Victor Matfield, Bulls captain when they won the Super 14 last year, will be back for the Blue Bulls when the Currie Cup season starts, and will therefore be eligible for the Springboks. The Blue Bulls on Thursday night announced that Matfield had signed a contract with them to return ”home”. The contract becomes effective on July 1 and ends on October 31 2011.
Franschhoek’s Literary Festival brings together some of South Africa’s brightest new talent, writes Judy Bryant.
Gold Fields will shut down all operations at its South Deep, Kloof, and Driefontein mines in order to conduct an inspection of the ropes on mine hoists. This follows the deaths of nine workers, who plunged 58m down a shaft when a rope on their conveyance snapped at the Gold Fields South Deep mine near Randfontein on Thursday morning.
After two dismal seasons on and off the field, the appearance of Amazulu among the last four clubs remaining in the Nedbank Cup represents a fragile chance to reclaim a tarnished legacy. Last season the lads from the coastal kingdom finished second last on the log, but escaped relegation from the Premiership by winning play-offs against rivals from the lower first division.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma addressed thousands of workers at a May Day celebration in the North West on Thursday, saying that rural development was key to fighting poverty. He said access to land for subsistence farming was critical as people should be able to produce food to combat the impact of increased food prices.
The current electricity crisis and the proposed huge jump in tariffs is a manifestation of a disaster-in-waiting, African National Congress (ANC) secretary general and South African Communist Party chairperson Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday. He was speaking at the May Day celebration at Curries Fountain Stadium in Durban.
Nine miners have died after an accident at the Gold Fields South Deep mine near Randfontein in Gauteng, the chief inspector of mines said on Thursday. Thabo Gazi said he received a report about the accident at about 12pm. It is believed that a conveyance in an inclined shaft fell down the shaft after the rope snapped.
Former minister of population development Jac Rabie has died at the age of 69, Beeld reported on Thursday. According to Rabie’s family, his death was the result of ”protracted pain and suffering”, which he endured after he saw his wife, Sandra (47), murdered two years ago.
Ajax Cape Town’s hopes of winning the Absa Premiership were dealt a massive blow at Atteridgeville’s Super Stadium on Wednesday night when defending champions Sundowns crushed the Urban Warriors 2-0. Sundowns led the match 2-0 at half-time.
The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) request to attend closed sessions of the Ginwala inquiry into suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli was rejected on Wednesday. The party requested permission from President Thabo Mbeki in March to attend the closed session into Pikoli’s fitness to hold office.
A plan to reduce the impact of rising food prices on the poor was tabled during an ordinary meeting of the Cabinet in Pretoria on Wednesday. The proposed short-, medium- and long-term interventions were also aimed at ensuring household and national food security, the Government Communication and Information System said in a statement.
Eskom is to suspend scheduled load-shedding from May 5, the utility’s CEO, Jacob Maroga, said on Wednesday. ”We are seeing evidence of increased energy savings from municipalities and Eskom is optimistic that further reductions to reach our 10% savings target are possible,” said Maroga.
In an apparent revolt against a weakened president senior Cabinet ministers and government officials worked to prevent the Chinese arms ship from offloading its cargo, even as Thabo Mbeki insisted that the mortar bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles be allowed to reach Robert Mugabe’s military.
Bottom-of-the-log Black Leopards beat fellow strugglers Thando Royal Zulu (TRZ) 3-2 in an Absa Premiership match played at Thohoyandou Stadium on Wednesday. Leopards led 2-1 a half-time. The home team, Leopards, began the game on the offensive and were rewarded when striker Robert Ngambi scored the opener early on.
Bloemfontein Celtic eased their relegation troubles when they hammered struggling Jomo Cosmos 3-1 in an Absa Premiership match at the Seisa Ramabodu Stadium on Wednesday. This was Celtic’s second win in a row following their 3-0 victory over relegation-haunted Thanda Royal Zulu last weekend.
The increase in the retail price of petrol by 55 cents per litre will result in a ”period of anguish” for South African households, an economist said on Wednesday. Absa economist Chris Hart said the increase would cause food prices to rise and fuel inflation. Hart said the country was expecting a hike in electricity prices as well as an increase in the rate of taxes.
