The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) will monitor investigations into the cause of the deaths of nearly 80 Eastern Cape babies, the body announced on Friday. Earlier this week, reports emerged that 78 children from the Eastern Cape had died as a result of diarrhoea allegedly caused by contaminated water.
Measures to stem the looming food price crisis in South Africa will be put before the Cabinet next week, the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) said on Friday. A short-term solution is likely to involve more funds for the government’s social programmes to protect the poorest of the poor from the price hikes, NAMC chief executive Ronald Ramabulana said.
Angry protesters caused damage of R5-million to Daveyton Station on the East Rand on Friday morning, Metrorail said. ”Commuters torched ticket offices when a train failed between Northmead and Avenue, blocking other Johannesburg-bound trains from Daveyton,” spokesperson Sibusiso Ngomane said.
Shaun de Waal reviews three new books on local cinema.
A Pretoria magistrate on Friday denied bail to the security guard accused of murdering city dancer Estee van Rensburg. It also emerged on Friday that the guard, Aaron Mashishi, will go on trial in the Pretoria High Court on October 20. The 26-year-old is being charged with murder, robbery with aggravated circumstances and two counts of theft.
A ferromanganese smelter near Durban did not insist its workers wear protective dust masks, even though dust levels were sometimes three times more than national legislative limits, a Labour Department inquiry heard on Thursday. The inquiry is investigating 40 alleged cases of manganism that have resulted from workers breathing in fumes.
Central African Mining and Exploration, which owns interests in fluorspar and PGM projects in South Africa, on Friday said it had made a significant coal discovery in Mozambique. The company said in a statement that the discovery was made during the ongoing systematic exploration programme covering the 21 licence areas in the Tete province.
Each day, Edwin Makotore’s wife and children hit the streets to earn cash so he can pay for the privilege of working. The 38-year-old father-of-two is the only one in the family with a full-time job, but by the time he has met the soaring cost of travelling to work in a small Harare supermarket, paid out of wages wildly out of step with the 165Â 000% inflation rate, Makotore is out of pocket.
Najwa Petersen’s legal team is fighting a bid by the state to lead evidence on what her husband, Taliep, told a sister about the state of their marriage, and how Najwa stabbed him. Najwa is in the dock in the Cape High Court along with three men she allegedly hired to murder Taliep on the night of December 16 2006.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will present a set of proposals to the Foreign Affairs Ministry on how the government can resolve Zimbabwe’s electoral crisis, the party said on Friday. The proposals include the possible suspension of Zimbabwe from the African Union, arms embargoes and the severing of diplomatic ties.
The Sebokeng Magistrate’s Court on Friday postponed until July the trial of a former dormitory matron of United States talk-show host Oprah Winfrey’s girls academy, who has been charged with abusing minors. Virginia Makgobo (27)appeared court to face charges of indecent and common assault, and soliciting a minor to perform indecent acts.
South African stocks were mixed in a thin-volume session by noon on Friday, with MTN in focus on vague newspaper reports that an Indian firm might launch a takeover bid for the local mobile telecoms firm, traders said. By midday the JSE’s broader all-share index was down 0,14%. Resources fell 1,27%.
The huge increase in the electricity price was the result of poor planning and management on the government’s part, so it should not be allowed to get tax income from that, a media report said on Friday. The government would get a R4-billion boost in taxes if Eskom was allowed to increase its prices by a nominal 60%.
The top United States envoy to Africa said on Thursday that Zimbabwe’s opposition leader won his nation’s disputed presidential election and longtime President Robert Mugabe should step down. The opposition has claimed its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, beat Mugabe outright on March 29.
Former Springbok rugby player Joost van der Westhuizen has paid R15 000 to avoid prosecution on charges of malicious damage to property for breaking a security boom, a media report said on Friday. The father of two was to have handed himself over at Douglasdale Police Station on Thursday where he would have been formally charged.
South African mobile services operator MTN said on Friday that it had not received any "specific proposal" from any company regarding a takeover of the company. MTN was responding to a report that India’s Bharti Airtel is considering a bid for the company.
