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/ 20 January 2004
Health authorities in China are refusing to disclose the origins of an avian influenza (bird flu) virus that can be lethal when transmitted to humans, a South African medical official said on Tuesday. The virus could be the source of the flu that is suspected of having caused 13 deaths in Vietnam since the beginning of the year.
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/ 20 January 2004
The legitimacy of previous polls in South Africa’s democratic process has been placed in the spotlight by Inkatha Freedom Party leader and Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who has spoken of boxes of IFP votes being ”emptied all over the valleys and forests of [KwaZulu-Natal]” during the 1994 elections.
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/ 20 January 2004
After poor summer rainfall, a favourable rain-producing weather system is developing, the South African Weather Service said on Tuesday. The key areas that could receive decent rain in the next week are the North West, Gauteng and Free State provinces, with heavy falls possible in places.
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/ 20 January 2004
The Inkatha Freedom Party and the United Democratic Movement on Tuesday slammed the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s dismissal of a complaint against the SABC, which drew the ire of opposition parties after it screened the launch of the African National Congress’s election manifesto.
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/ 19 January 2004
The Foundation for Human Rights said on Monday it will take steps to ensure that Judge Siraj Desai and his alleged rape victim will receive the appropriate support. The foundation partly funded a South African delegation to the World Social Forum in India, where it is alleged Desai raped a North West woman, also a delegation member.
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/ 19 January 2004
Political minnow the Moderate Independent Party kicked off its 2004 election campaign on Monday, aiming to capture five to 10 seats in the Western Cape provincial parliament. Party leader Malcolm Taylor said the decision on whether to contest the elections nationally will be decided within the next two weeks.
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/ 19 January 2004
An African National Congress statement on Monday addressed the party’s relationship of cooperation between itself and the New National Party. In the wake of media reports that the ANC has "turned" on its coalition partner in the Western Cape provincial government, the ANC said it is "committed to working with the NNP".
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/ 19 January 2004
Comedian Marc Lottering admitted at the scene of a car crash in Sea Point, Cape Town, that he had had ”too much to drink”, a Cape Town magistrate heard on Monday. Lottering was arrested then for alleged drunken driving and reckless or negligent driving.
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/ 19 January 2004
The official opposition Democratic Alliance has submitted written parliamentary questions to the presidency requesting a breakdown of costs incurred by the South African taxpayer for President Thabo Mbeki’s recent visit to Haiti. Mbeki recently attended Haiti’s bi-centenary celebrations.
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/ 19 January 2004
The government needs to review the contradictions between its stated objectives in education and reality on the ground with children of the poor being turned away from schools because they cannot pay school fees, says Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille.
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/ 19 January 2004
South Africa’s two principal oil industry associations, the South African Petroleum Industry Association and the African Mineral and Energy Forum, have signed a cooperation agreement in the common area of liquid fuels in recognition of their common interests and goals.
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/ 18 January 2004
South Africa needs a democratic alternative to win the war against HIV/Aids, unemployment, crime, poverty and to prevent the consolidation of a one-party state, Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Sunday when he unveiled his party’s manifesto and election campaign in Durban.
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/ 18 January 2004
The death toll in the building collapse at a construction site in Crown Mines, Johannesburg, has risen to three after the body of a missing man was found on Sunday morning, the city’s emergency services said. Two people were killed instantly and two were seriously injured after a wall collapsed at the site on Sunday morning.
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/ 18 January 2004
A statement issued by the African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday claimed that the ANC had been informed by "reliable sources at Ulundi" that there will be a "stage-managed so-called defection of (bogus) ANC members to the IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party] tomorrow (Sunday) at its (IFP) manifesto launch at Lindelani in Durban".
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/ 17 January 2004
President Thabo Mbeki has declared parts of six drought-stricken provinces in the country disaster areas, the Department of Provincial and Local Government said on Friday. The disaster areas are in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, the North West, the Free State and the Northern Cape.
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/ 17 January 2004
Democratic Alliance leaders expressed regret on Friday at communications authorities for granting the SABC more time to respond to complaints of the live coverage of an African National Congress rally last weekend — citing the fact that the Inkatha Freedom Party’s election campaign launch and rally takes place this Sunday.
