No image available
/ 22 February 2005
Student leaders must ”sit down and talk” to resolve the issues sparking a series of student protests around Gauteng, a national Department of Education spokesperson said on Tuesday after a series of student uprisings around Gauteng and unrest at a school in the North West province.
No image available
/ 22 February 2005
Gauteng is becoming the safest province in the country, figures from the provincial government and some independent organisations have confirmed, the South African government news agency said on Wednesday. Gauteng community safety minister Firoz Cachalia attributed all this to the increased number of police officers in the province.
No image available
/ 22 February 2005
Protesting University of Johannesburg students stoned their leaders as they tried to call off a protest march and extend class boycotts on Tuesday. Students who had been gathering the whole morning for a march to the nearby Kingsway campus in Rossmore were angered by news of the class boycotts.
No image available
/ 22 February 2005
Lion murder accused Simon Mathebula (43) told the Phalaborwa Circuit Court on Tuesday that he knew it was wrong to hold a man against his will. He said he was just carrying out orders when he helped tie up Nelson Chisale with an electrical extension cord.
No image available
/ 22 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>The cost of an average pack of 20 cigarettes in South Africa is likely to experience a 52c rise in excise duty from Wednesday, when Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel unveils the government’s 2005/06 Budget, according to the Tobacco Institute of South Africa (Tisa). The retail price of a pack of cigarettes should rise by 70c.
No image available
/ 22 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has been urged by the official opposition Democratic Alliance to focus his Budget — on Wednesday — on job creation. The DA said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon that the national Budget "should be the most important job-creation tool in government’s box".
No image available
/ 22 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>Higher-than-expected government revenue growth means Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel has R14-billion to allocate when he announces the 2005/06 Budget on Wednesday, Old Mutual Asset Managers (Omam) economist Rian le Roux told a media briefing on Tuesday.
No image available
/ 22 February 2005
![]()
Former president Nelson Mandela offered to help to ”extinguish” the debt of Deputy President Jacob Zuma. Testifying at his fraud and corruption trial on Tuesday, Schabir Shaik said Mandela felt Zuma’s financial problems were ”distracting him from his duties at the African National Congress”.
No image available
/ 22 February 2005
Student leaders at the University of Johannesburg’s Bunting Road campus were regrouping on Tuesday morning after being banned from marching to the nearby former Rand Afrikaans University campus. Earlier, a large police contingent blocked the route the students were expecting to take in three waiting buses.
No image available
/ 22 February 2005
World high-jump champion Jacques Freitag was back on the winning trail on Sunday when he defeated a strong international field at the 2005 Tallinn Indoor Jumping Gala with a height of 2,28m. His win came after a lacklustre performance at the Stockholm meeting last Tuesday when he could not manage a height better than 2,21m.
No image available
/ 22 February 2005
Food and furniture retailer Shoprite has reported a 55,4% rise in its headline earnings per share for the six months ended December 2004, to 60,6 cents from 39 cents a year earlier. The group said it envisages declaring an interim dividend of 22 cents per share, representing a 33,3% increase on the 16,5 cents declared at the interim stage in 2004.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
A bureaucratic hiatus is stalling plans to bring digitally interactive pay-television broadcasts to South Africa, while Namibia already enjoys this cutting-edge technology. The technology is proven also for South Africa, but there is no regulatory framework yet to run things.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
A constitutional duty rests on the state to prosecute alleged human rights abusers such as apartheid-era chemical and biological warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson, the Constitutional Court heard on Monday. The state is applying for leave to appeal against certain legal issues arising from Basson’s acquittal.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille on Monday refused to identify her confidential Scorpions source, at the disciplinary hearing of the party’s ousted Western Cape leader, Lennit Max. ”I shall not disclose the source,” said De Lille during cross-examination by Leon van Rensburg, representing Max at the hearing in Parliament.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
The process of democratic governance is rooting itself all across the African continent. This is the view of 13 African leaders as contained in a report released on Monday at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. In the report, each of the leaders assesses contemporary trends and developments in their own countries.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
The African National Congress has launched a series of well-planned attacks on the independence of the South African judiciary, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon warned on Monday. He said the ruling party is ”using charges of real or imagined racism to intimidate the judiciary and create a more executive-minded bench”.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
