Equatorial Guinea is preparing an extradition request for 69 alleged mercenaries to be sent to that country for trial, the Constitutional Court in South Africa was told on Monday. The court was hearing arguments why it should intervene in the trial of the group, which is facing various charges. They are currently being held in a prison in Zimbabwe.
Residents evicted from their houses in Protea Glen, Soweto, will be relocated to free Reconstruction and Development Programme houses in Doornkop outside Soweto from Monday, Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu said on Sunday. Sisulu addressed a public meeting of more than 2 000 people in a bid to resolve the area’s housing problem.
A team from the national Department of Social Development is visiting the Western Cape to outline the processes of the establishment of the South African Social Security Agency, the government news agency said on Monday. The agency will ultimately take over from provinces the payment of social welfare grants.
Burundi’s President Domitien Ndayizeye and other senior politicians were in Pretoria on Saturday for a fresh round of talks aimed at advancing the peace process in the Central African country. Deputy President Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s mediator for Burundi, is due to meet the parties on Sunday and Monday.
Birthday tributes have started pouring in for former president Nelson Mandela who turns 86 on Sunday.
South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, worst-hit by Aids in the country, faces a lack of burial space due the growing number of deaths from the disease, officials warned at a two-day conference that ended on Friday. The city of Durban is struggling to keep up: only two out of 22 cemeteries have vacant plots left.
South African Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has launched a stinging response to comments made by United Nations special envoy on HIV/Aids in Africa, Stephen Lewis. Lewis told the 15th International Aids Conference in Thailand that South Africa is not doing enough to treat and prevent the disease.
Mother-to-child HIV policy unchanged
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) will ask the government to investigate Telkom to ascertain if retrenchments are necessary, it said on Friday. Telkom has indicated that it will retrench 1 381 workers. CWU president Joe Chauke told journalists in Johannesburg the need for retrenchments must be probed.
It is a week since Leigh Matthews was last seen, but the police and the public are working as hard as ever to trace the kidnapped student, police said on Friday. ”We must find her, that’s all. There is no way anyone will lose hope,” said Superintendent Chris Wilken. He said support from the public has not diminished.
Eugene de Kock, the former Vlakplaas commander, on Thursday linked the 1989 Motherwell bombing to the earlier murder of activist Mathew Goniwe and three others, known as the Cradock Four. De Kock was testifying at the Gideon Nieuwoudt Truth and Reconciliation Committee amnesty hearing in Port Elizabeth.
Two more burial sites have been discovered in Kimberley, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Thursday. The finding comes after last May’s discovery of 180 unmarked graves in the city. Developers and archaeologists are divided as to what should be done about the matter.
The South African government’s policy to reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV remains unchanged, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday. The Medicines Control Council has recommended that a combination of anti-retrovirals be used instead of a single dose of nevirapine.
The African National Congress is trying to achieve a messy compromise between state intervention in the economy and underpinning an open market, says Democratic Alliance leader. Leon also took issue with the South African Communist Party’s Blade Nzimande, who has disagreed with those saying the ruling party’s economic policies have shifted.
Two fires broke out at exactly the same time in two buildings at the New Somerset hospital in Cape Town on Friday morning, emergency officials said. Officials suspect they were started on purpose. The fires were put out within 20 minutes of firefighters arriving on the scene.
Investment in the South African economy appears to be on track, said Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana in Pretoria on Thursday following President Thabo Mbeki’s meeting with big business. A meeting was held at the Union Buildings to discuss progress made since the establishment of goals during the Growth and Development Summit in June last year.
The president of the transitional government in Burundi, Domitien Ndayizeye, and representatives of three of the country’s main political parties will be in South Africa this weekend to discuss power-sharing arrangements. In a parallel event, women of South Africa will be holding talks with Burundi women.
Levi Strauss & Co is planning to continue its expansion in South Africa, the group revealed on Friday, despite already being able to claim a 27% share of the local denim market. Levi’s South Africa manufactures its clothing locally and also exports garments to the United States.
This week’s arrest and court appearance of Samson Madonsela marks the climax of the police operation to purge football of corruption and match-fixing. The police allege Madonsela, a member of the South African Football Association’s referees’ technical committee, was the ”conduit” through which club officials reached referees.
Former Mail & Guardian journalist Farouk Chothia and his Cameroonian colleague Ange Ngu Thomas were still under house arrest in Limbe, Cameroon, on Thursday. Chothia, a producer for the BBC, was detained on Sunday together with BBC reporter Ngu Thomas on accusations of spying.
Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand is hoping to pinpoint the gene sequences that inactivate the virus that causes hepatitis B, an illness carried by more than 380-million people worldwide, the university said on Thursday. Wits said that it is using new technology to try to stop hepatitis B from recurring in the body.
One of the Boeremag treason trial accused told the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday he is not the ”monster” he is made out to be. ”At the start of the trial we were portrayed as these vicious barbarians who had no respect for human lives and drove around planting bombs everywhere,” testified Gerhardus ”Vis” Visagie.
The South African government will send a delegation to Equatorial Guinea to ensure that the trial of eight South Africans arrested in that country — for allegedly plotting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema — will be conducted in a fair manner. The Minister of Foreign Affairs announced this in Pretoria on Wednesday.
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.