The Premier Soccer League (PSL) should involve players’ unions in their deliberations on commission for television and sponsorship, the South African Football Players’ Union said on Wednesday. The PSL has come under fire this week over claims that it intends paying internal negotiators 10% commissions on a R1,6-billion television rights deal and a R500-million sponsorship deal.
Protesting students stormed into lecture theatres at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg on Wednesday, disrupting classes and chasing away lecturers. ”We have called police back to campus in a bid to have order restored,” management spokesperson Shirona Patel said.
South African police said on Wednesday they believed a serial killer was responsible for the deaths of eight women whose bodies were found dumped in sugar-cane fields on the KwaZulu-Natal. A police spokesperson for the Umzinto area said that while a forensics expert had not yet made his findings public, the most recent discovery of three bodies suggested a serial killer was at work.
The Scorpions crime unit is in the political spotlight again amid reports it was preparing to arrest the nation’s police commissioner, the latest high-profile official targeted by the elite force. Unease over the unit has been building within the ruling African National Congress since President Thabo Mbeki announced the formation of the FBI-style crime unit in 1999.
Africa’s largest media company, Media24, has admitted to falsifying the circulation figures of 12 of its 60 magazine titles. Three senior managers from Touchline Media, a Media24 subsidiary, have resigned and are under investigation in connection with the false circulation numbers.
The Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Fawu) has called on the government to probe the increasing prices of basic foodstuffs. ”We believe that the skyrocketing food prices are the result of anti-competitive conduct by the major role players in the food production and supply chain,” Fawu said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday that President Thabo Mbeki did have the power to sack former National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha. The president had the power to terminate his employment under section 209(2) of the Constitution, read with section 3 of the Intelligence Services Act.
A fugitive who had been on the run for more than three years was re-arrested this week and sentenced on Wednesday to 18 years in jail for hijacking, Johannesburg police said. Sergeant Sanku Tsunke said that ”most wanted fugitive” Thabiso Reginald Makwela (26) had escaped from custody in 2004.
So-called surprise visits by businessman Tokyo Sexwale to branches of the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco) have raised the ire of the student body. ”We demand a public apology from Mr Sexwale for bringing the name of our organisation into disrepute,” said Sasco president David Maimela on Wednesday.
One year into the construction of railways of South Africa’s first partly underground express train, the focus is on the completion of routes that are crucial for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Transport Minister Jeff Radebe visited the sites of the Johannesburg and Rosebank rail tracks and stations on Wednesday.
South African Broadcasting Corporation board deputy chairperson Christine Qunta has demanded the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) stop publishing defamatory material about her. Qunta’s legal representatives sent a letter in this regard to the TAC on Wednesday, her lawyer, Athol Gordon, said.
The Johannesburg Labour Court has postponed to Thursday a hearing on whether striking Johannesburg municipal workers could call a secondary strike. Workers affiliated to the South African Municipal Workers’ Union have been on strike since Monday. The court postponed the hearing after counsel for Johannesburg city said some of the union demands were unclear.
The fate of beleaguered Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha is to be decided on Thursday. Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Wednesday this would happen at a central executive committee to discuss issues surrounding Madisha.
A new liver costs about R450 000, according to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang — herself the recent recipient of a new liver. In a written reply to a question by the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Ruth Rabinowitz in the National Assembly, she said hospital expenditure on liver transplants was, all inclusive, about R450 000 per patient.
Whether suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli had taken "national security interests" into consideration in decisions he made will be one of the main issues in a hearing to determine his fitness to hold office. President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday approved the terms of reference for the inquiry.
It was almost with a measure of relief that Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira announced his ”strongest available” 22-man squad on Wednesday to tackle foxy world champions Italy in their Siena lair on October 17.
A Cape High Court judge on Wednesday reserved his ruling on a forfeiture application against former LeisureNet joint chief executives Peter Gardener and Rod Mitchell. The two men have already paid over R29,5-million to liquidators, the state says there is a shortfall of at least half a million rands each.
Trade union Solidarity has accused Denel of using employee salary funds to pay bonuses to top management. While Denel is locked in a dispute with four trade unions about exemption from national wage increases, 49 top management members have been paid performance bonuses totalling R2,2-million.
Any attempt by the South African National Geographical Names Council to consider the name-change request to change Potchefstroom to Tlokwe will result in court action, Action Potchefstroom said on Wednesday. Spokesperson for the civic organisation Theo Venter said the request for the name change was fundamentally flawed.
Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown and financial director Graham Maddock appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. The case was postponed to December 7 for a regional court date and for the state to give the defence teams a charge sheet. The appearance follows their rearrest in August on fresh fraud and theft charges.
The struggling Zimbabwean national cricket side is set to be invited to play in South Africa’s domestic competitions this season. The proposal has been endorsed by Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola and has the backing of the International Cricket Council and the African Cricket Association.
Most of South Africa’s leading sports-medicine practitioners will gather in Kimberley on October 5 and 6 to deliberate on the health, medical and doping-control requirements for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The medical workshop will be held at the newly established Mayibuye Sports Science Institute in Galeshewe.
The JSE was firm at midday on Wednesday, driven higher by sharply stronger banks and financial stocks. By noon, the all-share index had collected 0,49% as banks and financials advanced 3,07% and 2,30% respectively. The platinum mining index recovered 0,94% and resources edged up 0,12%.
South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) members are expected to converge on the Labour Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday to hear a final ruling on a secondary strike. Union spokesperson Dumisani Langa said if the court ruled in their favour, they would rope in other Gauteng municipalities to join the strike.
Premier Soccer League (PSL) executive members have not been paid commission for their part in the R1,6-billion television rights deal or the R500-million Absa sponsorship deal. The PSL had not even formally decided yet whether it would pay its negotiators any commission at all, said chairperson Irvin Khoza.
A former politician and a controversial figure were the only candidates interviewed in Cape Town on Tuesday for a vacant judge position in the Bophuthatswana (North West) provincial division. They are former Democratic Alliance MP Lawrence Lever and former North West acting judge Cecile Zwiegelaar.
Premier Soccer League (PSL) members have not been paid any commission from the television broadcasting and Absa sponsorship deals, PSL chairperson Irvin Khoza said on Tuesday. Indeed, the issue of the payment of commissions had not even been finalised yet, he told reporters in Johannesburg.
Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata’s drunken-driving trial has been postponed for the court to rule on the defence’s application for a trial within a trial on admissibility of evidence. Magistrate Desmond Nair will give his decision when the trial resumes at the end of October.
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The Constitutional Court ruling on Tuesday dismissing Schabir Shaik’s application to appeal his conviction and sentence for corruption and fraud may have cleared the way for presidential hopeful Jacob Zuma to face corruption charges again, the latest twist in a political drama gripping the country.
Petite Lize-Marie Retief (20) of Pretoria again rose to the occasion on the fourth and last day of finals at the Telkom South African National Short-Course Championships in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday, shattering the African and South African records for the women’s 100m butterfly.
The judge in the Boeremag treason trial on Tuesday urged one of the accused and his legal representative to come to some sort of arrangement after the advocate withdrew from the trial, causing yet a further delay. Advocate Barry van der Merwe, who represented alleged former Boeremag military commander Tom Vorster, withdrew without giving any reasons.
Athletics South Africa responded on Tuesday to an article that appeared in Rapport newspaper on September 30 regarding the non-ratification of Karen Mey’s recent long-jump South African record of 6,93m, achieved on July 7 in Bad Langensaiza, Germany.