The results of a survey conducted to find out whether President Thabo Mbeki is doing a good job show that sentiments vary according to race, location and age — but the bottom line is that Mbeki’s popularity is improving. According to the research, 47% of respondents said Mbeki is doing a good job, compared with 27% in February 2002.
The Pakistani High Commission on Wednesday was trying to establish the correctness of reports that South Africans were among 14 people arrested in Lahore on drug-smuggling charges. Pakistani authorities on Tuesday said they had busted an international drug smuggling ring headed by an airport customs official.
President Thabo Mbeki and his wife, Zanele arrived in Kigali, Rwanda, on Wednesday morning for the commemoration of the genocide in that country 10 years ago, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. They are accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and other senior government officials.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33786">West ignores Rwanda anniversary</a>
Six South African soldiers serving in a peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo were believed killed in a road accident near Goma on Tuesday, the South African National Defence Force said. It is believed the troops were travelling in a Casspir vehicle, which swerved off the road and plunged into Lake Kifu.
Cape High Court Judge Hennie Erasmus on Tuesday afternoon set aside the immigration regulations published by Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi. The interim regulations in force before Buthelezi’s immigration regulations were gazetted on March 8 will now continue to remain in force.
The increase at midnight on Tuesday of the retail price of petrol and diesel will further dampen economic growth in South Africa, says official opposition energy spokesperson Ian Davidson. "All taxes and duties that currently make up almost 40% of the fuel price should be reviewed," he said.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Tuesday announced its decision to suspend the current wage negotiations between the union and gold mining giant Harmony. This was in reaction to the company’s announcement last Friday that it might have to close six of its mine shafts, which could cost more than 6Â 300 jobs.
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) warned on Tuesday it would declare a dispute if police management failed to meet the union to discuss a controversial plan to upgrade salaries and packages. The plan is a bid to counter the exodus of trained and highly experienced personnel from the police service.
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt is receiving treatment for health problems and will not be able to continue testifying at his amnesty hearing this week, his lawyer, Jan Wagener, said on Tuesday. He said Nieuwoudt would ”hopefully” be able to take the stand again during the next session of the hearing.
The digital divide is growing rather than narrowing despite efforts to rectify the imbalance, said Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana in Pretoria on Tuesday. ”The information, communication and technology sector in our country reflects the skewed landscape of ownership, control and access to resources,” he said.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Solidarity trade union pledged their support on Tuesday for the National Union of Mineworkers in its fight against Harmony Gold over the possible closure of at least six mine shafts. Harmony announced on Friday that it might have to close the shafts.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?a=0&o=46097">Union suspends Harmony wage talks</a>
The South African Human Rights Commission must protect the national organiser of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), Mangaliso Kubheka, and retract its hate-speech finding against him, the LPM said on Tuesday. Kubheka was reported to have said that LPM members would ”take farms and chase away white farmers like dogs”.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The Independent Democrats said it has whisked away seven Democratic Alliance members on the eve of elections, although the DA says the ID is guilty of "double-counting defections". Themba Sono, deputy leader of the ID, welcomed "senior registered members of the DA" at a media briefing in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
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Road accidents are the biggest cause of death in South Africa among children between the ages of four and 15, and a national plan of action is needed to combat this ”epidemic”, Western Cape provincial minister of health Piet Meyer said on Tuesday. He said on average two children die every day on the country’s roads.
South Africa’s social delivery systems are facing a crisis and need urgent funding from the government, the National Coalition for Social Services (Nacoss) said in Johannesburg on Tuesday. It said there is inadequate funding and care for adults and children with HIV/Aids, while homes for children and for the elderly are closing.
The state might challenge a Supreme Court of Appeal decision to substitute the life imprisonment imposed on a woman who hired two men to murder her abusive partner with a suspended sentence. The appeal court last week replaced the life sentence of Anieta Natasha Ferreira with one of six years.
