The first medicine-dispensing licences, allowing health-care practitioners to provide medicine to clients, were handed out by the Health Ministry in Pretoria on Tuesday. This follows a law promulgated last year to prevent doctors from dispensing medicine without the licences.
Ten years after South Africa ended apartheid and returned to the international arena, the country is a model of good governance, freedom and democracy, Kenya’s agricultural attache in South Africa, Bernard Kitheka, said on Tuesday at a World Meteorological Day function hosted by the South African Weather Service.
The Western Cape director of public prosecutions has decided not to prosecute three men arrested in connection with a fatal shootout last week in front of former president Nelson Mandela’s Constantia home, SABC radio reported on Tuesday. The three men had been facing charges of attempted murder.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) will have to hold a formal hearing regarding a complaint lodged by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies concerning a broadcast on Muslim station Radio 786 that the board alleges was anti-Jewish.
South African Parliamentary Speaker Frene Ginwala hinted on Friday that she might not take up a senior post with the Pan African Parliament if the seat is given to South Africa. She said she personally believed that a seat or leadership of an international institution should not be placed in one country.
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The United Democratic Movement urged its supporters on Friday to remain ”calm and patient” after the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) published incorrect versions of the party’s candidates lists. Spokesperson Malizole Diko said the order of candidates on all of the party’s 19 lists was ”completely wrong”.
Special Report: Elections 2004
Gone are the weekends when Nolwazi would spend her nights calling family members and friends to ask whether they have seen her husband, while he’s out with friends clubbing the night away. Vodacom has initiated the new, location-based Look4me service on its cellular network, promising consumers peace of mind.
The two Sizzlers killers were found guilty in the Cape High Court on Thursday on nine counts of premeditated murder, one of attempted murder and one of armed robbery, all of which carry prescribed minimum sentences. On the murder charges, Adam Roy Woest and Trevor Basil Theys face nine prescribed life sentences.
President Thabo Mbeki had a midnight meeting with a delegation from Equatorial Guinea regarding the alleged mercenaries arrested in that country, he said on Thursday. Mbeki said the country has asked South Africa for help in ensuring that the trial of the arrested men is transparent and fair.
E Guinea, SA meet on coup attempt
Equatorial Guinea’s deputy foreign minister briefed the South African government on Thursday on developments in his country, where South Africans have been accused of being involved in preparations for a coup d’état. Sources said ”a message of gratitude” had likely been sent from the Equatorial president for South Africa’s role in foiling a coup attempt.
Airport baggage handlers on strike since December 18 said on Thursday they are prepared to settle for a pay increase of 6% to 7,5%, but will not accept worsened conditions of employment. Equity Aviation has proposed an increase in the number of hours worked per week from 40 to 45.
The Department of Labour plans to remove bogus trade unions and employer organisations from the job market, Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Thursday after the Labour Court dismissed with costs an urgent application filed by the National Employers Forum challenging its deregistration.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The Democratic Alliance has rejected African Christian Democratic Party complaints about the DA’s election radio adverts that urge voters not to waste their vote on one of the smaller parties, saying the ACDP has missed the point.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32518">ACDP: ‘Greedy’ DA not playing fair</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
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The Democratic Alliance is showing its ”greed for power” by urging voters in radio adverts not to vote for other opposition parties, the African Christian Democratic Party said on Thursday. ”By telling voters that their vote will be wasted on a ‘smaller’ opposition party, the DA has once again showed its greed for power,” an ACDP MP said.
Special Report: Elections 2004
A mysterious third person may have been involved in the Sizzlers massacre that left nine people dead in January last year, the Cape Town High Court heard on Wednesday. Defence counsel Nehemiah Ballem, representing taxi operator Trevor Basil Theys, said his client was afraid of this third person.
The men arrested aboard a captured plane in Zimbabwe are all former South African National Defence Force soldiers from Unit 32, based in Namibia, a diplomatic source said on Wednesday. The source said the plane had indeed been transporting mercenaries to Equatorial Guinea.
It’s all a ‘misunderstanding’
Mercenaries ‘came to collect guns’
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad has landed in the Central African Republic and is expected to be asked by ousted Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide for asylum in South Africa, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32453">SA envoys meet Aristide in Bangui</a>
Three vulture species in South Asia face imminent extinction due to a powerful drug that makes livestock carcasses fatal for the scavenging birds, ornithologists at a world conference on birds said. The threatened species include the white-rumped vulture, the slender-billed vulture and the Indian vulture.
The Mail & Guardian has again proved its worth as South Africa’s top newspaper by scooping all the nominations in the investigative journalism category of the Mondi Newspaper Awards 2003. The nominations were announced on Tuesday.
Listed financial services group Metropolitan Holdings expects to return some amount of excess capital to shareholders in its new 2004 financial year, probably via some combination of a share buy-back programme, special dividend and strong dividend policy, according to CEO Peter Doyle.
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”Campaigning for South Africa’s general elections, to be held next month, has moved into top gear — with politicians scrambling for an endorsement from the country’s 20,7-million registered voters. ”The parties are now in full-swing campaign mood,” says Khabele Matlosa of the Johannesburg-based Electoral Institute of Southern Africa.
Six lions’ traumatic and disorganised journey to South Africa from Spain will be reported to the South African Veterinary Council, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) said on Tuesday. The society said the six animals were transported in inadequate crates.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) announced on Tuesday that it plans to apply for a Cape High Court interdict to stop the sale of the Golden Arrow bus company to black empowerment consortium Hosken Consolidated Investments and Mettle Limited for R270-million.
The cargo plane impounded at Harare’s airport on Sunday was not registered in South Africa, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) confirmed on Tuesday. "Our investigation shows that this aircraft is not registered or even provisionally registered in South Africa," said CAA spokesperson Moses Seate.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32411">Zim plane ownership a mystery</a>
In a surprise move on Tuesday the state closed its case in the Sizzlers multiple murder trial. The accused, Waterfront restaurant manager Adam Roy Woest and taxi operator Trevor Basil Theys, were prepared for a marathon trial after the judge entered pleas of not guilty to nine charges of murder, among others.
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There is no reason for concern over the question of a successor for President Thabo Mbeki, his deputy, Jacob Zuma, said on Tuesday. The African National Congress, he said, has a capable leadership structure — not only one leader like some other political parties.
Special Report: Elections 2004
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal is to lay charges of intimidation against the Inkatha Freedom Party and complain to the Independent Electoral Commission following two alleged incidents in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands on Tuesday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
The Democratic Alliance has criticised apparent government plans to do away with visa requirements for about 2,9-billion people, mainly from poorer countries around the world. ”This opens up the serious prospect of millions of people flooding into South Africa to compete for jobs and social grants,” the DA said.
The mystery surrounding the ownership of a Boeing 717-100 cargo plane impounded at Harare’s airport deepened on Tuesday with various reports citing different sources contradicting each other. There are allegations that South Africans were among the 64 men on board.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32393">Mystery plane ‘left SA illegally'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32381">Mercenaries on a mission</a>
South African Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel says the challenge nations face today is to translate the potential benefits of globalisation into real gains for the poorest in the world. On Monday, Manuel delivered the Oxford University Inaugural Global Economic Governance Lecture in the United Kingdom.
Bridgestone, the world’s largest manufacturer of tyres and other rubber products, on Tuesday stated that it is to invest about R700-million in upgrading and expanding its Brits tyre manufacturing plant in North West province over a five-year period.
A man inspecting the side of a building in Johannesburg’s Fox Street fell to his death on Monday afternoon, Emergency Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said on Tuesday. The man was moving along the side of the building in a ”gondola” suspended from the top of the building, inspecting granite slabs.