The increase in South Africa’s consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) for metro and other areas, which is used by the South African Reserve Bank for its inflation target, was 9,4% year-on-year in February from 8,8% in January. The key drivers were higher food and petrol prices.
An elderly woman was shot by robbers fleeing from a crime scene in Phoenix, Durban police said on Wednesday. Inspector Michael Read said five men, three of them armed, had entered the Smilesons shop in Phoenix on Tuesday evening and held staff members at gunpoint.
Three men who were arrested in connection with the killings of two foreign nationals in the Brazzaville informal settlement in Atteridgeville were expected to appear in court on Thursday. The investigating officer was busy preparing a docket and the three would appear on murder and damage to property charges in Atteridgeville Magistrate’s Court.
South Africa has steadfastly refused to join in the chorus of criticism of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe despite paying an ever higher price for the crisis across its northern border. As Zimbabwe goes to the polls this weekend, analysts believe South African President Thabo Mbeki may feel little enthusiasm towards Mugabe but will never embarrass his fellow leader.
Political interference in South African cricket has not produced the best team for their tour to India, the Afrikanerbond said on Tuesday in a letter to the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Managing director Jan Bosman said that international standards must apply in the selection of the best team to represent a country.
An uncle and his 19-year-old nephew accused of murdering and robbing a petrol station attendant appeared in the Grahamstown High Court on Monday, and pleaded not guilty. The pair are accused of stabbing to death Johannes Mokok (52) at the Barkly East Toyota Service Station, on the evening of October 1 2005.
Building costs for poor households have increased by 25% year-on-year, mainly due to the cost of serviced sites going up, the Banking Association of South Africa said on Tuesday. The increase was primarity due to the increase in the cost of serviced sites, said managing director Cas Coovadia.
There is a need to investigate collusion between state prosecutors and white farmers, the Congress of South African Trade Unions said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Patrick Craven said they demanded a full investigation into the conduct of the police and prosecutors.
About 800 workers face retrenchment at BHP Billiton’s Bayside aluminium smelter in Richards Bay, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Mziwakhe Hlangani said management had confirmed that it would be issuing final notices to the affected workers at the weekend.
Cape Town’s director of health, former anti-conscription campaigner Ivan Toms, was found dead in his home on Tuesday morning, police said. Police spokesperson Superintendent Billy Jones said foul play was not suspected at this stage. He said police used a key from a neighbour to gain access to Toms’ Mowbray home at about 9.30am.
Improved toyi-toying skills will not improve the country, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor told students at the University of Zululand on Tuesday. Speaking at a ceremony marking the official opening of three student residences, Pandor said: ”We haven’t come here to improve our toyi-toying skill. It doesn’t improve South Africa.”
A neighbour of murdered seven-year-old Sheldean Human on Tuesday told the Pretoria High Court that she had seen the girl in the company of her alleged killer, Andrew Jordaan, shortly before her disappearance. Maria de Beer said Sheldean was playing with Jordaan on the pavement outside when she saw them at about 6pm on February 18 2007.
More than 30 tuberculosis (TB) patients used their illness to scare security and nursing personnel as they ran away from a hospital in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said on Tuesday. Twenty-five patients with multidrug-resistant TB and eight with extreme drug-resistant TB overpowered guards at the Jose Pearson Hospital on Thursday last week.
A Zimbabwean national was among two foreigners who have been burned to death during an attack by a mob in a slum area close to the Pretoria, police said on Tuesday. The Zimbabwean was repeatedly assaulted before his attackers set fire to his shack in the Brazzaville settlement in Atteridgeville and then threw him inside, police spokesperson Patricia Simelane said.
Johannesburg’s metro police have deployed 34 officers to help police by-laws in Johannesburg’s parks, cemeteries and open spaces, City Parks said on Tuesday. They will work with 30 park wardens already policing the areas, as well as community policing forums and the South African Police Service.
The JSE remained firm by midday on Tuesday as overnight gains in the United States triggered good buying interest among global equities. By noon, the JSE’s broader all-share index was up 2,22%. Banks gained 3,1% and financials lifted 3,06%.