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille challenged political leaders on Monday — including President Thabo Mbeki — to a test to ascertain their HIV status. But presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said: ”We are not interested in responding to these silly shenanigans by Patricia de Lille.”
The Police Prisons and Civil Rights Union on Monday rejected the police plan to upgrade salaries and packages, saying there was no consultation and that ordinary members were excluded. A spokesperson said the plan lacks transparency because the union was not consulted and therefore did not know what its content entailed.
Heavy rains over parts of the central Karoo at the weekend have inflicted millions of rands of damage to roads and bridges in the region, and caused at least one dam to overflow, the Western Cape government reported on Monday. Communities downstream have been warned about possible flooding.
The National Union of Mineworkers on Monday accused Harmony Gold of callousness in announcing the imminent closure of six shafts, which could cost at least 6Â 300 mineworkers their jobs. ”Harmony is showing their appreciation of the contribution made by black mineworkers through this callous act,” the union said.
As the clock ticked away before new immigration regulations come into effect at midnight on Tuesday, litigation challenging the regulations was adjourned in court on Monday. Allegations were made that Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi had acted in a mala fide manner by agreeing to a court order to publish the controversial regulations.
The Department of Minerals and Energy on Monday celebrated the success of its electrification programme with a symbolic switch-on ceremony in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg. Departmental spokesperson Kanyo Gqulu said 50% of all rural households and 80% of all urban households now have electricity.
South African-listed diversified industrial company Bidvest Group has made an offer of Aus$6 per share to buy out minorities in Bidvest plc, its food service distribution subsidiary listed on the Luxembourg and Australian Stock Exchanges in which it has an 81% interest.
Sales at South Africa’s 30th annual Nederburg Auction on April 2 and 3, arguably the highlight of the wine industry’s calendar, saw wine sales fall by 11,2% to R6,73-million from the record R7,58-million achieved in 2003, the first time a decline has been recorded since 1993.
Last week husband-killer Anieta Ferreira was released from prison, virtually a free woman. The decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal to commute Ferreira’s life sentence has been hailed a victory for abused women. But criminologist Irma Labuschagne says a strong message has to be sent out that not all women who murder their husbands or partners will get lenient sentences.
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The Democratic Alliance on Saturday countered an earlier attack by the New National Party leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, and called his party a ”Maltese poodle” begging for scraps at the African National Congress’s table. Earlier in the day Van Schalkwyk urged white people not to vote for the DA.
Special Report: Elections 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>President Thabo Mbeki is still an Aids dissident, United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa told about 25Â 000 cheering supporters at a party rally in Umtata on Saturday. The gathering, in the UDM’s heartland, was billed as the major rally of the UDM’s election campaign.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and her Irish counterpart, Brian Cowen, have signed a declaration of intent to deepen ties between their countries, her office said on Friday. Dlamini-Zuma thanked the people of Ireland for their support during the struggle against apartheid.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>When President Thabo Mbeki entered the crowded lounge of the Xhola home in Despatch’s Khayamandi on Friday, an elderly man rose to offer his chair. But the president didn’t take it. "[Mbeki] said he is younger than that old man and he said he would go sit there on the floor," said the household matriarch afterwards.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
Three of the Boeremag treason trial accused will find out next week whether their advocates will have to withdraw from the trial. The national director of public prosecutions launched an urgent application on Friday in the Pretoria High Court for an order forcing advocates Harry Prinsloo and Louisa van der Walt to withdraw from the trial.
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A row has broken out over a claim by President Thabo Mbeki that a Democratic Alliance councillor in Port Elizabeth refused to walk in squatter areas for fear of getting her feet dirty. Mbeki made the allegation on Friday during a day of campaigning in the Nelson Mandela metropole.
Special Report: Elections 2004
Global banking group HSBC, which was recently awarded a banking licence in South Africa, has opened a branch in the country — its first sub-Saharan branch in Africa. The branch is based in Johannesburg and was officially opened by South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni.