Final regulations for the banning of asbestos will come into effect on Friday, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Thursday. Van Schalkwyk said the regulations would prohibit the use, processing, manufacturing, and import and export of any asbestos.
It is ”distasteful” to tell students that toyi-toying does nothing to improve the country, the Young Communist League (YCL) said on Thursday. It rejected as unfortunate recent remarks to this effect by Education Minister Naledi Pandor. ”The YCL views these remarks as nonsensical and distasteful,” the league said in a statement.
The body of seven-year-old Sheldean Human was found as a direct result of a statement to top cop Director Piet Byleveld, the Pretoria High Court heard on Thursday. Byleveld questioned murder accused Andrew Jordaan (25) after being asked to help with the investigation into the girl’s disappearance.
Releasing the Khampepe commission’s report on the Scorpions at this juncture will ”cause prejudice” to South Africa’s national security, says President Thabo Mbeki. In a letter faxed to the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday night, Mbeki’s office refused the DA’s request in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act for access to the report.
African businesses and consumers are increasingly adopting broadband for basic internet access and voice services, adding momentum to the move from dial-up to ADSL, a study by BMI-TechKnowledge has revealed. Access to international capacity remains an inhibiting factor to the development of broadband services on the continent, with the notable exception of North Africa.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) needs to urgently tackle land issues to foster regional stability and promote sustainable economic growth, Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana said on Thursday. ”For us to achieve the goal of land reform, we will require a major new effort to build capacity, both at national and regional levels,” she said.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Lawyers’ Association has effectively been barred from observing Saturday’s Zimbabwean elections. The association filed an application to the Zimbabwean embassy in Botswana at the beginning of March, but has not received any formal response.
The provincial government’s claims that the City of Cape Town was underspending on its budget were ”outright lies”, mayor Helen Zille said on Thursday. ”I am deeply concerned at this pattern of dishonesty coming from the provincial government,” she told a city council meeting.
Cape Town is holding fire on a decision on the renaming of streets and public places, mayor Helen Zille announced on Thursday. A list of proposed changes that would see apartheid-era names such as Hendrik Verwoerd Drive replaced by those of struggle heroes, was on the agenda for approval at Thursday’s council meeting.
Due to South Africa’s sustained economic growth the country was in good shape to deal with the electricity crisis, according to a ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) report released on Thursday. The Treasury had estimated that the power constraints would knock 0,6% off the country’s growth in 2008, a figure S&P said was ”plausible”.
The number of fatal crashes on South African roads over the Easter period has decreased in 2008 compared with last year, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Thursday. ”We are encouraged that the number of fatal crashes over Easter decreased by 55 from 250 in 2007 to 195 in 2008,” Radebe told reporters in Pretoria.
The arrest of 12 people for the brutal killings of two foreigners in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, was welcomed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday. Two foreign nationals were killed on Tuesday when a crowd of people assaulted them and set their shacks alight in the Brazzaville informal settlement.
Zambia has ended negotiations with Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by assets, to finance a $1,2-billion (R9,7-billion) oil-import deal after the two parties failed to reach agreement. Talks between the Zambian government and Stanbic Bank Zambia, a unit of Standard Bank, were initially expected to be concluded by mid-January.
Commodity counters and positive Dow futures kept the JSE firm by midday on Thursday, with platinum counters leading the gains, traders said. At noon, the JSE’s broader all-share index was up 1%. The platinum mining index advanced 2,89%, resources climbed 1,89% and the gold mining index was up 1,59%.
South African electricity utility Eskom has received more than 100 bids for future electricity cogeneration projects, the company said on Wednesday. The company hopes that cogeneration — which captures wasted heat, power or resources to generate electricity — could potentially add between 1 000MW and 3 500MW to its national grid.
Pretoria police investigating the murder of Pretoria dancer Estee van Rensburg asked the public on Thursday to help them find the silver Toyota Tazz that was stolen from her home. The 19-year-old ballet dancer was found dead in her home when her domestic worker reported for work on Wednesday morning.
