New laws regulating the price of medicine have come under fire again — this time from the National Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers, which says that while medicine prices will be regulated, the fees wholesalers may charge will not, leaving them at the mercy of manufacturers.
The public outcry over high car prices has led to a formal investigation by the Competition Commission, the organisation said on Wednesday. Commission manager Zodwa Ntuli said the probe will at this stage focus on the practice of minimum resale price maintenance by specific manufacturers and dealers.
Ailing singer Brenda Fassie has shown a determination to survive, former president Nelson Mandela said on Wednesday. Mandela was addressing the media outside the Sunninghill hospital in Johannesburg after he visited Fassie. The singer remains in a stable condition, but in a coma, her recording company EMI said on Wednesday.
The Mafikeng campus of North West University will close until further notice, the management announced on Wednesday. ”Due to the continued unrest on campus management has decided … to close the university with immediate effect,” the university said in a statement.
Almost 21,9-million South Africans live below the national poverty line of R354 a month, the resident coordinator of the United Nations Development Programme in South Africa said on Wednesday at the release of the UN Human Development Report in Johannesburg.
The new international La Mercy airport project needs to be driven as expeditiously as possible and the new African National Congress provincial government would like to see the first bricks laid by April 2005 and the project completed by 2009, says new KwaZulu-Natal finance minister Mike Mabuyakhulu.
South Africa’s National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has condemned the sale of Siamese fighter fish as corporate gifts. Apparently, the Siamese fighter fish have been confined into ”brick-style” glass containers and exhibited in Gauteng centres.
Max, South Africa’s famous crime-fighting gorilla, died in his sleep early on Wednesday morning, the Johannesburg Zoo announced. Max made headlines and became a national hero in 1997 when he a beat up a runaway thief who jumped into his cage in the zoo.
South African financial services specialist Sterling Waterford Securities is breaking new ground in the international investment field with the planned launch of environmentally linked derivatives. The group’s upcoming carbon credit note issue will be a world first, while also providing the first formal trading facility for environmental derivatives.
While students continued their demonstrations at the Mafikeng campus of the North West University on Tuesday, large numbers of staff members marched to the department of education to present a memorandum. The only connection between the two protests is their exasperation with the management of the university.
The Washington-based Centre for Public Integrity’s Global Integrity Report has listed South Africa’s electoral and political process as ”weak”, the Department of Public Service and Administration said in Pretoria on Tuesday. This was because of the African National Congress’s overwhelming majority at the April polls.
The price of medicines will be unstable in the next few weeks as pharmacists clear out old stocks and replace it with new, undiscounted stock in terms of new legislation, the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa warned on Tuesday. Consumers have already started complaining of increases up to 30% in the price of medication.
Salvage experts are hoping that the stricken bulk carrier Cape Africa, currently lying 200km west of Hout Bay, will remain afloat long enough for them to pump out the 1Â 900 tons of heavy fuel oil the ship is carrying. The vessel has a tear 23m long and between 5m and 7m high in her hull.
South Africa has donated R100-million to two United Nations food programmes supplying emergency relief, the organisations said on Tuesday. In a statement, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme said they welcomed the money, of which R67,5-million will be used by the FAO for agriculture.
The World Food Programme (WFP) should stop forcing African countries to accept genetically modified (GM) food aid, various groups demanded on Tuesday. More than 60 groups representing farmer, consumer, environmental and development organisations from 15 African countries sent a letter of protest to the WFP on Tuesday.
Abbey Mzayiya, better known as Happy Sindane, was expected to be discharged later this week, the Pretoria Academic hospital said on Tuesday. Mzayiya, who has been in hospital fighting for his life since he was run over by two cars on April 3, has been described as ”doing very well”.
After weeks of negotiations with the African National Congress, the Inkatha Freedom Party has accepted three ministerial positions in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government. The IFP originally withdrew two of its officials from the provincial executive, announced at the end of April.
Pharmacists across the country adopted a wait-and-see attitude to the effects of the new Medicines and Related Substances Act as the industry faced uncertainty and anger on Monday. The Act, intended to regulate medicine prices, came into force on Sunday, making discounting by manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers illegal.
Shareholders representing 37,6% of short-term insurer Mutual & Federal’s issued share capital have accepted the R17,02 per share offer from parent Old Mutual plc, far short of the 90% Old Mutual required to succeed in its minority buyout. Old Mutual announced the results of the offer on Monday
South Africa’s first 10 years of democracy have paved the way for solving many of the country’s remaining problems in the next decade, President Thabo Mbeki said after his inauguration on Tuesday for a second term in office. He addressed thousands who had gathered at the Union Buildings in Pretoria for his induction.
Mbeki takes the oath
Mandela, Mugabe cheered
The South African Medical Association and the Hospital Association of South Africa (Hasa) agreed on Monday to stop participating in fixing the selling price of medical services in contravention of the Competition Act, the Competition Tribunal said. Hasa has also agreed to pay administrative penalties of R4,5-million.
The Inkatha Freedom Party has withdrawn its legal challenge to contest the declaration of the April 14 election as free and fair. IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Monday night: ”It was never our intention to spoil the celebrations of our first decade of democracy.”
Thabo Mbeki was inaugurated as South Africa’s President in a lavish ceremony at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday before an estimated 40 000 revellers and 6 000 invited guests, including presidents, royalty, prime ministers and Cabinet ministers from all over the world.
Mandela, Mugabe cheered
Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa on Monday repeatedly promised to discharge the mandate handed him and the African National Congress to deliver the party’s mandate to voters, while opposition parties pledged to lend a hand. Shilowa was making his first address of his second term as premier to the province’s third legislature.
While Inkatha Freedom Party supporters protested against the declaration of the elections as free and fair, the party leadership continued talks with the African National Congress on setting up a broad-based provincial government in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday.
IFP ‘regrets’ king’s statement
The inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday will be sullied by the attendance of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, the official opposition Democratic Alliance said on Monday. Mugabe was reported to have arrived in South Africa on Sunday.
Scientists have discovered two more coelacanth off South Africa’s east coast, bringing to 21 the number of live specimens of the exceptionally rare ”four-legged” fish found along the country’s coast in recent years. A team of researchers from South Africa and Germany has been studying the population first spotted in 2000.
South African Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Monday welcomed the reinstatement of 13 Northern Cape mineworkers, who were summarily dismissed for not going to work on election day, April 14. However, Mdladlana said Reho Mining company’s initial decision to dismiss the workers was completely unacceptable.
Pretoria was a hive of activity on Monday with last-minute preparations for Tuesday’s inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki at the Union Buildings and the celebration of South Africa’s 10th year of democracy. With security forces keeping an eye over the city, VIPs have started trickling into Gauteng from all over the world.
Inauguration ‘sullied’ by Mugabe
The official opposition Democratic Alliance has selected its team representing the nine provinces in the National Council of Provinces but former Western Cape premier and former Cape Town mayor Gerald Morkel failed to be selected for one of two Western Cape seats available.
Food retailer Shoprite Holdings will be announcing a black economic empowerment (BEE) initiative with the Department of Trade and Industry’s credit facilitation agency for small and medium enterprises, Khula Enterprise Finance, on Wednesday. Shoprite said the business venture will create positive spin-offs for BEE in South Africa.
South Africa’s million-plus people of Indian origin complain that a controversial scheme to uplift people marginalised under apartheid is working against them. The bone of contention for this relatively small but economically and politically important group is the black economic empowerment programme.