Nelson Chisale closed his eyes and prayed before being thrown to lions, the Phalaborwa Circuit Court heard on Monday. The defence opened its case on Monday with the evidence of one of his alleged killers, Simon Mathebula (43). Simon said he watched his employer, Mark Scott-Crossley, walk up to Chisale and kick him.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
An article in <i>Business Day</i> on Monday conformed "to the time-honoured practice within the South African media, stretching back to the disinformation campaigns of the 1980s, of depicting an African National Congress consumed by factionalism and conflict", says the ANC’s Smuts Ngonyama.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
Loss of habitat looks set to put paid to one of South Africa’s more distinctive and charismatic bird species, the southern ground hornbill. The savannah-dwelling birds, once widespread across the country’s grasslands, now face a ”very real possibility” of extinction, says the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
The lead changed hands repeatedly on the final day of the Telkom PGA Championship at the Woodhill Golf Estate on Sunday but in the end it was Warren Abery who came home best of all to claim the spoils. The Mount Edgecombe Country Club professional rounded the course on Sunday on three-under-par 69.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
Moroka Swallows, down to 10 men, did well to hold Supersport United to a goalless draw in a drama-packed Castle Premiership clash played at the Rand Stadium on Sunday. The Birds’ goal mouth survived a number of close escapes in injury time. But, in the end, the plucky Birds held on for a deserved draw.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/197779/special_rep_icon_template.gif" align=left>The South African government should stop cutting the personal and company income-tax rate but value-added tax (VAT) should be cut by 1% from 14%, according to the People’s Budget, presented by the South African Council of Churches, the South African Non-Governmental Coalition and the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
No image available
/ 21 February 2005
Listed clothing food and homeware retailer Woolworths has successfully completed the first-ever securitisation of its in-store credit card with the issue and private placement of R1,9-billion in AAA-rated notes, the company said on Monday. The group’s new securitisation programme, Account on Us, issued four tranches of notes.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
The Democratic Alliance trio prohibited from entering Zimbabwe on Friday said this action undermined the protocol of the Southern African Development Community. Chairperson Joe Seremane, chief whip Douglas Gibson and researcher Paul Boughey flew to Harare on Friday morning for a pre-election fact-finding visit.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter was forced to mix and match and select a squad of mainly unknown players for next weekend’s Cosafa Cup Group A clash against Seychelles in Mauritius. In announcing his squad on Friday, Baxter named 19 players — to be cut to 18 — with an average age of 21.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
South Africans have every reason to be confident of a bright future for their country, says President Thabo Mbeki. Writing in the African National Congress’ on-line publication, ANC Today, on Friday, he compared the transition period in South Africa with that in former communist East European states.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
A Cape High Court judge has upheld a bid by the governing body of Cape Town’s Mikro Primary School to preserve its Afrikaans-only status. However, the matter could end up in the Constitutional Court if the Western Cape education department has its way. The department ordered the school to created a special English-medium grade-one class this year.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
The Tshwane University of Technology obtained an urgent High Court interdict on Friday prohibiting protesting students from disrupting classes, damaging property or harassing students and staff. On Thursday morning, more than 1 000 students ran amok at the university’s Soshanguve campus.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
Banking group Mercantile Lisbon has seen its headline loss for 2004 widen by 3,8 times over that of 2003, at R213,8-million from R56,5-million a year earlier. The group’s headline loss per share came in at 11,7 cents, up from 6,6 cents in 2003, and no dividend was declared.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
In contrast to the corporate environment, small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) will shy away from voice over internet protocol (VoIP) in 2005. These are the latest findings from a study conducted by World Wide Worx, which announced in January that 78% of corporations surveyed will be using the technology by the end of the year.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
The media was in the dock again on Friday in the ”advocate Barbie” sex-crimes trial after the tabloid Die Son published a picture of the accused — Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo — naked. On Thursday, a newspaper editor and a columnist invoked their right to remain silent when appearing in court to explain errors in a commentary piece about the trial.
No image available
/ 18 February 2005
The case involving 23 MPs accused of misusing travel vouchers was postponed for further investigation in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Earlier, Scorpions spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said he was hoping for a postponement because further investigation is needed.