A South African has been killed in unclear circumstances in Iraq, in a week of violent clashes which has claimed the lives of more than 100 people, the Foreign Affairs Department said Thursday. Spokesperson Manusha Pillai said the department had no details on the circumstances of the man’s death.
Former Elite bouncer Jonathan Street sat impassively as he was sentenced to an effective 24 years in jail for the murder of 18-year-old art student Kyle Norris, the Star reported on Thursday. Street was found guilty, earlier this month, of shooting Norris in the head at the Mac X sports and strip club in Edenvale, east of Johannesburg, on November 19 2006.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Thursday said that production at the Golden Falls mine, formerly Cape Diamonds Elandslaagte mine, has been brought to a halt by mineworkers who have downed tools until they are awarded better wages. The NUM said the workers downed tools on Wednesday and were willing to strike indefinitely.
Benni McCarthy created a record and South Africa equalled one as they outclassed Paraguay 3-0 in a lively international friendly on Wednesday. Blackburn Rovers striker McCarthy headed the crucial second goal two minutes after half-time at Super Stadium near Pretoria to overtake retired Shaun Bartlett and become the leading national team scorer with 30 goals.
Unions have called on the government to place a moratorium on electricity tariff hikes or face protest action, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Wednesday. Eskom has requested a 53% price increase from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.
You will be paying an extra R20-billion to Eskom this year — over and above the R40-billion collected last year — for it to buy billions of litres of diesel to fuel its peaking power plants. Further steep tariff increases are likely as new peaking power becomes available and is relied upon more heavily.
The Pretoria High Court has issued an interim interdict to restrain the government from relocating people from the former Pomfret military base in the North West. The order also brings a temporary halt to the demolishing of property in the town. Judge Brian Southwood granted an urgent court order to the 6 000-strong Pomfret community.
Construction of the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town is on schedule and the city is in the process of selling naming rights and finding a long-term operator for it, mayor Helen Zille said on Wednesday. The stadium is being built in preparation for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, and has been earmarked for a semifinal.
The City of Johannesburg proposed an increase in essential-services tariffs on Wednesday in a move the Anti-Privatisation Forum labelled ”the latest salvo against the poor”. The city cited increased input costs of 22% in bulk purchase costs from the Eskom and Kelvin power stations.
An eight-year-old girl allegedly molested by Andrew Jordaan, the man accused of murdering seven-year-old Sheldean Human, said he threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the abuse. The girl on Wednesday testified behind closed doors through an intermediary — after the court heard that evidence in an open court could further harm her emotionally.
Cape Town’s director of health, Dr Ivan Toms, died of meningitis, city manager Achmat Ebrahim said on Wednesday. Toms, an anti-apartheid and gay rights activist, was found dead in his Mowbray home on Tuesday morning. The estimated time of death was late Monday afternoon or early Monday evening.
Zimbabwe police have pressed fraud charges related to a hotel booking against a Johannesburg-based pilot arrested while flying Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai to election rallies, the party said on Wednesday. Zimbabwe’s police were not able to confirm the arrest.
A war of words has erupted ahead of election day in Zimbabwe this Saturday, with the opposition saying the government has already rigged the vote. These elections were ”never meant to be an even playing field”, said Nkosana Moyo, coordinator of presidential hopeful Simba Makoni’s campaign, in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Nine train passengers were injured on Wednesday when they were hit by timber logs protruding from a stationary freight train near Tembisa on the East Rand. The Railway Safety Regulator said six of the passengers suffered serious injuries and the rest only minor injuries.
The Soweto Gospel Choir presented their second Grammy Award to former president Nelson Mandela at his foundation in Houghton on Wednesday. ”We thank you for seeing us. We are here to show you what we brought back home and also to give you some of our CDs … your presence blesses us,” Siphokazi Luzipho said.
A senior bond-portfolio manager and an emerging-markets analyst from Lehman Brothers both uttered the same dreaded word soon after reading what Tito Mboweni had said in Parliament on Wednesday: hawkish. In fact, Lehman Brothers now predicts a 50-basis-point increase in the repo rate on April 10 to 11,5%.