Mamelodi Sundowns humbled the high-flying Orlando Pirates with a 4-1 drubbing in an enthralling Castle Premier Soccer League match played at the Johannesburg Stadium on Saturday. Downs came into the match as clear underdogs in this much-talked-about encounter but they were able to soak up all the first-half pressure exerted by Pirates.
Solutions to Africa’s problems will work only if they reflect the will of the continent’s people, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Writing in the African National Congress’s online publication, ANC Today, Mbeki said the Pan African Parliament confirms the determination of the peoples of Africa to promote and achieve continental unity.
South Africa’s petrol price for all grades will rise by 40c a litre from April 6, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. This brings the price of a litre of petrol to a record R5,02 in Gauteng and R4,89 at the coast. The wholesale price of diesel 0,3% sulphur will rise by 56,4 cents per litre and that of diesel 0,05% sulphur by 65,4c per litre.
More than 97Â 000 hectares of state-owned forest land in the Garden Route area around Knysna managed by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry has been formally transferred to South African National Parks as the basis for the new Garden Route National Mega Reserve.
Swaziland closing its borders with South Africa? Michael Jackson seeking asylum in Zimbabwe? Jean-Bertrand Aristide appointed Minister of the African Diaspora in the South African Cabinet? It’s that time of the year when gasps of disbelief are quickly replaced by a collective slapping of the forehead — April Fool’s Day.
The former directors of the investment arm of the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) face possible legal action over missing assets and investments worth millions of rands. It has emerged from various sources that more than R50-million-worth of assets and investments have vanished.
South Africans now have until June 30 to hand in illegal firearms, the government said on Friday. An amnesty period that came into effect on January 1 was to have ended on March 31. ”After this extension, people will have no excuse to say they didn’t know about the campaign,” a Department of Safety and Security spokesperson said.
Old Mutual Healthcare, a division of London- and Johannesburg-listed Old Mutual plc, has dominated the results of the annual TWIG SA research into service levels across South Africa’s health-care industry, being ranked by medical providers as first in terms of overall service.
Father and son mining magnates Brett and Roger Kebble will appeal to the Constitutional Court after the Supreme Court of Appeal struck from the roll their application on seven share-price manipulation charges. The Kebbles argued that some of the charges they faced were civil and not criminal offences.
Gold Fields has obtained a court interdict to force 30 000 striking miners back to work, the company said on Thursday. ”We must now serve the interdict on the National Union of Mineworkers. But I expect they will be back at work within 24 hours,” said spokesperson Willie Jacobsz.
The firearms amnesty has missed its target and many ”illegal” guns that have been handed in are registered on the police database, but not in the names of heirs who have inherited them, the South African Gun Owners’ Association (Sagoa) said on Thursday. A Sagoa spokesperson said such people are legal owners under previous legislation.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on Thursday upheld an appeal by Laurie Frazer, who in 1997 made headlines for several failed attempts to get custody of his child, who was given up for adoption without his consent. The SCA set aside his prison sentence and replaced it with a fine, a suspended jail sentence and community service.
The looming indemnity deadline for those fraudulently receiving social grants has resulted in a last-minute rush of people queuing to apply, officials said on Thursday. Almost 6 000 people have applied for indemnity in the various provinces since the indemnity was offered on December 12 last year.
Operations have halted at all Gold Fields mines in South Africa while workers strike over housing allowances, a company spokesperson said on Thursday. He said that, in striking, the National Union of Mineworkers is going against a signed agreement with the company. Gold Fields has applied for a court interdict to get the miners back to work.
A leading children’s rights organisation is concerned that two proposed laws on child protection could result in duplication and a waste of resources. A child’s general right to health care has been reduced in the Children’s Bill, and the right to health care after sexual assault has been removed from the Sexual Offences Bill.
A goal in each half gave Santos a 2-0 victory over Bloemfontein Celtic in a Castle Premier Soccer league game played at the Athlone Stadium on Wednesday. Santos took the lead in the second minute when a cross from the right was headed down by Jean-Marc Ithier to Carlo Scott, whose shot went into the top right-hand corner.
