An agreement was reached between the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Musina local municipality in the Pretoria High Court on Friday for Cosatu to increase the number of picketers on the Zimbabwe border to 500. The other limitations imposed by the municipality still stand, the court ruled.
The first constitutional challenge to new health laws left dispensing doctors and the Department of Health each notching up a partial victory on Friday. The Constitutional Court said regulations that force doctors to get licences to dispense drugs are not unconstitutional, but sections that tried to limit the number of pharmacies in an area were declared ultra vires and invalid.
Attorneys representing ousted Independent Democrats Western Cape leader Lennit Max have queried the independence of the Scorpions in the latest development surrounding his disciplinary hearing. ID leader Patricia de Lille has testified that she became aware from a source in the Scorpions that criminal charges were being investigated against her.
South Africans feel less likely to see corruption in government today than they were during the 1990s, says the Afrobarometer survey released on Thursday by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa). This response was noted ”despite recent controversies over the so-called Travelgate scandal”, said the survey report.
Although mining-related earthquakes are an ”industry exclusion”, one insurer has said it will pay claims from Wednesday’s Klerksdorp earthquake because of the ”emotional content” of the event. The ombudsman for short-term insurance, Helem van Zyjl, advised people to lodge their claims as soon as possible to see whether they are covered.
Crime cost South Africa’s 46 000-odd commercial farmers about R1,2-billion in the financial year ending February 2002 — more than a quarter of their total losses, Statistics South Africa revealed on Thursday. Stock theft accounted for about R484-million of farmers’ total R4,4-billion losses for the year.
![]()
Deputy President Jacob Zuma’s legal adviser Julie Mahomed went into the witness box at the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial in the Durban High Court on Thursday. She has testified about a loan agreement that she drew up between Zuma and Shaik in May 1999.
Listed plastic and packaging producer Transpaco has finalised negotiations to purchase printed cartons producer Britepak Trading for R18,5-million, payable out of Transpaco’s resources, the group announced on Thursday. The acquisition provides a vehicle for Transpaco to lessen its dependence on plastic-based materials.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has moved to bury the hatchet with President Thabo Mbeki after Tutu’s criticism of the government last year, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Thursday. Tutu said the row was part of pain of South Africa’s new democracy, the station said.
Heated exchanges marked the South African Human Rights Commission’s announcement on Thursday that boom gates are constitutional. The commission found that the Constitution lets local authorities apply legislation that allows the closures, but it is concerned that there is no adequate monitoring of the closures.
One injured gold miner, his skull fractured in Wednesday’s earthquake at Stilfontein, has been transferred to the intensive-care unit at West Vaal hospital in nearby Orkney. David Griffiths, chief medical officer at Duffscott, a mine facility at Stilfontein, told reporters on Thursday that the other 21 patients had only minor injuries.
![]()
The second witness for the defence in the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial, Zandile Mdhladhla, told the Durban High Court on Thursday that the Jacob Zuma Education Trust Fund did not qualify for funding from the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. However, ”we received money from Mr Mandela as a person”, said Mdhladhla.
SA Rugby has the full backing of the government for its 2011 Rugby World Cup bid, Francois Pienaar, bid committee chief executive, said on Wednesday. A sports ministry spokesperson recently said the government will withdraw its backing should SA Rugby fail to transform. However, Pienaar said the government’s backing is not in doubt.
Namibian-listed brewer Namibian Breweries, one of the country’s largest private-sector employers, has reported a fall in its headline earnings per share for the six months to the end of December 2004 to 18,4 cents, from 19,4 cents in the year-earlier period. The group declared an interim dividend of 5,5 cents per share.
South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers on Wednesday in a statement accused the South African mining industry and the government of not paying enough attention to safety. The statement followed Wednesday’s earthquake at DRDGold’s Hartebeestfontein gold mine in the North West province.
At least 42 miners were stuck 2,4km underground at Hartbeesfontein gold mine late on Wednesday after an earthquake shook the Klerksdorp mining area in the North West province. ”Rescue teams are working to open entry tunnels that were closed by rock falls,” said Ilja Graulich, spokesperson for DRDGold, which operates the mine.
