Despite having to play for 10 minutes with 13 men, the Bulls beat the Lions 31-17 in a pulsating Super 14 match in Pretoria on Friday. The home side lost Springbok hard man Bakkies Botha to the sin-bin, and fullback Zane Kirchner to a red card, in the first period, but still had too much fire-power to overcome the Lions.
An 85th-minute own goal by Wits defender Wilson Shendzelani gave Premier Soccer League log leaders Ajax Cape Town an invaluable 1-0 victory at a rain-swept Bidvest Stadium on Friday night. Shendzelani sunk to his knees and held his head between his arms at the final whistle .
The council of the University of the Free State on Friday mandated management to consider the possibility of closing down the Reitz men’s residence. Chairperson of the council Judge Faan Hancke said this included the possibility of converting the hostel into a beacon of transformation, hope and liberation.
Dozens of prominent South Africans have signed a statement condemning a racist video that surfaced at the University of the Free State (UFS) last month. The list of 81 signatories includes renowned authors Nadine Gordimer and Andre Brink, journalists John Perlman and Max du Preez, retired judge Arthur Chaskalson and cartoonist Zapiro.
South Africa, which has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV/Aids, is worried a national programme to fight the disease could founder on a lack of financial resources, it said in a report to the United Nations. President Thabo Mbeki’s government has been criticised for not doing enough to halt the spread of the pandemic.
A national taxi body is to apologise to the woman who was sexually assaulted at Johannesburg’s Noord Street taxi rank last month. ”We would like publicly apologise to her … we just want to meet her,” said South African National Taxi Council secretary general Philip Taaibosch in Johannesburg on Friday.
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The Mauritian Attorney General (AG) has asked for more time to prepare his documentation in Jacob Zuma’s court battle, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Friday. Rama Valayden wants to counter Zuma’s attempt to prevent Mauritius from handing documentation over to the National Prosecuting Authority.
A project to remove the remnants of apartheid laws from statute books was launched by the South African Law Commission on Friday. It hoped to review about 2 800 statutes that had been placed on the law books since 1910 within the next 18 months, modernising and simplifying the statute book.
Anthea Buys speaks to Ross Douglas about the commercial possibilities of the country’s first art fair.
Company black-empowerment levels must be considered before firms benefit from international export agreements, Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana said on Friday. ”The government has opened the doors for not one race, or one sex … but for all the people of South Africa,” she told agriculture sector partners in Boksburg.
The Chamber of Mines has welcomed the decision to marginally increase the supply of electricity to the mining industry, it said on Friday. In recent weeks the chamber has been urgently interacting with the government and Eskom in an effort to persuade them to normalise power-consumption levels in the mining sector, CEO Mzolisi Diliza said.
Durban’s Mangosuthu University of Technology was officially closed down on Friday following a week of student protests. A pamphlet distributed at the institution and signed by vice-chancellor and principal Aaron Ndlovu ordered all students to vacate the institution’s residences and leave the premises by noon.
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African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma asserted, in an interview published on Friday, that power in South Africa rests with the ruling party, not with his rival, President Thabo Mbeki. ”Power lies in the ANC,” Zuma — who ousted Mbeki in a bitter ANC leadership contest three months ago — told Britain’s Financial Times newspaper.
The University of the Free State (UFS) has obtained a further court interdict to maintain calm on the main campus in Bloemfontein and on the Vista campus, also in the city, a UFS spokesperson said on Friday. Spokesperson Anton Fischer said the interdict was obtained because a number of outside organisations were planning to hold mass demonstrations.
International credit woes causing losses among overseas equity markets continued to dampen the JSE by midday on Friday. The JSE’s broader all share index had shed 0,45% by noon, which was led by a 2,5% decline in the bank index. Financials were down 1,86% and industrials gave up 0,57%.
A man accused of killing 18-year-old Kyle Norris in an East Rand nightclub in 2006 pleaded self defence in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday. ”I had no intention of killing anyone,” Jonathan Street told Judge Nico Coetzee on Thursday afternoon.
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Common ground on affirmative action should be found, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma told a largely white Afrikaner gathering on Thursday night. He told union members that they had no home other than South Africa and as such, their concerns should be taken seriously.
Zimbabwe has invited 47 regional and sub-regional organisations as well as countries from Africa, Asia, the Americas and one European country — Russia — to observe this month’s election, the government mouthpiece Herald reported on Friday.
South Africa’s Cabinet has approved a Bill that would speed up its land reform programme aimed at transferring 30% of farmland to black ownership by 2014, a government spokesperson said on Thursday. An existing land expropriation act has failed to make significant inroads into land redistribution.
Sexual harassment of women in miniskirts at Johannesburg taxi ranks has been occurring for at least eight years, the Gauteng community safety portfolio committee heard on Thursday. However, only one incident has been reported to the police.
At least 125 students were arrested during a protest at Durban’s Mangosuthu University of Technology on Thursday, police said. Captain Khephu Ndlovu said the students would face charges of public violence and malicious damage to property.
A Cape Town memorial to two anti-apartheid struggle heroes has been stolen, apparently for its scrap value, even though it was only a stone’s throw away from a police station. The memorial was to students Coline Williams and Robbie Waterwitch, who died in 1989 when a bomb they were handling exploded.
Hundreds of members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) were arrested on Thursday after invading the Nelson Mandela 2010 Stadium in Port Elizabeth, the union said. Branch chairperson Nomvula Hadi said workers were leaving the stadium when police opened fire with rubber bullets and teargas.
South Africa will continue engaging with the European Union to ensure new trade agreements with African countries do not harm regional integration, President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday. Africa’s biggest economy has criticised the economic partnership agreements (EPA) designed to open up trade.
The issue of race has opened an ugly wound on the South African landscape.
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Lindiwe Hendricks is guilty of ”denialism” when she says South Africa is not facing a water crisis, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday. The country faces serious problems stemming from polluted water sources and the poor management of dams, sewage works and treatment plants, the DA said.
The government has approved an R8,6-billion road and rail improvement scheme to help cater for thousands of visitors expected for the 2010 soccer World Cup, a spokesperson said on Thursday. The Moloto rail corridor project will link Gauteng with Mpumalanga in the north-east close to the popular Kruger National Park.
National People’s Party (NPP) leader Badih Chaaban on Thursday made his third appearance in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court for allegedly throwing a cup at former NPP official Johan van der Merwe. According to the charge sheet, the incident happened in September last year, but the document gave no further details.
Seven new Bills have been approved by South Africa’s Cabinet to be submitted to Parliament. They include the already controversial Expropriation Bill. The Expropriation Bill seeks to replace the Expropriation Act of 1975, which, Cabinet spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday, does not conform with the Constitution.
Three South African names appear on this year’s Forbes World Billionaires list, released late on Wednesday. The names include Nicky Oppenheimer, Anton Rupert and mining magnate Patrice Motsepe — this country’s first black billionaire. Nicholas Oppenheimer is placed 173rd on the list, while Rupert is in 284th place and Motsepe is at number 503.
Delays in construction as a result of the country’s current electricity-supply problem undermine efforts to grow the economy, the African National Congress (ANC) said on Thursday. ”Every effort must be made to ensure that the current problems in electricity supply do not negatively affect the building of projects of this nature,” it said in a statement.
The Cabinet has given the assurance that everything possible is being done to address the British government’s concerns about the security of South African passports. ”South African passports are among the safest … in the world, and that’s the reason why they are being targeted,” government communications head Themba Maseko said on Thursday.