The Supreme Court of Appeal has administered a R57-million smack to Transnet and, by implication, to Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe
South African Minister of Public Enterprises Jeff Radebe has announced that Umthunzi Telecoms Consortium is the preferred bidder on the MTN tender that was placed on September 19 last year. The government expects the transaction to be about R2,5-billion.
The case of controversial Durban businessman Schabir Shaik was postponed in the city’s magistrate’s court on Friday to January 17 next year. Friday’s case relates to Shaik allegedly being in possession of minutes of a Cabinet meeting on the multibillion-rand arms deal.
More resources will be released to address a R10-billion backlog to improve the public health-care infrastructure, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday. She was speaking at the opening of the Colesberg hospital in the Northern Cape.
The distance between Johannesburg and Mafikeng has been shortened by more than two hours. It now takes only 45 minutes to travel between the two towns following last December’s resuscitation of the air route linking the two cities. The revival is funded with an investment of R5,8-million from the North West government.
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Freedom Front Western Cape leader Corne Mulder is suing the Democratic Alliance’s provincial election coordinator, Robin Carlisle, and his party in the Cape High Court for damages to the amount of R250Â 000. The damages are being sought for alleged slander and damage to Mulder’s reputation.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The roll-out of treatment for HIV/Aids in Gauteng started smoothly on Thursday, with five hospitals in the province dispensing free anti-retroviral drugs to patients. Patients treated for HIV/Aids with anti-retrovirals will receive extensive counselling on how the drugs have to be taken and possible side effects.
Aids clinics ready to receive patients
As the national roadshow by the Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) Charter working group draws to a close, the group has started collating public comments received so far before drawing up a final draft. In Johannesburg in early May, the group will host a "consolidation of information event".
Health departments in the Eastern Cape and North West provinces were still investigating on Thursday the possible cause of recent outbreaks of cholera. Thirteen people died of the disease early in March in the rural Eastern Cape, and at least nine people are still being treated in the North West.
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President Thabo Mbeki was presented with a cow and an ox on Thursday morning as he kicked off two days of electioneering in the Eastern Cape. The presentation was made at the Mngqesha Great Place of Maxhoba Sandile, king of the Rharhabe or Western Xhosa.
Special Report: Elections 2004
Parties that campaign only to oppose the African National Congress are also opposing its efforts to deal with poverty and unemployment, President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday. He was speaking to Rharhabe King Maxhoba Sandile and chiefs and counsellors at the Mngqesha Great Place north of King William’s Town.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33497">A cow and an ox for Mbeki</a>
The South African Revenue Service was just more than R500-million short of its revenue target of R303,3-billion at the end of the 2003/04 financial year, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Thursday. The Budget deficit for the financial year is likely to be less than the 2,6% of gross domestic product estimated in the February 2004 Budget.
On April 3 it will be 25 years to the day since the first white Government Garage lorry rumbled on to Klipfontein farm, and the recollection is still etched in Desmond Njajula’s memory. Njajula still lives at Glenmore, where he was relocated, now an established settlement of about 550 households. But the difficulties that Glenmore faces, Njajula says, are in many ways the same as those of 25 years ago.
South African billionaire entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth is going to Mars — thanks to United States President George Bush. Shuttleworth on Thursday revealed the exciting news to the Mail & Guardian Online in an exclusive telephonic interview from his London apartment.
Mail & Guardian Online readers who believe that entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth will soon be travelling to Mars on a Nasa space mission have a long wait ahead of them. The M&G Online received several e-mails about this April Fool’s Day joke on Thursday. Most other publications also made use of the opportunity to fool their readers.
Read our April Fool’s Day story
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Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson on Wednesday disagreed with one of his MPs when he contended that the DA is not actively campaigning for the lesbian and gay vote in the April elections. Gibson and gay MP Mike Waters were responding to a statement from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
Special Report: Elections 2004
Gauteng transport minister Khabisi Mosunkutu on Tuesday launched a multimillion-rand project aimed at upgrading the Randfontein taxi rank in the West Rand. The project forms part of a R2,5-billion programme to transform existing taxi and bus ranks around the country into diversified retail and service outlets.
