A new strategy to link transport with social, economic growth and development in Gauteng is being prepared, provincial transport minister Ignatius Jacobs said on Tuesday. Part of the Transport Investment Framework will be to address traffic congestion and pressure on transport infrastructure resulting from urbanisation.
Recently retired former president Nelson Mandela brought the Umtata Magistrate’s Court to a standstill when he paid a surprise visit on Tuesday. Mandela and an aide visited court ”A” where magistrate Shamintha Patan was presiding. ”When he walked into my court I first thought it was my imagination that I was seeing Madiba,” Patan said.
The first snow of the season has fallen on the peaks surrounding Barkly East in the Eastern Cape, almost three months later than last year, the South African Weather Service said on Tuesday. As a result, very cold conditions were expected over the western, southern and south-eastern interior as well as the eastern high ground and Highveld.
William Kekana was sentenced to life in prison by the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday for the murder of a Brits electrician. When pronouncing the sentence of life and 35 years, Judge Johan Els criticised the inadequate Correctional Services Act and said persons already serving life imprisonment are ”given a licence to kill”.
South Africa’s Advertising Standards Authority has ruled in favour of retail group Pick ‘n Pay regarding a complaint from a member of public that the company’s Hypermarket marketing campaign was misleading by claiming Pick ‘n Pay is "always cheaper". The authority found that the "always cheaper" slogan is backed up by independent research.
A South African NGO, the Social Change Assistance Trust was on Monday placed on the shortlist for the $1-million Alcan Prize for Sustainability by The Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum. Of almost 500 entries received from 79 countries around the world, only 12 organisations made the shortlist.
The man accused of killing baby Kayla, her mother and grandmother has been found guilty of murdering a man during a hijacking just nine days before the triple murder. William Kekana (19) admitted in the Pretoria High Court on Monday that he kidnapped Jacobus Geldenhuys outside the Pretoria Heart hospital.
Iscor’s potential merger with London-based LNM will offer ”extensive benefits” to the company and South Africa, the steel producer said on Monday. Trade union Solidarity has said that ”a takeover by LNM will not be in the best interest of the South African public”.
African National Congress secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe has denied a weekend report in City Press newspaper that he forced National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka to apologise to Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana. ”I clearly stated that I had not asked Ngcuka to apologise,” he said in a statement on Monday.
Telkom — employer of 32 358 people — is planning to reduce its staff numbers by 7% to 10% annually, the company said on Monday. Spokesperson Andrew Weldrick said staff reductions are not something to worry about because Telkom has a ”socially responsible” approach.
Economic interests and countries such as France and the United States were behind a ”coup d’état” that led to his ousting in February, former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide said on Monday. He said he will only contest elections in Haiti next year if the poll is guaranteed free and fair, and democratic.
The Gautrain Rapid Rail Link project will provide more than 100 000 jobs, Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa said on Monday. ”By 2009 the train will be carrying passengers,” Shilowa said in a speech prepared for delivery at the opening of the provincial legislature in Johannesburg.
Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa bound his government on Monday to fulfilling all pre-election promises of democracy and prosperity. ”The Gauteng provincial government is ready to put shoulder to the wheel to realise our objective of a better life for all,” he said at the opening of the provincial legislature in Johannesburg.
New National Party Gauteng leader Johan Kilian has resigned from the party but says it has nothing to do with weekend talks the party held with the African National Congress. Kilian, who has been with the party for 24 years, said he is leaving politics to return to the business world.
Listed South African retailer Edgars Consolidated Stores (Edcon) is optimistic that it will attract good investor interest, as well as a lower price, for its second securitised debt issue from its OntheCards securitisation programme, based on its customers’ store card debt, according to CEO for group services, Mark Bower.
The ambiance at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 14th annual Africa Economic Summit, which took place in Maputo last week, was markedly more relaxed than previous gatherings in Durban, as participants and the media fell under the spell of the Mozambicans’ slower but friendly pace of life and took advantage of the city’s excellent food and nightlife.
