Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Tuesday gave an undertaking to sceptical representatives of the Western Cape fishing industry that he will ensure fishing quotas are allocated in an open and honest way. He was addressing several hundred members of the fishing community.
Short-term insurance policy holders in South Africa are under-insured by about 45% on average, according to market research conducted by Santam, South Africa’s largest short-term insurance company. This means policy-holders will only receive partial compensation after submitting an insurance claim.
South Africa and the rest of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has once again failed to stand up for democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe by siding with President Robert Mugabe’s government, South African official opposition leader Tony Leon said in a statement on Tuesday.
Allegations of racism and unfair discrimination may lead to class boycotts and protest rallies at the University of Pretoria, the South African Student Congress (Sasco) warned on Monday. ”We will be calling on students to boycott classes and join marches on campus,” said Sasco branch secretary Joe Heshu.
Radio Pretoria lost its case over its broadcasting licence on a technical point in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein on Monday. The station manager said no principal judgement was given on the reasons the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa previously gave for dismissing the station’s licence.
The government must tackle muti killings and ritual murders even though some might want this problem to remain hidden, an expert said on Monday. Professor Thias Kgatla, professor of religious studies at the University of the North, said a repeat of a successful campaign in 1994 against the practice is needed.
Some of the Boeremag treason-trial accused feel so aggrieved about media reports on their trial that on Monday they threatened to apply for an order to have journalists barred from court. The men complained about an Afrikaans radio talk show on radiosondergrense on Friday in which they claim they were ridiculed.
The killing of a South African soldier on the Lesotho border with the Free State emphasises the crime crisis along the country’s borders, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. DA spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said the government should seriously look at the situation along the Lesotho border.
The peer-review mechanism of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) should include a provision for free and independent press, Canadian Finance Minister Ralph Goodale was told on Monday. Goodale is in South Africa in his capacity as a commissioner of the Commission for Africa.
South African retailer Pick ‘n Pay is set to introduce 200 000 new Proudly South African shelf labels into its stores as a way of helping consumers keen to contribute to the local economy identify those products. Unveiling its initiative on Monday, Pick ‘n Pay said its pilot project will encompass 37 of its Gauteng stores.
A French arms company has applied to the Pietermaritzburg High Court to have charges of corruption relating to the controversial multibillion-rand arms deal withdrawn. The charges relate to an alleged attempt by Deputy President Jacob Zuma to solicit a R500Â 000-a-year bribe from Thomson CSF, now known as Thint.
The New National Party leadership’s decision to dissolve the party and lay its ghost to rest — immediately after the 90th anniversary of the National Party in August — was unavoidable, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday, writing in the African National Congress’s online publication, ANC Today.
Deposed Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his wife, Mildred, called on former South African president Nelson Mandela on Friday to ”thank him for his role in Haiti”. Aristide has been living in exile in South Africa with his wife and two daughters since May 31, three months after a popular uprising in Haiti forced him to flee.
The Freedom Front Plus joined other political parties on Friday in welcoming the South African Reserve Bank’s reduction of the repo rate by half a percentage point to 7,5%, but expressed concern about the strong rand. "It … will contribute to a more realistic value for the rand on international markets," the FF+ said.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=120354">’Mboweni has shown foresight'</a>
The United Democratic Movement says South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni and the monetary policy committee have shown foresight and courage by lowing the repo rate by 50 basis points. The UDM finance spokesperson said for more than a year the UDM has been advocating against an excessively strong currently.
The situation at Bloemhof is reported to be tense after pupils rampaged through the streets of Boitumelong outside the town in the North West on Thursday, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Friday. Pupils at Thutolore High School on Friday continued with a class boycott.
A group of youngsters brought a hush to Parliament chamber this week when they spoke about their lives of poverty and hardship and how they think the Children’s Bill could create a happier future for them. They call themselves Dikwankwetla, meaning heroes, and this is how they see themselves in the face of the Aids epidemic.
