the Department of Arts and Culture against renaming the city Tshwane. A handful of black participants took part in the march, which was attended by the young, old and disabled.
Inkatha Freedom Party leader and traditional prime minister of the Zulu nation Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Saturday called for the recognition of the Zulu kingdom.
Addressing an imbizo (meeting) of the Zulu nation outside Durban, Buthelezi said: ”We are not speaking about the position of the king alone. Our kingdom is broader than his majesty alone.”
Allan Heyl, the last surviving member of the Stander gang of bank robbers who was released from Krugersdorp prison on Wednesday, is free to speak to journalists, the Department of Correctional Services said on Friday. Departmental spokesperson Graham Abrahams said Heyl is now free to deal with the public.
Former state president FW de Klerk has come out against the renaming of Pretoria, saying such a move would be contrary to the notion of reconciliation. ”There appears to be an increasing tendency to excise the history and traditions of minorities from our emerging national identity,” he said in a statement on Friday.
People attending Saturday’s imbizo (meeting) called by Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi will be allowed to enter the Princess Magogo Stadium with sticks, shields and knobkieries, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Friday. Buthelezi has come under fire for calling the imbizo.
A code of good practice in black economic empowerment (BEE) is meant to guide stakeholders and not punish anyone, Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa said in Pretoria on Friday. He was speaking to journalists after a meeting of the Black Business Working Group with President Thabo Mbeki at the Union Buildings.
The Inkatha Freedom Party was ”delighted” on Friday when the Pietermaritzburg High Court overturned a conviction and 10-year sentence for rape handed down to its national organiser Albert Mncwango. ”The political enemies of Mr Mncwango had contrived to bring these accusations against him,” said IFP spokesperson Musa Zondi.
The hearing of the Richtersveld community’s multibillion-rand land claim has been postponed to October 25 — and could continue into 2006. Land Claims Court Judge Antonie Gildenhuys, who has been hearing evidence in Cape Town over the past four weeks, said on Friday that seven weeks have been set aside for the October session.
President Thabo Mbeki has questioned the figures produced by official data capturer Statistics South Africa on unemployment figures and says it is "quite unlikely" that its figures are correct — otherwise people would have seen millions of people in the streets looking for work. There are even millionaires who are deemed "unemployed", he argued on Friday.
The Kruger National Park (KNP) has fired four of its employees for beating to death and slaughtering at least six impala in February, a park spokesperson said on Friday. ”The intense cruelty of the incident horrified us,” KNP executive director Bandile Mkhize said in a statement on Friday.
”The DA is alarmed at the allegations made in the M&G that the ANC funded its 2004 election campaign using millions of rands of taxpayers’ money.”
The ”racist tantrum” thrown by Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy Lulu Xingwana in Parliament will hurt black South Africans as much as whites by discouraging investor confidence in the country, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday. He said it is necessary for all to raise their voices against what Xingwana said.
The Cabinet will finalise the roll-out plan of the taxi-recapitalisation process by the end of next month — but the transport minister has promised that the much-delayed scrapping of currently ageing vehicles ”will commence this financial year”. He was speaking in his Budget vote in an extended public committee on Friday.
The Johannesburg High Court ruled on Friday that mining company Harmony’s multibillion-rand hostile takeover bid for Gold Fields lapsed on December 18 last year, effectively ending the bid seven months after it started. A Gold Fields spokesperson said the company feels vindicated by the court’s decision.
A South African peacekeeping soldier shot dead a comrade and wounded four others before killing himself in Burundi on Friday, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said. ”The reason for the shooting incident is unclear at this stage and the United Nations and the SANDF are investigating the incident,” a statement said.