Trainer Jabulani Malinga and his sons Vus’Umuzi and Patrick are back in the professional boxing game after serving their suspension. Jabulani said their suspension ended last week. Vusi and Patrick both failed four drug tests after fights in April, and tested positive for anabolic steroids.
The South African Towing and Recovery Association (Satra) will no longer pay spotting fees to people at traffic lights for accident tip-offs, its chairperson announced on Wednesday. A Roodepoort man was caught allegedly tampering with robots at a busy intersection, trying to cause accidents to increase his tip-off fees.
About 100 000 mineworkers are to strike at Harmony and Gold Fields gold mines, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Wednesday. ”Gold Fields workers will this evening [Wednesday] begin with strike action following their dispute with the company on the matter of the living out allowance,” an NUM spokesperson said.
A string of cellphone messages on a purported hijacking this week turned out to be smokescreen for partying with prostitutes, News24 reported on Thursday. It said a KwaZulu-Natal technician had police on a national alert after unleashing a series of SMSes on Tuesday, saying he had been hijacked.
Research will be done into the demand for Afrikaans as a medium of school instruction, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said after talks on Wednesday with a group of Afrikaner representatives. The meeting, in Pretoria, was arranged at the request of the FW de Klerk Foundation, and facilitated by the former president.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/199502/Zim_icon.GIF" align=left>The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) expressed alarm on the eve of parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe that the country’s government "has failed to lift all restrictions on journalists and media, especially foreign media", adding that "these actions do not bode well for free and fair parliamentary elections".
The reinstatement of an African National Congress official recently implicated in a television documentary on child prostitution has been met with howls of outrage.
Political parties have strongly condemned the move by the ANC council, saying it amounted to condoning the actions of those who abuse children.
Protesters from the Young Communist League and the Swaziland Solidarity Movement have called for sanctions against the Swazi king and his government in a demonstration outside the Swaziland embassy on Wednesday. The monarch has come under scrutiny for the expensive purchase of a number of luxury vehicles while his country is beset by poverty and HIV/Aids.
Massive restructuring in South African prisons will result in the abolition of weekend overtime for warders, and the creation of 8Â 311 new jobs, the minister of correctional services said on Wednesday. The department will be phasing in a seven-day working week, which will save millions of rands in overtime payouts each year.
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Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has accused South Africa’s government-aligned observers to Zimbabwe’s elections of wanting to ”rubber-stamp” the outcome. It said it has lost faith in Minister of Minerals and Energy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s capacity to act impartially.
The Limpopo provincial government has placed a moratorium on hunting in the private nature reserves that border the Kruger National Park (KNP). The moratorium concerns private reserves that are not separated from the KNP by a fence. However, the chairperson of the Timbavati Association has called the moratorium ”totally illegal”.
The police have offered a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the killers of a senior Free State government official. ”No arrests had yet been made in the investigation into the murder of [Noby] Ngombane,” police spokesperson Superintendent Annelie Wrench said on Wednesday.
Absa, South Africa’s largest retail bank in terms of customers at 6,96-million, has announced bank-fee increases of between 4% and 7% for 2005, which will become effective from April 1. "These fees were determined in response to the additional needs of our customers," Absa said.
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Limpopo police have heightened security near the Beit Bridge border post ahead of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) demonstration scheduled for Wednesday. Cosatu expects thousands of marchers to participate in the march in solidarity with Zimbabwean trade unions.
Amid a backdrop of buoyant consumer and government spending, higher international commodity prices, lower inflation and stable interest rates in 2004, the South African Reserve Bank quarterly bulletin reviewing macroeconomic activity in 2004 paints a very positive picture of an economy experiencing accelerating growth.
The government will continue to consult with business and labour to overcome unemployment and increase investment in spite of a threat by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) to strike against unemployment and the strong rand. Cosatu has warned of a ”job-loss bloodbath”.