President Thabo Mbeki has withdrawn his application to oppose a Johannesburg businessman’s bid to stop the disbanding of the Scorpions. In his answering affidavit filed in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday, Mbeki’s said: ”The first respondent hereby withdraws his opposition to the application.”
Trade unions have to make sure that this year’s wage demands fully compensate workers for the drop in their real standard of living in the past year, the Congress of South Africans Trade Unions (Cosatu) said in its May Day message on Wednesday.
Forcibly installing prepayment water meters was ruled to be unconstitutional by the Johannesburg High Court, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals) said on Wednesday. Stuart Wilson, spokesperson for Cals, said the meters were found to infringe the constitutional rights of people to have access to sufficient water.
Water contamination was a factor in the death of nearly 80 babies in the Eastern Cape, the provincial government said on Wednesday. An interim report acknowledged that a ”multiplicity of causes”, including ”systematic failures affecting water quality”, were to blame for the deaths of the babies, said the provincial government in a statement.
Nationwide Airlines has been placed under provisional liquidation, an attorney for the company said on Wednesday. "We applied yesterday [Tuesday] at 3pm and were placed under provisional liquidation," said Haroon Maher. On Tuesday passengers were stranded when the airline announced that it had ceased operations due to cash-flow problems.
South Africa’s trade deficit narrowed to R5,03-billion in March from February’s figure of R5,8-billion, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on Wednesday. ”March exports of R51,15-billion and imports of R56,18-billion resulted in a deficit of R5,03-billion,” Sars said.
Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya was not in contempt of court and was respecting a high court ruling for social grants to be given to applicants with alternative forms of identification, his department said on Wednesday. The Department of Social Development said Skweyiya was in the process of implementing the court’s decision.
Cresslawn in Kempton Park was still without power on Wednesday but the municipality said it would restore electricity to the area by late afternoon or early evening. The entire East Rand suburb was plunged into darkness last Tuesday after a fire at a local substation.
One of the three mine workers injured during a ground fall at Driefontein mine on Tuesday has died, bringing the death toll from recent mining accidents on the West Rand to five, a Gold Fields spokesperson said on Wednesday. Andrew Davidson said the worker had been taken to a hospital in Carletonville to be stabilised, and was then transferred to the Krugersdorp Hospital, but later died.
Travel agent Flight Centre said it was ”blindsided” by the sudden closure of Nationwide Airlines and had gone into a crisis meeting to decide how to deal with the matter, with no information forthcoming from the airline, a spokesperson said. ”We were absolutely blindsided, we were completely unaware,” said Amanda Hardy.
Australia’s Brumbies will not to be sidetracked by history or the widely acclaimed Stormers injuries in the run-up to Saturday’s make-or-break Super 14 clash at Newlands. The history books will show that the last time the Brumbies lost at Newlands was in 1998, and apart from one draw in 2006, they’ve always defeated the Stormers in the Mother City in a decade of clashes.
New Bafana Bafana coach Joel Santana may have started packing his bags in Rio de Janeiro to embark on his controversial appointment as the new Bafana Bafana coach in place of compatriot Carlos Alberto Parreira early next month — but he will have a mountain on his mind as steep as the famed Sugar Loaf before he leaves Brazil en route to South Africa.
South African petrol pump prices and wholesale diesel prices will rise sharply next week, the government said on Wednesday, adding to inflationary pressures. The Department of Minerals and Energy Affairs said all grades of petrol would on May 7 rise by 55 cents, or 6,2%, to R9,46 a litre in Gauteng.
South African private sector credit growth jumped to 22,62% year-on-year in March, knocking expectations of a slowdown in spending and hardening the case for more interest rates increases. Central bank data on Wednesday showed growth in demand for credit leapt from 20,79% in February, while M3 money supply growth edged higher to 21%.
Zimbabwe’s army is supplying militants with weapons to intimidate voters to ensure that Robert Mugabe wins a possible run-off in the presidential election, Human Rights Watch said. In a statement released late on Tuesday, it said military forces had equipped war veterans with weapons and trucks to scare Zimbabweans into backing Mugabe.
South Africa’s 13-year moratorium on elephant culling was set to be lifted on Thursday to combat a surge in population numbers, despite an outcry from animal rights activists. The South African government earlier this year authorised the culling of elephants from May 1 as a last resort in limiting the numbers of the African elephant.