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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.
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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
Five athletes achieved the ”A” qualifying standard for the Beijing Olympic Games at Germiston on Friday night, and the men’s junior pole-vault record was also broken. Ter de Villiers won the men’s 400m hurdles in a qualifying time of 48,71 seconds, followed by Alwyn Myburgh (48,99) and Ockert Cilliers (49,18).
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/ 23 February 2008
The Diamond Eagles defeated the Warriors by 91 runs in their MTN domestic championship cricket match played at the De Beers Diamond Oval, Kimberley, on Friday. They also earned themselves a valuable bonus point. The Warriors were 38 without loss in the 13th over before veteran bowler Roger Telemachus struck.
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/ 23 February 2008
The Titans maintained their unbeaten record in the MTN domestic championship this season with a four-wicket victory over the Highveld Lions in a rain-shortened match at the Wanderers on Friday. Chasing a modest total of 139 in 38 overs to win, the Titans looked far from convincing as they lost wickets at regular intervals.
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/ 23 February 2008
White journalists expressed their dismay after they were denied access to the ”hottest news ticket in town” when barred from listening to African National Congress president Jacob Zuma at a forum exclusively for black journalists. Zuma addressed the Forum of Black Journalists’ relaunch in Johannesburg on Friday.
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/ 23 February 2008
Gold production for the current third quarter is forecast to decline by between 20% and 25% against the December quarter, Gold Fields said on Monday. This was ”as a result of the total suspension of production for one full week due to power constraints, continued power rationing, and the seasonal impact of the Christmas break”.
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/ 23 February 2008
Zimbabwe can address its energy shortfalls if it harnesses other forms of power — such as solar energy — to complement hydro and thermal electricity which is currently in short supply, the government mouthpiece Herald reported on Monday.
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/ 23 February 2008
South Africa Women have made it to next year’s International Cricket Council Women’s World Cup after hammering Ireland Women by seven wickets in the semifinals of the World Cup qualifier tournament in Stellenbosch. Ireland Women were skittled for 107 in 47.4 overs as the South African bowlers gave them no breathing space.
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/ 23 February 2008
Four Cape Town metro police officers were arrested on Friday afternoon for assault and attempted murder, police said. A South African Police Service spokesperson said five metro police officers were spotted by Lavender Hills residents assaulting and firing shots at an unknown man.
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/ 22 February 2008
”I saw nothing wrong,” said African National Congress president Jacob Zuma when asked whether he approved of the exclusion of white journalists from an address at the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) on Friday. Zuma was addressing journalists after the FBJ re-launch held at the Sandton Sun hotel in Johannesburg.
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/ 22 February 2008
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille on Friday dismissed as ”posturing” Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool’s threat to sue the DA over recent land invasions in Delft. ”A threat to sue the DA for allegedly encouraging land invasions in Delft is just posturing,” she said in a statement.
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/ 22 February 2008
South Africa’s privately owned Samancor Chrome, the world’s second-biggest producer of ferrochrome, said on Friday it had shut a furnace at its plant after a worker was killed in an explosion on Sunday. Sunel Pretorius, a spokesperson at Samancor, said she could not yet say how much output had been affected by the closure of the furnace.
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/ 22 February 2008
Controversial businessman Charles Modise was denied bail in the Kimberly Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Modise is being investigated by the Scorpions and faces various charges, including fraud, forgery and corruption in the Northern Cape. Magistrate Andre Williams postponed the matter to July 9 for further investigations.
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/ 22 February 2008
The assault of a woman at a taxi rank for wearing a miniskirt indicates just how necessary it is for the taxi industry to transform, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Friday. ”Unfortunately, this very sad incident has reinforced the view that taxi drivers are a law unto themselves,” said Radebe in Durban.
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/ 22 February 2008
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) on Friday criticised the proposed school pledge as a ”top-down approach” by the government. ”It endangers the chance of a buy-in from all stakeholders and we call for meaningful engagement with the Minister [of Education Naledi Pandor],” Sadtu said in a statement.
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/ 22 February 2008
The City of Cape Town has begun providing water and toilets for evicted occupants of homes in Delft, and has earmarked a site for them to move to, mayoral committee member Dan Plato said on Friday. Many of them have been living and sleeping in the open since the evictions on Monday.
