Inspectors are probing a North West farmer on child labour allegations after a 13-year-old boy was injured while allegedly working on his farm, the Department of Labour said on Wednesday. Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said: ”Child labour is unacceptable — it destroys childhood.”
Affirmative-action targets for companies must also be set on lower job levels that are currently almost 100% black, the trade union Solidarity said on Wednesday. The Employment Equity Commission’s annual report shows that the number of white males on the lower levels declined by 64% to only 1,4%, said the general secretary of Solidarity.
A Companies Amendment Bill, which will be piloted through Parliament by Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa, has been tabled in Parliament. The Bill deals with such matters as the circumstances under which "persons" are disqualified from being directors of companies.
A devastating report on the state of South Africa’s Road Accident Fund (RAF), which shows that there is no indication that the deteriorating trend of the accumulated deficit will subside, has been tabled in Parliament. The RAF’s accumulated deficit on March 31 2003 was R23,026-billion, compared with R16,6-billion on March 31 2002.
The Freedom Front Plus has called for a national debate on the future of affirmative action in South Africa. The party says that studies carried out in other parts of the world show that quotas based along racial lines do not work, and that an alternative must be sought and implemented.
The African National Congress has added its voice to pleas for the return of Leigh Matthews, abducted last week and held to ransom. ”The nation must reject this with the contempt it deserves. The trauma and anguish that Leigh’s parents are going through is unwarranted and unnecessary,” the ruling party said in a statement on Wednesday.
Tempers flared as disgruntled residents of Protea Glen, Soweto, were prevented from entering Lenasia by police during a march against evictions in the township. The group, demonstrating against the eviction of bond defaulters, planned to picket outside the office of the sheriff in Lenasia.
President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday that the increasing levels of tax compliance amongst South Africans gives government more resources to improve the lives of the poor. The South African Revenue Services received 1,9-million tax returns after last week’s deadline.
The banking industry was more stable in 2003 after the turbulence of the previous two years, the South African Reserve Bank’s supervision department said on Wednesday. Registrar of banks Errol Kruger was speaking at the release of the bank supervision department’s 2003 annual report in Johannesburg.
Gideon Nieuwoudt’s amnesty hearing was adjourned on Wednesday because convicted murderer Eugene de Kock was too tired to testify, SABC radio news reported. The former Vlakplaas commander had driven from Pretoria by road, leader of evidence Mokotedi Mpshe told the Port Elizabeth High Court.
The Zimbabwean embassy in South Africa has denied that the country has banned the colour red and the Aids ribbon. The Star newspaper reported on Tuesday that Zimbabwe’s state television had directed that the colour red — and so the Aids ribbon — not be shown because it is the symbol of the opposition in the country.
Two men were arrested in Pretoria on Tuesday following the violent beating of two teenagers at a nightclub in Hatfield in Pretoria over the weekend, police said. Eight more people are expected to be arrested shortly in connection with the assault of the 16-year-old and 19-year-old boys outside the Good4Fellas nightclub.
Minister of Education Naledi Pandor on Tuesday urged the Education Labour Relations Council to get more of South Africa’s best school children to train as teachers. ”Around 17 000 teachers leave teaching each year, and only 3 000 new ones graduate from the 25 universities,” she said.
The residents of Cape Town claim to have found an effective new weapon in South Africa’s battle against crime. Crime levels have reportedly tumbled in two neighbourhoods where residents go on patrol armed with nothing more than filthy looks. The groups stop and stare in silence at suspected prostitutes and drug dealers.
Two incidents involving criminals masquerading as police officers have been reported from Limpopo and the North West. In Limpopo, four men robbed a bottle store while ostensibly searching for forged banknotes, while police in North West are searching for another group of ”armed and dangerous” impostors.
Botswana’s national anti-retroviral programme for HIV and Aids patients is beginning to take effect, according to Botswana’s Health Ministry. A statement issued in Johannesburg on behalf of the ministry on Tuesday said this is reflected in median baseline CD4 counts increasing from 50 to 84 since the inception of the programme.