The saga of Mpumalanga public works minister Steve Mabona intensified this week when the Scorpions submitted a long-awaited charge sheet in the Pretoria Regional Court against Mabona’s former head of department, William Mthombothi. Mthombothi was arrested and charged with fraud by the Scorpions last November.
More than a hundred guests and celebrities cheered as a 6m bronze statue of former president Nelson Mandela was unveiled at the Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton on Wednesday. The square, previously known as Sandton Square, was also renamed on Wednesday.
The Democratic Alliance has welcomed the British Parliament’s investigation into the activities of Britain’s Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD) — which will probe part of South Africa’s arms deal. BAE Systems is one of the biggest clients of the ECGD, which has financed the purchase of BAE arms by South Africa.
Old Mutual plc, the London- and South African-listed financial services company that is South Africa’s largest life insurer, has reinforced its support for troubled banking subsidiary Nedcor, while maintaining a tough line on its future performance.
The South African government signed the sale agreement for 75% of the state Komatiland Forest assets, which will place R396-million in the fiscus, at a ceremony in Pretoria on Wednesday. This follows the Cabinet’s announcement in December to appoint Bonheur as the preferred bidder.
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt was cross-examined at length on Wednesday on his reasons for killing the so-called Motherwell Four in a 1989 car-bomb explosion. At one point Advocate Kessie Naidoo, representing the families of three of the four, accused him of pretending not to understand a question.
Nieuwoudt would have lied under oath
Unruly and disruptive behaviour caused the adjournment of a regular monthly general meeting of members of the Aids Consortium at Cosatu House in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, on Tuesday. A spokesperson said members of the National Association of People Living with HIV/Aids ”were clearly at the meeting to cause disruption”.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Polls indicate that South Africa’s former ruling party will be lucky to get 15% in the upcoming election — down from about 38% in 1999 — in its stronghold of the Western Cape. But there was no sign of despondency in its ranks when its leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, took to meeting voters on the West Coast on Tuesday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
The South African military and the United Nations are trying to determine if the shooting of a South African soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was related to a recent coup attempt in that country. South African National Defence Force spokesperson Colonel Kwena Mangope said the soldier was shot at about 11pm on Monday.
Rand Water, the bulk water supplier, has called on people not to build on its pipelines. Rand Water spokesperson Mike Nxasana said in a statement on Tuesday that since 1994 people have been encroaching into the company’s servitudes to erect dwellings, causing disruptions in water delivery.
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The Democratic Alliance has accused the Eastern Cape African National Congress of ”high decibel” intimidation after a bid on Tuesday to disrupt a DA meeting with a massive sound truck. The truck parked outside a Port Elizabeth hall where a DA lunch-time meeting was in progress.
Special Report: Elections 2004
The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality will be relocating 18 families in Katlehong whose houses are at risk from dangerous sinkhole formations, the mayor announced on Tuesday. This follows 11 reported incidences of dolomite instability in Katlehong and its surrounding areas since January this year.
A senior World Health Organisation official told a conference on Tuesday that traditional medicine had helped improve the condition of two of his nieces, who are HIV-positive. Earlier, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said the status and profile of traditional healers should be raised.
Taxi organisations will patrol the country’s highways with traffic officers this Easter in a bid to boost road safety, the Arrive Alive campaign announced on Tuesday. South African National Taxi Council president Tom Moufe said taxi drivers would respond better to those who knew the way they worked.
The widows of three of the men killed in the 1989 Motherwell car bombing have rejected Tuesday’s apology by former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt. Nieuwoudt, who triggered the bomb, tendered the apology in the rehearing in Port Elizabeth of his application for amnesty for the deed.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33382">Nieuwoudt to face Hefer interrogator</a>