The Boeremag wanted to throw poisoned oranges in the streets of Soweto as part of its strategy to create chaos in the country, the Pretoria High Court heard on Wednesday. Free State potato farmer Henk van Zyl testified about events leading up to "Operation Popeye", a trigger for a Boeremag plan to take over the government.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=120126">Boeremag had breeding plans</a>
The interests of the country will be central to any decision on the strength of the rand, South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Wednesday.
He was addressing mine and textile workers protesting in Pretoria against job losses resulting from the currency’s strength.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=120185">Union asks for urgent rand summit</a>
The Pan Africanist Congress has denied reports that, like the New National Party, it will join the African National Congress, saying on Wednesday such speculations are foolish. PAC president Motsoko Pheko said: ”I don’t understand why people are making such assumptions out of the blue.”
A 24-hour hotline for concerned members of the public and farmers became operational on Wednesday, as the culling of thousands of ostriches entered its second day in the Eastern Cape. A media photographer was earlier on Wednesday turned away from a farm where the culling of the infected birds is taking place.
Ostrich meat is still safe for consumption despite the outbreak of avian flu on two farms in the Eastern Cape, the Klein Karoo group, which represents producers of ostrich meat and ostrich products, said on Tuesday. A spokesperson said the outbreak of the disease has been contained to the two farms in the Middleton area.
Ostrich culling to start in E Cape
The Boeremag dreamed of using a building like that of Armscor in Pretoria as a sort of breeding farm for ”a new [Afrikaner] nation”, the city’s High Court heard on Tuesday. Free State potato farmer Henk van Zyl also told the court of a plan to blow up Afrikaans comedian Casper de Vries because ”he was not on the right path”.
The Democratic Alliance has again urged the Speaker of Parliament to publish the list of MPs implicated in the so-called travel scam, involving the alleged fraudulent use of parliamentary travel vouchers. ”The scam surrounding MPs’ travel vouchers is doing great damage to Parliament,” DA chief whip Douglas Gibson said.
South African arms maker Denel will not immediately benefit from a new United States Army contract to test its ammunition, the company said on Tuesday. The US Army needs projectiles for its advanced conventional artillery ammunition programme and the artillery projectiles are of a South African design.
A nationwide strike against Telkom’s plan to retrench workers will be organised by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU). CWU president Joe Chauke said on Tuesday the union is not convinced by the telecommunication utility’s rationale for retrenchments. The CWU said the strike is scheduled for August 27.
The death toll from an accident at an illegal drag race at the Odi airstrip in North West on Sunday rose to six when a second man died in hospital on Tuesday. A spokesperson at George Mukhari hospital said Lucky Simbambo (19) died of multiple injuries in the hospital’s intensive-care unit.
The buyout of Secureco Armed Response (Gauteng) by Stallion Security has transformed Stallion into the largest privately held black economic empowerment (BEE) armed-response company in South Africa, according to Stallion Security CEO Clive Zulberg.
Charges have been withdrawn against former Springbok rugby player ”Vleis” Visagie who accidentally shot dead his daughter when he mistook her for a car thief, his lawyer confirmed on Monday. The charges will formally be withdrawn on September 6, Visagie’s next scheduled court appearance.
South African mobile operator MTN and the South African National Taxi Council on Tuesday launched the Ring’uvaya (phone while you travel) initiative, which will equip South African taxis with pay phones, enabling commuters to make phone calls in the taxi. KwaZulu-Natal is the first province that will get Ring’uvaya phones.
The majority of Burundian parties early on Friday signed a power-sharing deal brokered by South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma to pave the way for elections in the Central African nation which has been ravaged by war. Twenty parties inked the deal in Pretoria but 10 did not sign — a fact which did not faze either Zuma or Carolyn McAskie, the head of the United Nations mission in Burundi.
Zimbabwe’s Grain Marketing Board has received about 119 000 tons of maize, out of an expected 1,2-million tons since the beginning of the marketing season in April, the United Nations’ Integrated Regional Information Network (Irin) on Friday quoted Zimbabwe state newspaper The Herald as saying.