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/ 22 February 2008
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Friday said her efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle — including responsible drinking habits — among South Africans were not hypocritical. Speaking to the media at the launch of ”the Healthy Lifestyle Day” in Port Shepstone, she questioned why the media linked her recent liver transplant to her promotion of a healthy lifestyle.
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/ 22 February 2008
Chairperson of the 2010 Local Organising Committee Irvin Khoza has a week to apologise for using the word ”kaffir” at a media conference or he will be taken to court. During the conference Khoza told a journalist to: ”Stop thinking like a kaffir because you are contriving and misleading about something that is not there.”
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/ 22 February 2008
The South African National Editors’ Forum has slammed the decision of the new Forum of Black Journalists to exclude white journalists from their meeting in Sandton on Friday. African National Congress president Jacob Zuma was to deliver an off-the-record address at the inaugural imbizo.
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/ 22 February 2008
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille has accused the Public Protector of abusing his office for party political purposes in attacking DA MP Mike Waters. She declared that in the six years since his appointment, Lawrence Mushwana, a former ANC MP, has succeeded only in protecting the ANC from the people.
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/ 22 February 2008
The government remains committed to protecting and strengthening the role of traditional leaders in South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Addressing the opening session of the National House of Traditional Leaders in Cape Town, he said the major challenge revolved around the implementation of legislation and programmes across the country.
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/ 22 February 2008
The Western Cape government may join in a contemplated R20-million lawsuit claim against a Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor it claims is behind the illegal occupation of houses at Delft on the Cape Flats. Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Friday that his administration has been given ”preliminary” legal advice that it could sue the DA as well.
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/ 22 February 2008
Clothing retailer Truworths posted on Thursday a 20% rise in half-year sales, at the low end of its expectations, as seven interest rate hikes crimped consumer spending. Truworths said group sales grew to R3,018-billion in the 27 weeks to the end of December, up 20% from the same period the previous year.
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/ 22 February 2008
Eskom wants the country’s energy regulator to raise a 14,2% tariff hike it granted the utility last year, citing escalating coal prices as it battles a nationwide power crisis. Eskom, which generates most of its electricity from coal, said on Friday it wants tariffs hiked even more than the 18,7% it had initially requested last year but which was rejected by the regulator.
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/ 22 February 2008
Profit-taking helped the JSE catch its breath on Friday after its good rally on Thursday, which led the bourse to dip 0,82% by midday. The platinum-mining index gave up 2,09%, resources lost 1,11% and the gold-mining index eased 0,09%. Industrials weakened 0,69%, financials shed 0,17% and banks picked up 0,15%.
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/ 22 February 2008
Zimbabwe could save up to 300MW of power daily if consumers become more responsible and switch off lights and other gadgets when not needed, the state-controlled Herald reported on Friday. ”Zimbabwe … is in the middle of a severe power crisis. On two occasions already this year, the entire nation was completely switched off,” the Herald said.
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/ 22 February 2008
A formal inquiry by the Department of Labour into the exposure of poisonous fumes at a Cato Ridge manganese company will begin on Monday. The inquiry follows six cases of manganism that were reported at the Assmang plant. Manganism is acquired by overexposure to airborne manganese.
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/ 22 February 2008
African National Congress president Jacob Zuma is to deliver an off-the-record address at the inaugural imbizo of a forum exclusively for black journalists in Sandton on Friday. Chairperson Abbey Makoe said the Forum of Black Journalists was an association ”who would politically in the South African context be defined as of African descent, coloureds and Indians”.
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/ 22 February 2008
The controversial consulting company embroiled in an alleged 2010 stadium tender irregularity in Nespruit now faces a strike by its sub-contractors. The sub-contractors working on the construction of the 2010 Mbombela stadium in Nelspruit have threatened to strike next week because they haven’t been paid R9-million due to them.
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/ 22 February 2008
With Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya recently intimating that the child-support grant would eventually be extended to include children up to the age of 18 hopes had been raised in the child advocacy sector. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s capping of the grant at 15 was met with criticism from NGOs and lobby groups.
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/ 22 February 2008
The government has promised Anglo American that its mining rights will be renewed under new rules governing the industry — even as data summarised in the budget shows just how badly regulatory barriers continue to limit South Africa’s ability to cash in on the biggest commodities boom in living memory.