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/ 17 January 2004
There is a strong suspicion that a decomposed body police found on the Tradouw Pass, near Barrydale in the Western Cape, is that of missing Dutch exchange student Marleen Konings, police said on Friday. A 46-year-old man has been taken into custody, but not formally charged with Konings’ murder.
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/ 15 January 2004
South Africa will announce draft regulations on Friday that aim to slash medicine prices by up to 70%, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in Pretoria on Thursday. These regulations on transparent pricing had been delayed by four years due to legal action by pharmaceutical companies.
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/ 15 January 2004
The official opposition has proposed a tax rebate system for both individual taxpayers and corporates to boost employment levels and spur economic growth. The Democratic Alliance’s leader, Tony Leon, introduced a "solutions at work" document on Thursday.
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/ 15 January 2004
The African National Congress in Gauteng said on Thursday it will take its election campaign to white areas to ensure it increases its support. The provincial party’s head of elections, Paul Mashatile, spoke confidently about the province’s achievement since 1994, saying: ”Gauteng is a better place to live in now.”
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/ 15 January 2004
Listed health and beauty retailer New Clicks Holdings has reported an 11% rise in its sales for the four months from September 1 to December 31 2003, compared with the year-earlier period. The New Clicks group includes the store brands Clicks, Discom, Musica, CD Wherehouse and The Body Shop.
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/ 14 January 2004
Another journalist and a senior media executive have been arrested in Zimbabwe. Raphael Khumalo, general manager of the privately owned Zimbabwe Independent, and reporter Itai Dzamara were arrested on Wednesday, Linda Cook, Khumalo’s lawyer, told the Mail & Guardian Online.
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/ 14 January 2004
The African National Congress leadership in the Western Cape said on Wednesday it is aiming for a 51% majority in the forthcoming election, irrespective of a coalition agreement between itself and the New National Party. ANC provincial chairperson Ebrahim Rasool said his party has no ”election pact” with the NNP.
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/ 14 January 2004
Yfm DJ Fana "Khabzela" Khaba died of an Aids-related disease on Wednesday at the Johannesburg General hospital. On May 16 last year, Khabzela had — in a move that had surprised the nation — announced his HIV-status on air during a mid-morning radio show.
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/ 14 January 2004
The issue of identity documents is a cause of concern for election authorities in the Western Cape, with many prisoners eligible to vote lacking them, and thousands of documents remaining uncollected at the home affairs department. The Independent Electoral Commission on Wednesday started registering inmates in the region.
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/ 14 January 2004
The Zimbabwean Ministry of Health and Child Welfare confirmed that the number of people in Zimbabwe afflicted with anthrax has doubled from 50 nearly a week ago to 100, medical information service Medinfo reported on Wednesday. Three people have already died from the disease.
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/ 14 January 2004
The report of the Hefer Commission of Inquiry into allegations that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid spy was handed to the government on Wednesday. Hefer would not disclose the report’s contents, but the former judge said his final decision had been easy to reach.
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/ 14 January 2004
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) released its position paper on control and ownership of the broadcasting industry in the country on Tuesday, SABC television news reported. It said Icasa plans to lure more players and investors into the industry.
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/ 14 January 2004
The Swiss parent company of Nestle South Africa has approved a R64-million upgrade of its Wilsonia plant in East London, it was reported on Tuesday. Nestle SA MD Alfred Kaelin said the upgrade will enhance the facility’s production capability to export to 19 south-east African countries and the Middle East.
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/ 13 January 2004
The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) on Tuesday appealed to Minister of Education Kader Asmal to see to it that provincial education departments do not put pressure on Afrikaans medium schools to change their language policy to make provision for a few English pupils.
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/ 13 January 2004
About 1Â 800 workers employed at Parmalat SA factories have an anxious six months to wait as the Food and Allied Workers Union joins forces with the senior management of the South African subsidiary in a bid to stave off job losses. The union and top management met for the first time on Tuesday.
Parmalat SA: ‘Even the cows are happy’