The plight of the San indigenous community in South Africa was placed in the spotlight last week with the launch of a report by the South African Human Rights Commission. According to the Working Group for Indigenous Minorities of Southern Africa, there are currently about 100 000 San — the majority of whom live in Botswana.
![]()
Prosecutor Billy Downer completed his cross-examination of fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik in the Durban High Court shortly before lunch on Wednesday. Shaik, who has been charged with one count of fraud and two of corruption, has been under cross-examination since Monday last week.
The Zimbabwean ambassador to South Africa was scathing about a protest by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) outside his embassy in Pretoria on Wednesday, saying he pities the protesters. ”I hesitate to give an iota of dignity to these misguided malcontents,” Simon Khaya Moyo said.
The Constitutional Court will consider on Thursday how a death sentence should be replaced by a more appropriate one since the death penalty was abolished. The Constitutional Court in 1995 declared the death penalty unconstitutional. Since then, it has been unclear how to deal with the sentences of those prisoners given the death penalty prior to the 1995 decision.
The upcoming Zimbabwean elections should be postponed, a leader of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said at a picket outside the Zimbabwe embassy in Pretoria on Wednesday. Meanwhile, South Africa’s ambassador to Zimbabwe has not been advised of the appeal of Zimbabwe’s attorney general against the early release of 62 suspected mercenaries.
A number of buildings had to be evacuated in Stilfontein, near Klerksdorp in the North West, on Wednesday after an earth tremor preliminarily measuring five on the Richter scale. About 3Â 200 miners at DRDGold’s operations near Stilfontein were being evacuated after the tremor. Thirteen miners were injured in the tremor.
Looking at the final results posted by Metropolitan Holdings on Wednesday, the group’s strong new life-business growth in most segments shows that it is continuing to gain market share from most of its competitors, particularly in the area of employee benefits, according to Metropolitan CEO Peter Doyle.
Josh Cunliffe of Dainfern Country Club in Johannesburg won the men’s Sanlam South African Amateur Stroke-Play Golf Championship at Wingate Park Country Club on Tuesday. The 21-year-old closed with a 70 in the afternoon’s fourth round for a 10-under-par 278.
The South African government is to review finance allocations to public tertiary institutions across the country, with specific attention to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, according to the state news agency BuaNews. It said this is to provide opportunities for higher learning for poor young people.
Truck drivers ended their six-day strike on Tuesday with the signing of a wage agreement. Supermarket shelves were without many product lines and some petrol stations in Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal were out of fuel by the time the truck drivers’ sometimes violence-marred strike entered its sixth day on Tuesday.
President Thabo Mbeki and Anglo American’s top executives met behind close doors at Mbeki’s home in Cape Town on Tuesday. Anglo American chief executive Tony Trahar, accompanied by Anglo American South Africa’s newly appointed CE, Lazarus Zim, and chairperson Mark Moody-Stuart, requested the meeting to discuss the company’s financial results.
![]()
Fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik backdated two documents to gain financial benefits from French arms company Thomson CSF, the Durban High Court heard on Tuesday. The documents related to a service-provider agreement between Shaik and Thomson, which the state alleges was part of a bribe Shaik solicited for Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
Municipal pay talks began on Tuesday, described by the South African Municipal Workers’ Union as a ”showdown” between the government’s macro-economic policy and workers’ pockets. The union said the effects of fiscal austerity measures have been severely felt by municipal workers, with increases barely keeping up with inflation.
The Eastern Cape health department on Tuesday began immunising young people to combat a measles outbreak in villages in the Elliotdale area of Transkei. Departmental spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said 35 nurses and 6 000 doses of vaccine have been moved into the area, where about seven villages are seen as under threat.
T-shirt company Laugh It Off argued on Tuesday in the Constitutional Court that its caricature of the Carling Black Label trademark caused no economic harm to Sabmark International, which holds the trademark and licenses it to South African Breweries. The Supreme Court of Appeal found last year that it was illegal to use a caricature of an SAB trademark.
Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota and his counterparts from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region had an unscheduled meeting in Cape Town on Tuesday to discuss growing tensions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). ”It is a short agenda with momentous consequences,” Lekota said.