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Attitudes towards Jacob Zuma becoming president of South Africa appear to have shifted slightly in his favour, a survey of 2Â 000 people indicates. People were asked in February to agree or disagree with the statement: ”If Jacob Zuma becomes president in 2009, it will bring disaster to South Africa”, TNS Research Surveys said on Tuesday.
Fuels and petrochemicals group Sasol will sell a 10% stake in the company to black investors in South Africa’s biggest black economic empowerment transaction to date, worth R25,9-billion. Sasol, the world’s top maker of oil from coal, said the deal involving 63,1-million shares will broaden and transform the group’s shareholder base.
Ncumisa Kondlo, a member of the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) and deputy chairperson of the South African Communist Party, died in East London on Monday, the ANC said. Kondlo was elected to the NEC in December 2007 and also served on the party’s national working committee.
Pierre Spies has been included in the Bulls side to play the Blues in a Super 14 match in Auckland on Saturday. The inclusion of the Springbok number eight is a major boost for the defending champions, who have won only two of their six matches to date and were outplayed by two of the competition’s weaker sides over the past two weekends.
Seldom has a friendly international meant so much to 2010 Soccer World Cup hosts South Africa as that against Paraguay on Wednesday. Underperforming Bafana Bafana need a win to silence a growing band of critics, led by Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile, Parliament sports committee chairperson Butana Komphela and several top first-division coaches.
At least 21 drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients — who ran away from a Port Elizabeth hospital last week — returned on the weekend, Eastern Cape health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said on Monday. On Thursday, 33 drug-resistant TB patients forced their way out of the Jose Pearson Hospital.
The JSE set a new trading record of 119 548 trades on Thursday March 20, the exchange reported on Tuesday. This follows what it terms "an exceptionally successful" futures close-out on Thursday, which contributed to the record. "Once again, this reaffirms our position as the number one market for single stock futures in the world," said Russell Loubser, CEO of the JSE Ltd.
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma has vowed to create monuments for the fallen Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) soldiers who died in the Cuito Cuanavale battle in Angola, he said on Monday. Zuma said it was agreed that a committee would be established to identify the graves of ”our fallen MK heroes and heroines”.
For thousands of patients quarantined for up to a year with multidrug-resistant or extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, the Easter holiday period only reinforces their loneliness. Last December, patients in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape broke out of TB hospitals to be with their families during the festive season.
The South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) on Monday rejected an apology in a weekend newspaper by the University of the Free State and called for the resignation of Education Minister Naledi Pandor. The full-page advertisement in the Sunday Times came after a racist video that sparked a national outcry.
A full moon seemed to smile benignly on SuperSport United as they thrashed Free State Stars 6-1 at the Super Stadium in Atteridgeville on Sunday night and took the Premier Soccer League log lead from Ajax Cape Town. SuperSport’s new-found potency was nothing less than stunning.
Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients have again staged a mass breakout from Port Elizabeth’s TB hospital. The Eastern Cape health department’s Sizwe Kupelo said on Sunday the department was looking for 21 patients from a group of 33 who had forced their way out of Jose Pearson Hospital on Thursday.
The Western Cape’s Koeberg nuclear power station is firing on all cylinders again, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday. Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger said one of the Koeberg units, which had been taken offline for maintenance, was recommissioned over the Easter weekend.
Zimbabwe’s crisis has created paradoxes such as poor billionaires, the fastest-shrinking economy outside a war zone and other such clichéd oddities. Its citizens have sharpened their great survival tool: humour. Amid the gloom, Zimbabweans have shown themselves to be self-effacing and funny.
The small, if noisy, crowd at the Oppenheimer Stadium in Orkney on Sunday afternoon was indicative of what those who stayed away anticipated from the soulless zero-all Premier Soccer League draw between Moroka Swallows and Jomo Cosmos. The teams stuttered their way through 90 minutes of ungainly soccer.
Just before kick-off on Sunday at the Seisa Ramabodu Stadium, Bloemfontein Celtic supporters shouted at Santos substitute players to move off their team’s bench, and they obeyed. After the Premier Soccer League game — in which Celtic lost 1-0 to Santos despite a spirited showing — angry Celtic fans had to be closely watched by police.