The new Municipal Finance Management Act will boost transparency in the financial affairs of local authorities and improve service delivery, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Tuesday. To date, local councils have tended to make their own rules and draw up indecipherable budgets, making municipal oversight very difficult.
About 200 people took part in a demonstration outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre where a United Nations meeting on the Palestinian crisis was being held on Tuesday. The peaceful demonstration was held on a traffic island in Adderley Street adjoining the convention centre amid tight security.
President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday called on a conference in Cape Town on the Palestinian issue to produce results that could be discussed at the African Union summit in Ethiopia next week. Mbeki said the Palestinian problem should be included among the challenges facing Africa.
Scores protest at Palestinian meeting
Most people see paramedics as angels of mercy — but some have been accused of racing like tow-truck drivers to get to an accident scene before the competition.
One paramedic has already died on the way to an accident, with observers alleging that she was racing another company to get to the scene first. This has raised concern over what appears to be increased competition between the two main private ambulance companies.
Illegal traders have taken advantage of the Aids crisis and are smuggling anti-retrovirals (ARVs) from southern African countries into Zimbabwe for resale. A South African Airways spokesperson said that the trade could be expected in South Africa as most patients who were poor may be tempted to sell the drugs.
The trade union Solidarity has launched an investigation into a spate of suspensions at the state arms manufacturer Denel, its spokesperson Dirk Hermann said on Monday. By his count the company has now suspended 18 members of staff, including some belonging to Solidarity.
South Africa has a higher rate of people disabled by strokes than most developed countries, a Southern African Stroke Prevention (Saspi) report revealed on Monday. The report said South African men were more at risk from having a stroke than women, although the research suggested that diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol were higher in rural females.
Activists on Sunday called for a comprehensive audit of Africa’s crippling debt burden, currently estimated at more than $300-billion. The call was made by representatives of social movements from ten African countries, as well as Brazil, Argentina and the Philippines, at the end of a three-day workshop held in Cape Town
Mpumalanga police rounded up a gang of foreign drug dealers plying narcotics at local night spots in a major operation on Saturday morning, police said. Police, assisted by soldiers and officials from the departments of justice, health and home affairs, arrested 22 foreign nationals for dealing in drugs, among others.
Teachers have rejected the government’s salary offer of inflation plus 1%, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union said on Saturday following a meeting of its national general council. The union said in a statement it stands by a consolidated demand of public service unions for an annual adjustment of inflation plus 8%.
The Cabinet is to be asked to approve an African Union request to South Africa to send military observers to monitor a ceasefire in Sudan. A defence spokesperson said the AU requested 10 observers from South Africa earlier this month and Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota will soon be taking the request to the Cabinet.
Official opposition communications spokesperson Dene Smuts says Telkom is disingenuous when it argues that its profits were not only derived from revenues but also cost savings. Telkom, which appeared before the parliamentary communications committee on Friday, argued that fixed line profits were the product of cost cuts.
Staff at the troubled National Development Agency have written a new letter of protest to its board to complain about ongoing chaos at the organisation. Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya instituted a probe eight months ago into mismanagement, fraud and corruption in the agency.
The Zimbabwean government has announced that it intends to nationalise all farmland, a step that its critics fear will hasten the collapse of agriculture when millions of people depend on food aid. ”This is not in the best interests of Zimbabweans, black and white,” said the director of the pressure group Justice for Agriculture.
Tourism has long been viewed as one of the holy grails of job creation in South Africa, which is burdened by an unemployment rate of more than 30%. Certain parts of the country have become firm favourites with local and international visitors. Now the lesser-known province of Limpopo is also hoping to take its place at the table.
The United States government on Thursday donated more than R2,5-million-worth of equipment to the South African Police Service and the Scorpions to assist them in investigating commercial crime. The equipment includes computers, software, digital cameras and projectors, cellphones and cassette recorders.
