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/ 25 February 2008
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel should have considered asking for an apology rather than a gagging order against arms-deal activist Terry Crawford-Browne, the Cape High Court was told on Monday. Manuel is seeking an urgent interim order to stop Crawford-Browne from continuing to publicly accuse him of criminal conduct in signing loan agreements for the deal.
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/ 25 February 2008
Service delivery has collapsed in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, after local authorities recently announced that the municipality was insolvent and unable to cater to the needs of its almost two million residents. The council could not pay salaries in January and employees have been on a go-slow since then.
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/ 25 February 2008
Three committees — dealing with maternal mortality, perinatal mortality and infant mortality — were launched at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park on Monday by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. ”The improvement of the health of women and children has always been a priority in the healthcare planning of our democratic government,” she said.
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/ 25 February 2008
Trade union Solidarity on Monday began to publish a series of national advertisements announcing the death of affirmative action. Deputy general secretary Dirk Hermann said the advertisements would appear in the classified sections of Beeld, Business Day, Citizen and in Volksblad on Tuesday.
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/ 25 February 2008
Yusuf Abramjee, Primedia Broadcasting group’s head of news and talk programming, and Talk Radio 702/567 host Kieno Kammies on Monday laid a formal complaint of discrimination with the South African Human Rights Commission over the inaugural meeting of the Forum of Black Journalists.
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/ 25 February 2008
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on President Thabo Mbeki to make public the full report of the Khampepe Commission. ”I have today [Monday] submitted a request to the Presidency to make the full Khampepe Commission Report public in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act,” DA leader Helen Zille said in a statement.
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/ 25 February 2008
Police found 34 petrol bombs in the Precinct Six area of the N2 Gateway housing project in Delft outside Cape Town, Western Cape police said on Monday. ”Delft police were patrolling Precinct Six on Sunday and they found three plastic crates in a hole covered with a door,” spokesperson Superintendent Billy Jones said.
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/ 25 February 2008
South Africa is to cull elephants for the first time since 1995, lifting a moratorium on the practice to bring ballooning populations under control, the government said on Monday. Since the government introduced a moratorium on culling in 1995, the number of elephants has risen from about 8 000 to over 20 000.
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/ 25 February 2008
African and international civil society organisations have urged the rest of the world to redouble its efforts to stop the European Union’s drive to institute economic partnership agreements (EPAs). The call for action was drawn up during a special review meeting of the Africa Trade Network in Cape Town from February 20 to 22.
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/ 25 February 2008
Zimbabwean presidential hopeful Simba Makoni said on Monday he would not form a coalition with the main opposition party because it would alienate dissenters in President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party. ”There are a large number of people in Zanu-PF who share my proper vision,” Makoni said in an interview.
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/ 25 February 2008
Mamelodi Sundowns announced on Sunday night that coach Gordon Igesund and the club will be parting ways. Recently appointed media and communications manager Mahlatse Mphahlele announced ”the club and coach will be parting company on an amicable basis with immediate effect”.
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/ 25 February 2008
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Sunday welcomed a new World Health Organisation (WHO) tobacco report that indicates that consumption of cigarettes has declined in South Africa. The WHO report states that higher taxes are especially important for deterring tobacco use among the young and the poor.
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/ 25 February 2008
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille on Sunday accused the government of failing all South Africans in the battle against crime, with suspended police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi being ”a symbol of that failure”. Zille spoke to about 3 000 people in Durban’s Phoenix area following a tour through the area.
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/ 25 February 2008
About R54-million-worth of cocaine, smuggled into the country from Brazil, was confiscated at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport on Sunday, police said. Police in São Paulo, Brazil, had notified South African authorities on Saturday that a plane heading to OR Tambo was carrying cocaine.
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/ 25 February 2008
Firmer world markets helped keep the JSE in the black by midday on Monday, offsetting losses in the gold-mining index that were sparked by negative news from Gold Fields. Gold Fields’s share price weakened R2,81, or 2,43%, to R112,75 after it earlier reported that the current electricity crisis puts 6 900 Gold Fields jobs at risk.
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/ 25 February 2008
A mineworker died at Gold Fields’ Kloof mine when a rock fell on him during a series of earth tremors early on Monday morning, police and a mine spokesperson said. Gold Fields spokesperson Andrew Davidson said: ”Unfortunately I can confirm that one of our colleagues died this morning.”
