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/ 23 January 2008
Psst! Heard the one about Eskom? Spare a thought for the electricity supplier. Anyone with access to email in South Africa over the past few weeks has probably received at least a few of the slew of Eskom-related jokes doing the rounds. But what happens if you actually work at Eskom?
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/ 23 January 2008
The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu) has been deeply saddened by the death of its former president, John Gomomo, it said on Wednesday. ”Gomomo died on Tuesday after a long and brave struggle against illness. We send our condolences to his family and share their grief at this sad time of loss,” said spokesperson Patrick Craven.
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/ 23 January 2008
South Africa may struggle to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup because of power cuts, the South African Tourism Services Association (Satsa) said on Wednesday. ”The stadiums may have all the … generators in the world to broadcast the games, but will people come … if they know they will be going back to hotels and guest houses with no power?” asked Satsa.
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/ 23 January 2008
A truck drove into a stationary aircraft at Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday morning, minutes before the aircraft was due to take off. No one was injured in the incident, which happened at about 8.30am, airport media officer Deidre Hendricks said. ”There was an incident early this morning … It has had no impact on airport operations,” she said.
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/ 23 January 2008
The JSE was only 0,42% in the black in midday trade on Wednesday, having pulled back after being up sharply earlier, as it started to track the FTSE and negative Dow futures, according to a trader. By 12.18pm, resources gained 1,11% and the platinum-mining index added 0,17%, but the gold-mining index was off 0,76%. Financials climbed 1,01% and banks edged up 0,11%.
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/ 23 January 2008
Homeowners and businesses are being forced to generate their own electricity as power failures bring South Africa to a standstill, but suppliers are running out of generators and many do not expect new stocks for weeks, a media report said on Wednesday.
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/ 22 January 2008
Weddings in the dark, disgusted tourists and business owners leaving the country are some of the effects Eskom’s power failures are having, according to postings on a website dedicated to the problem. In the first 48 hours of operation, www.eskomstories.co.za has received about 2Â 000 letters.
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/ 22 January 2008
The meeting between South African Rugby Union (Saru) deputy president Mike Stofile and former Blue Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer apparently went ahead on Tuesday without Saru president Oregan Hoskins’ blessing. This is the latest development in what has become an open confrontation between the two most powerful men in South African rugby.
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/ 22 January 2008
The mother of three of the Boeremag treason-trial accused, whose husband is also on trial, on Tuesday told the Pretoria High Court she knew nothing about evidence that one of her sons had built a bomb to kill former president Nelson Mandela. Minnie Pretorius testified in the bail application of her son, Kobus.
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/ 22 January 2008
The government will look at ways in which members of the Scorpions performing police functions can be absorbed into the police, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. The African National Congress has decided that such members of the Directorate of Special Operations should be absorbed into the South African Police Service.
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/ 22 January 2008
Telkom has received a non-binding offer from Oger Telecom, the group said on Tuesday. Telkom, which owns 50% of South Africa’s biggest cellphone operator Vodacom, said it is continuing a review of its mobile strategy but added that it was not presently in discussions with Oger.
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/ 22 January 2008
South Africa’s government said on Tuesday it remained firmly under the control of President Thabo Mbeki, dismissing concerns that his defeat in the battle to lead the party had made him a lame duck. Mbeki lost control of the African National Congress last month when delegates chose Jacob Zuma as the party’s new leader.
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/ 22 January 2008
Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men, a gory meditation on moral decline, and There Will Be Blood, a gritty drama about a pioneering California oilman, led the nominations for the 80th annual Academy Awards on Tuesday, organisers said. Get the full list of nominations here.
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/ 22 January 2008
An electricity shortage that has led to frequent power disruptions in South Africa could chase away investors, denting growth and portfolio inflows and weakening the rand. Economists estimate the cost to the economy has run into hundreds of millions of rands, adding to the woes brought on by the falls in financial markets.
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/ 22 January 2008
Scorpions investigator Ivor Powell was granted R1 000 bail in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. His case was remanded to April 29 pending the outcome of his blood alcohol tests. He was arrested on Tuesday night, apparently in the company of alleged Americans gang boss Igshaan Davids.