Of all the commendations that new Bafana Bafana coach Joel Santana has to his credit is that he has coached the world’s best-supported team. He will have to accentuate this point as he has little else, other than the endorsement of his predecessor, to show why he should be entrusted with the job.
The energy crisis gripping South Africa this year is a turning point, an adversity presenting opportunity, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma said on Thursday. Addressing a business breakfast at the Royal Africa Society and Commonwealth in London, Zuma said business leaders he met had raised concerns over the issue.
Recently Chief Justice Pius Langa gave an address on the relationship between the media and the judiciary in which he said he hoped one day it might be possible for our judges to be ”ordinary” men and women. To be fair, he was responding to a question raising concern about the extraordinary pressure our transition is placing on judge.
Dozens of Zimbabweans were arrested on Friday outside the Chinese embassy in Pretoria during a protest over a ship that attempted to offload weapons destined for Zimbabwe, police said. "A total of 129 protesters were arrested staging an illegal protest. The police asked them to disperse and they refused so, they were arrested," a police spokesperson said.
While delegates at last week’s Southern African Development Community (SADC) conference on poverty and development pulled up in taxis and luxury cars to the Mauritian conference centre, Linda Marie L’Acariate took a bus to work at the canteen of the Sacota textile mill, just outside the town of Rose Hill.
Six of the Boeremag treason trialists in C-Max prison will have to put up with warders watching them around the clock, the Pretoria High Court ruled on Thursday. Judge Charl Rabie turned down a bid by six of the 21 accused for an order to allow them to paste paper over windows in their cells.
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) will deploy a new security plan after a number of alleged racist attacks on campus in the last week, university management said on Thursday. Last week, local South African Students Congress chairperson Xolani Mkhwemnte said there had been an outbreak of ”racially motivated incidents” on the Kingsway campus.
South Africa is sticking to its target growth rate of 6% by 2010 despite a chronic power crisis and slower global growth, a government official said on Thursday. Alan Hirsch, deputy head of the policy unit in the Presidency, said the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa is unchanged.
Moves to police the quality of medical treatment and other services in public hospitals were announced by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday. Speaking at Tembisa Hospital on the East Rand, she said these measures will cover a broad spectrum of performance areas, including the safety of patients.
Najwa Petersen looked suspiciously ”normal” only hours after her husband Taliep’s funeral, one of Taliep’s sisters told the Cape High Court on Thursday. She also did not give a convincing answer when asked whether she was involved in the theatre personality’s murder, Ma’atoema Groenmeyer said.
Fidentia chief executive J Arthur Brown was on Thursday late for a scheduled appearance in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, on charges that include fraud involving the Transport, Education and Training Authority (Teta). In the dock without him were co-accused Dr Piet Bothma, Teta’s chief executive, and Jacobus Theart.
A power cut disrupted proceedings at a briefing in Pretoria on Thursday involving possible class action against Eskom. Lights went off at the briefing hosted by trade union Solidarity shortly before 12.30pm. The briefing discussed the possibility of class action against Eskom over possible job losses as a result of the power crisis.
Police acted ”exactly as instructed” in shooting a fugitive linked to the murders of Lichtenburg farmer At Deysel and his wife, Katerina, North West transport, roads and community safety minister Phenye Vilakazi said on Thursday. The 29-year-old had escaped from police cells in Ottoshoop on Sunday.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Thursday proposed six steps to help the economy weather the current storm. ”Overall, sustainable and consistent policy is required,” DA spokesperson Kobus Marais told a media briefing at Parliament. ”Reverting to knee-jerk, short-term and populist measures will do more harm than ever before,” he said.
Areas in and around the Kempton Park CBD will be without power until Sunday, the Ekurhuleni municipality said on Thursday, following a fire at a substation in Spartan on Monday. The crisis has left one resident dead and residential and business areas without electricity. Meanwhile, South Africans will be free of scheduled power cuts next week, Eskom said on Thursday.
An intensive investigation is under way to establish whether contaminated water in the Eastern Cape caused the death of nearly 80 children, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Thursday. Earlier this week, media reports said nearly 80 children from the towns of Barkly East, Maclear, Sterkspruit and Elliot had died from diarrhoea and other complications.