United Kingdom- and South Africa-listed Old Mutual plc is looking to improve the performance of its South African operations through a combination of strategies, including cost cutting in its back office and implementing more efficient systems, as well as boosting the numbers of its sales force, according to CEO Jim Sutcliffe.
”Winter is the nightmare for utilities,” said City Power vice-president Silas Zimu as call-centre operators fielded calls from irate, cold and powerless Johannesburg residents on Thursday. ”The network of Johannesburg is old and was meant for the original mining industry,” said Zimu.
The South African Cabinet has approved a programme to develop human capital and improve research and innovation in relation to the pebble-bed modular reactor (PBMR) project, which has been called the world’s sexiest baby nuclear reactor by its proponents.
Serial child rapist Joao de Canha was given 10 life sentences on 10 rape charges on Thursday, but might serve just 20 years behind bars. Judge Hekkie Daniels imposed 10 life terms and a further sentence of 69 years and six months’ imprisonment on De Canha after convicting him on 29 charges ranging from rape to assault.
South African National Defence Force chief Siphiwe Nyanda on Thursday visited three soldiers at Pretoria’s 1 Military hospital who were injured while on peacekeeping duty in the Democratic Republic of Congo last week. One of the patients recounted how he and his colleagues were ambushed.
Swiss-based, South Africa-listed luxury goods group Richemont has outperformed market expectations for its financial year ending March 31 2004, analysts said on Thursday, reporting a 3% rise in fully diluted earnings per unit of €1,193 and boosting its dividend by 25% to €0,4 per unit.
Five people were injured in a fire on the second floor of a building in central Johannesburg on Wednesday afternoon, emergency services said. A Johannesburg emergency services spokesperson said a total of 64 children, who were taken to the roof of the building when the fire started, escaped unhurt.
The cost of medicines has already dropped by 16,4% since the beginning of May, an analyst told industry representatives in Johannesburg on Wednesday. ”Sure, there’s chaos at the moment but it’s going to be worth it in the end. It is clearly of benefit to the consumer,” said David Boyce, a health-care analyst.
African National Congress MP Ismail Vadi, who was elected unopposed as chairperson of the ad hoc committee on the public protector on Wednesday afternoon, said he undertakes to conduct his responsibility with humility and in a manner that will ”bring dignity” to Parliament.
Serial child rapist Joao de Canha can get medication in jail to keep his ”extraordinary sex drive” under control, counsel for his defence told the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday. De Canha (36), a Portuguese citizen, was found guilty by Judge Hekkie Daniels earlier this week on 29 charges, including 10 of rape.
Engen Petroleum, South Africa’s largest fuel retailer, has launched its Dynamic Unleaded fuel in South Africa, the latest in its range of fuels marketed under the Dynamic product line, the company announced on Wednesday. From Wednesday, Dynamic Unleaded will be available nationwide at approximately 900 Engen sites.
Sanlam, one of South Africa’s largest insurance and financial services groups, and the Professional Provident Society Insurance Company (PPS) have formally extended the agreement governing their relationship, with PPS reaffirming Sanlam as its preferred provider in its endeavour to broaden its range of products and services.
About 9 000 houses will be transferred to registered beneficiaries in Gauteng by June next year, provincial housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane said on Tuesday. ”The rate at which these transfers are going to take place is a show of commitment by the government to eradicating homelessness,” Mokonyane said.
KWV Limited, South Africa’s second-largest wine and spirits producer and exporter, has concluded an agreement with a broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) consortium in the local wine industry, Phetogo Investments, for Phetogo to make a share purchase offer to acquire a 25,1% stake in the company.
South African Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota said any blurring of functions between the state arms procurement agency, Armscor, and the state arms manufacturing entity, Denel, must come to an end. He noted that he has already held preliminary discussions with the minister of public enterprises in this regard.
South Africa’s Department of Transport told MPs on Tuesday that more than 500 000 traffic accidents occur annually on the country’s roads and of these 80% are a result of driver-related offences. Furthermore, the state loses about R750-million a year in uncollected fines as only 28% of issued fines are collected.