Gauteng housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane on Monday urged residents of the troubled Diepsloot township north of Johannesburg not to hamper the development of houses at the settlement. She said the recent violence at the township is affecting the government’s plans to provide adequate housing on time.
A small crowd followed sheriffs through Protea Glen in Soweto on Tuesday afternoon protesting against the eviction of residents from their houses. There were sporadic scuffles and at one house the crowd threw stones, a Sapa photographer reported.
‘Don’t disturb housing process’
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) says that the HIV/Aids pandemic has cost South Africa more than -billion (R420-billion) in the decade from 1992 to 2002. The ILO said that the loss was mainly due to deaths, absenteeism and lower productivity brought about by the ravaging disease.
Unusually dry weather in the Western Cape has prompted officials to consider imposing water restrictions in the region. Water levels are worryingly low and restrictions may be ”inevitable”, according to Rashid Khan, regional director of the Western Cape Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.
Police have made no progress in their search for Leigh Matthews, who was abducted on Friday and held to ransom, the investigating officer said on Monday. Her parents have offered a ”substantial” reward for any information leading to her return, and her mother has repeatedly said they will not try to prosecute anyone.
The Ministry of Defence on Monday evening expressed deep concern about reported allegations of South African National Defence Force members in the Democratic Republic of the Congo being involved in sexual attacks on minors in that country. The Democratic Alliance said the allegations bring South Africa’s integrity into question.
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt on Monday finished testifying at the re-opened Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings on the 1989 Motherwell car bombing of three policemen and an askari, SABC radio news reported. Nieuwoudt and two others are seeking amnesty for the killings in December 1989.
The South African Medicines Control Council has changed its mind on the use of nevirapine alone to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV from mother to child. It now recommends the medication being used as part of a combination of pharmaceuticals to prevent mothers infecting their children with HIV at birth.
The Eastern Cape department of health on Monday vowed to continue its crackdown on illegal circumcision schools after three officials were stoned and their vehicle damaged. Monday’s attack took place during a raid on illegal initiation schools in Luthuthu village, near Cradock, said a departmental spokesperson.
The South African rand, along with the Turkish lira, is among the most vulnerable currencies to a possible reversal in risk appetite among investors, according to international investment bank Lehman Brothers. Investor sentiment could be tested after the upcoming release of United States inflation data, a recent research note said.
A large number of awaiting-trial prisoners escaped from the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday, hours after a Democratic Party MP pledged to challenge Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula to explain the reason for the large number of suspects escaping from police custody.
South Africa’s top Catholic bishop said on Monday he cannot understand why the South African government is not considering sanctions against neighbouring Zimbabwe, given the success that sanctions brought for South Africa. ”What further suffering will sanctions bring to the people of Zimbabwe?” the bishop asked, pointing out that he is not calling directly for sanctions against Zimbabwe.
A Chinese man has handed himself over to Port Elizabeth police following one of the biggest illegal perlemoen busts in the Eastern Cape. Police on Friday raided a smallholding and recovered more than a ton of perlemoen as well as equipment used to process the shellfish for illegal export. Three people were arrested.
Democratic Alliance MP Roy Jankielsohn has vowed to challenge Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula to explain, in Parliament, the high number of suspects escaping from police custody. Jankielsohn says that Nqakula and his department are accountable for the high number of escapees.
A war cemetery near Newcastle was vandalised by robbers who were apparently looking for treasure, the Amafa Heritage in KwaZulu-Natal said on Monday. The robbers used a front-end loader to gouge at graves and destroy headstones at Skuinshoogte, a burial site of a battle of the first Anglo-Boer South African War.
The department of housing in Gauteng and the residents of Diepsloot, north-west of Johannesburg, are expected to have a meeting at Muzomuhle Primary School on Monday afternoon. The meeting comes after last week’s violent protest by the residents amid rumours that they were about to be relocated to the North West province.