Major General Derrick Mgwebi last week became the first South African to head a United Nations peacekeeping mission when he assumed the command of the UN Operation in Burundi. Mgwebi last Tuesday donned a UN blue beret at a ceremony in Bujumbura to mark the end of the African Union mission in Burundi.
Paul Johannes Meyer, who allegedly murdered his ex-wife and two daughters, aged four and nine, at the Robertsham hotel south of Johannesburg on Thursday and also allegedly killed four people in Albertville on Wednesday, shot himself and died in Kroonstad, Free State police reported on Friday.
The success of the Democratic Alliance and its emergence as South Africa’s second-largest party is partly attributable to the fact that the New National Party, the architect party of apartheid, has embraced the liberation of all South Africans, said President Thabo Mbeki on Friday.
Amid rising global security concerns, Southern Africa’s profile is growing as a safe destination for tourists, investors, global events and skilled immigrants, Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota said on Friday. It is not by accident that more high-profile international events and investments are coming to this part of the world, Lekota said.
Both the ruling African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance have named their members who will serve on an ad hoc committee to consider the public protector’s probe into a complaint against the national director of public prosecutions.
The state closed its case against accused rapist and murderer William Kekana on Friday in the Temba Circuit High Court outside Pretoria. Advocate Dewald Reynierse cross-examined Kekana on his evidence-in-chief heard on Thursday, by trying to show the court that Kekana had been party to the crime.
State, defence battle in Kekana trial
The South African Chamber of Business has won a $20 000 award for its simple toolkit to assist small and medium enterprises address HIV/Aids in their workplaces. The chamber also won accolades for its strategy to monitor the implementation of this product through its chamber movement.
South African cellphone network Vodacom will still be sued in the Nigerian High Court for inducement of breach of contract, plaintiff Econet Wireless International said on Thursday. Econet Wireless Nigeria was Vodacom’s Nigerian partner until Monday, when the South African company abruptly terminated a five-year agreement.
The National Prosecuting Authority is guilty of discrimination if it does not prosecute the 37 African National Congress leaders who were refused amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but continues to prosecute other citizens, says the Freedom Front Plus.
On the eve of a federal council meeting to discuss the future of the New National Party following its poor performance in April’s national and provincial elections, the party’s Gauteng administrative office has closed. The move is in no way a sign of the party’s imminent dissolution in Gauteng, provincial leader Johan Kilian said.
A South African business chamber urged the government on Thursday to rename two departments so that they could become more focused. ”We are working on a detailed proposal and we are going to submit it to the government. We feel it must be considered,” said South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) chief executive James Lennox.
Almost a fifth of frog species in South Africa are under threat of extinction, a nine-year research project has found. The Atlas and Red Data Book of the Frogs of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland was officially launched on Thursday at the University of Cape Town’s avian demography unit.
Drug dealers are now targeting KwaZulu-Natal primary school children, a Durban police spokesperson said on Thursday. He said the mainly Nigerian drug lords recruit runners to infiltrate the schools. ”It’s not only in Durban but in the whole of the province. There isn’t a school they do not target.”
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria says it will not withdraw funding granted to South Africa. This follows reported comments last week by fund executive director Richard Feacham that the funds, which have been available since 2002, are being held up and that the money will be withdrawn from the government.
Three men who murdered a Soshanguve priest during a hijacking in 2001 were on Wednesday sentenced by the Pretoria High Court to life in jail. Boetie Mashego, Lucky Choma and Tsholofelo Seome calmly looked at the large number of faithful who had gathered to hear their fate, and even smiled before they were led down the steps to the court cells.
The police investigation into the rapes of three women and the murders of two of the women and a baby was incomplete, the Temba Circuit High Court heard on Thursday. Defence Advocate Janus Roothman argued that the police’s investigation had been incomplete and this had led to discrepancies.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=67238">Guilty plea in high-profile murder case</a>