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/ 22 January 2008
A top Scorpions investigator is expected to appear in court on Wednesday morning on charges relating to driving under the influence of alcohol, Talk Radio 702 reported on Tuesday. Senior Scorpion Ivor Powell was apparently arrested with fugitive gang boss Igshaan Davids in Woodstock, on Tuesday evening.
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/ 22 January 2008
Strict action will be taken against those who ”manipulate” the price of bread, the government warned on Tuesday. It was gravely concerned about rising bread prices, which inevitably affected the poor, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs said in a statement.
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/ 22 January 2008
The Cabinet has cracked down on departments that persistently receive poor audit reports and given them six weeks to sort out their problems. Briefing the media on Tuesday, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said the Cabinet had noted the Auditor General’s report on the audit outcomes of national and provincial government departments.
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/ 22 January 2008
A KwaZulu-Natal pilot project — proven to reduce court backlogs and overcrowding in prisons drastically — may be rolled out countrywide, if the government comes to the table with funding, the Justice and Constitutional Development Department said on Tuesday.
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/ 22 January 2008
African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma will be spending the rest of this week at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. ”He has been invited there in his capacity as president of the ANC,” party spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso said on Tuesday.
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/ 22 January 2008
The savage gridlock that has characterised power failures in major centres recently could soon be a thing of the past if the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) plan to install solar-powered traffic lights comes to fruition. Thousands of traffic lights have been earmarked for solar-power installations in a number of cities and towns.
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/ 22 January 2008
Glenn Agliotti, accused of the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble, will have his trial date set when he reappears in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on July 2. Both prosecuttion and defence said a delay in the case was necessary because of other ”developments”. Prosecutor Thanda Mngwengwe said the Kebble case was ”interlinked” with other matters.
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/ 22 January 2008
South Africa’s neighbours are feeling the pinch of Eskom’s problems as they are plunged into darkness and face power failures of their own. Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have all reported power failures and their governments have had to move quickly to clarify the reliability of future power supplies.
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/ 22 January 2008
Former Civil Cooperation Bureau operative and convicted apartheid assassin Ferdie Barnard is applying for a presidential pardon, say reports.
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/ 22 January 2008
The South African residential property market is poised for another year of slowing price growth — but the news is ”not all bad”, said Herschel Jawitz, chief executive of Jawitz Properties. ”With double-digit growth since 2000 and eight rate increases over the last 18 months, it is no surprise that the market is set to take a pause in 2008,” he said.
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/ 22 January 2008
Reducing software piracy over the next four years in South Africa could create a stronger local IT sector, generate new high-paying jobs and contribute to the country’s economy, according to a new study released on Tuesday by the Business Software Alliance.
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/ 22 January 2008
Researchers from the University of Cape Town have developed two test HIV vaccines — the first wholly South African-developed products to enter the human clinical-trials phase, the Herald Online reported on Tuesday. The vaccines are just months away from being assessed in human clinical trials, the report said.
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/ 22 January 2008
Embattled South African power utility Eskom warned on Tuesday that current electricity prices were unsustainable and South Africans should expect steeper price increases in the near future. Eskom’s statement comes as the country faces a crisis in the wake of national power cuts.
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/ 22 January 2008
The JSE was down only 0,83% at noon on Tuesday, as buying interest among banks helped it recover from sharp losses of over 4% in the morning session. By noon, the platinum mining index fell 2,27%, resources were down 1,72%, and the gold mining index pulled back 1,47%.
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/ 22 January 2008
About 500 people were trapped at the top of Table Mountain on Monday night for three-and-a-half hours after an Eskom power cut, the Times reported on Tuesday. Some of those stranded were in two cable cars suspended in mid-air. A spokesperson for the cableway said that the power cut jerked key equipment on the two cars out of alignment.
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/ 22 January 2008
An operational plan to deal with congestion at many road intersections resulting from power cuts has been devised, Johannesburg metro police said on Monday. ”The plan involves deploying officers at the off-ramps along the freeways,” said spokesperson Superintendent Wayne Minnaar.
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/ 21 January 2008
One of the Boeremag treason trial accused, Kobus Pretorius, on Monday told a Pretoria High Court judge he had had an epiphany in jail and wanted to be released on bail so that he could ”serve the community of South Africa”. He told Judge Khami Makhafola he was ”a new man” after accepting Jesus Christ as his saviour.