The Democratic Alliance has lambasted the Mpumalanga Rugby Union for including a convicted murderer in the Vodacom Pumas rugby team. Gert van Schalkwyk (22) — one of the infamous ”Waterkloof Four” — has been included in the starting line-up for the provincial team.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s last-ditch bid to prevent key documents from being used against him came to an end on Wednesday when the Constitutional Court reserved judgement. On Thursday, Zuma stayed away from the court building.
Municipal workers will down tools if ”attacks” on Nelson Mandela metropole employees do not stop, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Thursday. ”These attacks are aimed at getting rid of workers who stand against any form of crime,” said Samwu general secretary Mthandeki Nhlapo.
Stifling the private healthcare industry could see it shift resources to foreign operations, placing greater strain on the public sector, a consulting company said on Thursday. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announced in Parliament on Wednesday that unregulated private healthcare cannot be sustained.
Joe Phaahla, the director general of the 2010 Fifa World Cup government unit, is stepping down. He has asked to be relieved of his three-year contract, which expires in August. In a statement on Thursday, the unit said Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile has agreed to this, and Phaahla will leave the unit this month.
The apparent détente between the national Health Department and the Treatment Action Campaign is to be applauded, but will it stick?
In order to pursue a civil claim for damages in the high court, regional airline Comair is seeking an order from the Competition Tribunal declaring that an incentive scheme for travel agents that was run by South African Airways (SAA) was a prohibited practice in terms of the Competition Act.
Work on a multibillion-rand hydro-electric plant in Limpopo will start in September, with completion scheduled for 2015, the Sekhukhune municipality announced on Thursday. It forms part of Eskom’s capacity-expansion programme aimed at resolving the country’s energy shortages, municipal spokesperson Sizwe Yende said.
Matthias Rath and his foundation had never claimed their vitamin products were a cure for HIV/Aids, Rath’s advocate told the Cape High Court on Thursday. ”We are not claiming it’s a cure,” Rath’s advocate, Dumisa Ntsebeza, told the court. ”We would like to make very clear, that has never been the claim.”
Solidarity on Thursday welcomed a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ruling on a charge of unfair racial discrimination in the trade union’s favour. Solidarity declared a dispute with South African Airways Technical in February and referred the matter to the CCMA.
Trade conditions appear to be out of negative territory after the Trade Activity Index (TAI) increased for the third month in a row, the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Thursday. The TAI, which measures the view of business on current trade activity, increased from 44 in December last year to 48 in January and 50 in February
Durban’s disaster-management team and city officials are busy calculating the cost of damage caused during a heavy downpour on Tuesday night that continued into the early hours of Wednesday. Two oil refineries, hospitals, courts, homes, shacks, railway lines, buildings and roads were affected by the overnight storm.
The chief executive of South Africa’s players’ association on Thursday urged axed fast bowler Andre Nel not to make a decision regarding his future in the heat of the moment. Nel was a controversial omission when South Africa’s squad for three Tests in India next month was announced on Tuesday.
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The documents the state is seeking to obtain from Mauritius may never be used against African National Congress president Jacob Zuma, the Constitutional Court heard on Thursday. State advocate Wim Trengove said evidence gathered ”does not automatically become evidence before the court”.
World markets continued to weigh on the JSE on Thursday — pushing the bourse down 0,93% by midday. At noon, the JSE’s bank index fell 1,87%, financials gave up 1,61% and industrials were 1,4% lower. The platinum mining index declined 1,41%, resources shed 0,38% but the gold mining index advanced 1,69%.
The African National Congress would campaign against the death penalty if a referendum was held on the issue, the party’s secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Wednesday. Mantashe’s remarks follow last week’s statement by party president Jacob Zuma that a referendum should be held if enough South Africans wanted it.
Five men robbed a family at Hennopsriver in the Erasmia area, burning the mother and father with an iron. Constable Patricia Simelane said the men demanded money — saying that they had been told there was money in the house — and ”they burnt the mother and father with an iron three of four times on the upper body”.
A third person has been arrested in connection with the murders of 18 people in the Mzamba area in the Eastern Cape, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Wednesday. A special police task team set up to investigate the murders arrested the man in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.
A substantial jump in the number of Pentecostal Christians could have a positive impact on South Africa’s social and economic development, the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) said on Wednesday. ”If this rate of growth is maintained, South African Pentecostals will number almost 10-million by 2011, or one-fifth of the population,” the CDE said.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s attempt to have search-and-seizure raids as well as a letter requesting documents from Mauritius ruled invalid was set to enter a third day at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg on Thursday.
More than two months after his historic appointment, new South Africa rugby coach Peter de Villiers didn’t sign off on his contract this week because he wouldn’t have final say on team selection. De Villiers, in contract negotiations since his appointment on January 9, backed off from agreeing to the two-year contract on Monday and Tuesday.
A Parliamentary delegation will depart from Pretoria on Friday in a convoy to Cuito Cuanavale to commemorate the battle that took place there during the Angolan war. The delegation includes military veterans from both sides, representatives from government, scholars and civil society, Parliament said in a statement.
Search-and-rescue workers saved 20 people trapped in cars and homes by rising water in a heavy overnight downpour in Durban. ”We used a police boat to move many people away from the Island Hotel in Isipingo and we assisted several others who were stuck in cars due to rising flood water,” said Captain Troy Alison.
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The state’s attempts to obtain documents from Mauritius infringed African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s right to a fair trial, the Constitutional Court heard on Wednesday. Zuma’s advocate said that allowing the documents from Mauritius to be ”imported” would ”negate” the Zuma legal team’s ability to challenge the documents in court.
The government will table draft legislation intended to regulate the private health sector within two months, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Wednesday. ”It is clear that we cannot sustain unregulated private healthcare service delivery in this country and at the same time regulate the medical-schemes industry,” she said.
The Department of Health has shown a decided lack of enthusiasm for investigating the activities of vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath, the Cape High Court was told on Wednesday. ”The government has failed completely in its … duties to protect the health of the public,” said Geoff Budlender, advocate for the Treatment Action Campaign.
South Africa on Wednesday rejected ”with contempt” claims by jailed British mercenary Simon Mann that it backed his plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. ”South Africa is thrown in just out of the blue … he says he had a nod from us. I would like to know in what sense he had a nod,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said.
President Thabo Mbeki needs to urgently intervene to stop Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla’s ”sadistic games”, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) chief whip Koos van der Merwe said on Wednesday. ”The minister of justice can best be described as a sadist,” he said in a statement.
South Africa believes conditions for a free and fair election in Zimbabwe exist — at least on paper, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters at the Union Buildings, Pahad said the next 17 days in the run-up to the Zimbabwean presidential and parliamentary elections would be telling.
Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence came to ”incorrect conclusions” in its report on the so-called ”Special Browse Mole Consolidated Report” produced by the Scorpions, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday. ”Whilst we respect the role of the committee, we contest its views,” NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said.
South Africa’s manufacturing output growth quickened to an unadjusted 1,4% year-on-year in January, despite an energy crisis that knocked industry, official data showed on Wednesday. Compared with December, manufacturing production in volume terms increased, unexpectedly, by a seasonally adjusted 1,1%, Statistics South Africa said.
South Africa can become a caring society despite the racist incidents at Skielik and Reitz hostel at the University of the Free State, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in Johannesburg on Wednesday. ”We are a wonderful country with many talented people,” Tutu said in launching an exhibition honouring struggle stalwarts Walter and Albertina Sisulu.