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/ 25 February 2008
An explosion that ripped through a ferromanganese smelter near Durban on Sunday and claimed the lives of five people sparked protests by workers as a Labour Department inquiry into workers’ exposure to poisonous fumes was about to start on Monday morning.
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/ 25 February 2008
The in-camera conference African National Congress president Jacob Zuma gave to the Forum of Black Journalists was similar to the off-the-record briefing given to black editors by Bulelani Ngcuka, the former national director of public prosecutions, which Zuma at that time protested as a ”character assassination exercise”, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
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/ 25 February 2008
Tourist guides from across Gauteng gathered under a hot marquee for the International Tourist Guides’ Day at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg last week — and, for a change, were on the receiving end of an educational tour. "We are who we are through others," were the words of Lungi Morrison, of the Gauteng Tourism Authority.
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/ 24 February 2008
A 10-man Golden Arrows team beat the listless Moroka Swallows 1-0 in an Premier Soccer League (PSL) match at the King Zwelithini Stadium in Durban on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Free State Stars ensured Black Leopards remained bottom of the log when they beat them 2-1 in Thohoyandou.
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/ 24 February 2008
After a pretty routine first half in which the Stormers, so magnificent in defence, had all but stolen a 10-0 lead over the Sharks in their Super 14 rugby match at Durban’s Absa Stadium, they gave away four late penalties to indiscipline and went down 12-10. Earlier the Sharks had missed three kicks at goal.
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/ 24 February 2008
It was a lesson in skill, speed and possession when the Blues outplayed the Lions 55-10 in a Super 14 match at Ellis Park on Saturday night. The early perception was that the Lions tried to stretch it just for the sake of stretching, with little structure to their forays. The Blues, on the other hand, looked dangerous every time they took it wide or inter-passed.
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/ 24 February 2008
He may not have scored the most goals in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) this season, but Elias Pelembe can arguably be credited with the most valuable goals — as SuperSport United’s Mozambican midfielder proved once again at a stunned Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night while adding to Kaizer Chiefs’ woes.
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/ 24 February 2008
At least one person was killed and another nine critically injured in an explosion at a ferromanganese smelter in Cato Ridge near Durban on Sunday morning, emergency services said. The Durban fire brigade was attending the scene at the Assmang ferromanganese smelter 60km from Durban.
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/ 24 February 2008
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha might be fired on Tuesday, City Press newspaper reported in its online edition on Saturday. Madisha’s fate is likely to be decided at Cosatu’s four-day central executive meeting that is expected to start on Sunday.
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/ 24 February 2008
African traditional medicines should not become ”bogged down in clinical trials” when being subjected to research and development, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday while addressing members of the presidential task team on African traditional medicine.
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/ 24 February 2008
The African National Congress has ordered an audit of all empowerment deals and tenders that were received by its investment company, Chancellor House, media reports said on Sunday. Earlier this month, the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reported that Chancellor House would exit two multibillion-rand contracts with Eskom.
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/ 23 February 2008
Western Province teenage swimming sensation Jessica Pengelly battled to contain her surprise after smashing her national 400m individual medley record in front of a vocal crowd at the Samsung Swimming Grand Prix series at the University of the Western Cape on Saturday.
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/ 23 February 2008
In a game riddled with errors, turnovers and bad handling at times — not surprising in the searing heat of a Durban summer’s day devoid of a cooling breeze — the Pumas upset the Wildebeest by 30 points to 10 in their first-round Vodacom Cup rugby match at the Absa Stadium on Saturday.
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/ 23 February 2008
The doctor was in an operating theatre when the call came through from his wife: ”He’s gone, he’s no longer there.” ”We always call him ‘he’. ‘He who shall not be named.’ Like Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter novels,” Dr Barbaro Monzon-Torres says, grinning across the table in his office at Johannesburg’s South Rand Hospital.
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/ 23 February 2008
Matt Giteau scored all his team’s points — including a penalty goal in the fourth minute after the final whistle — to lead the Western Force over the Cheetahs 16-15 on Friday. The Cheetahs could have won with a penalty in the 80th minute, but a miss by replacement flyhalf Conrad Barnard led to a final series of attacks by the Force.
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/ 23 February 2008
The Crusaders spoilt the Bulls’ homecoming when they thrashed them 54-19 in their Super 14 encounter played at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Friday. The visitors ran in a deluge of seven tries as opposed to the solitary one scored by the Bulls in the dying minutes.