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/ 5 September 2007
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has been accused of systematic pro-government bias after taking a different stance from most fellow journalists in coverage of the controversial health minister. Allegations against the SABC mounted after its executive chief, Dali Mpofu, sent a resignation letter to the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef).
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/ 5 September 2007
The Banking Association of South Africa is trying to have money it accidentally paid to a lobby group led by South African Communist Party head Blade Nzimande returned. The managing director of the Banking Association of South Africa, Cas Coovadia, confirmed that the industry body had accidentally paid its quarterly fees of R360Â 000 in June last year to the Financial Sector Campaign Coalition.
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/ 5 September 2007
South Africa’s largely coal-driven power utility Eskom has hit the limits of its capacity and aims to double output by 2025, with nuclear plants supplying more than a quarter of future energy compared with 6% now. Eskom’s chief executive Jacob Maroga told a coal conference on Tuesday the state-owned firm would cut back on polluting coal-fired plants.
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/ 5 September 2007
In the wake of soccer player Gift Leremi’s death, the Department of Transport said the number of fatalities on the roads needed to be addressed. ”The department is very concerned about the high number of crashes and the resultant fatalities experienced lately on our roads,” it said in a statement.
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/ 5 September 2007
"I know this might sound corny, but the sound of the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster’s V8 engine gave me indescribable pleasure. Yes, I’ve driven V8s, V10s and even a V12-engined vehicle before, but none has ever sounded as viciously sweet as this," writes Sukasha Singh.
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/ 4 September 2007
South Africa has been placed 60th in the latest international economic-freedom rankings, down six places on last year and 24 since 2004, the Free Market Foundation of Southern Africa said on Tuesday. ”After impressive gains … after 1994, South Africa’s overall economic freedom score has stagnated during recent years,” executive director Leon Louw said in a statement.
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/ 4 September 2007
Mamelodi Sundowns player Mpho Gift Leremi, who died in a car accident on Monday night, would have been a star in 2010, the minister of sport said on Tuesday. ”There is no doubt that Gift formed part of a nucleus of the Bafana Bafana plans for the 2010 Fifa World Cup establishment,” Makhenkesi Stofile said in a statement.
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/ 4 September 2007
South Africa’s Constitutional Court convened on Tuesday to examine the right of a woman to be the chief of her tribe, a position formerly held by her father. Tinyiko Nwamitwa-Shilubana is claiming the position of chief, or hosi, of the Valoyi in Limpopo, currently held by her cousin, Sidwell Nwamitwa.
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/ 4 September 2007
Government incompetence and not apartheid is to blame for the Land Bank’s woes, says the Freedom Front Plus (FF+). ”Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulama Xingwana’s accusation that the current problems of the Land Bank are the direct result of apartheid is a lame excuse,” FF+ agriculture and land affairs spokesperson Pieter Groenewald said on Tuesday.
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/ 4 September 2007
The proposed compulsory disclosure of race and nationality for all property registrations is re-racialisation and bad for the economy, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. ”Re-racialising land ownership will hamper investment and misses the point,” DA spokesperson on land affairs Maans Nel said in a statement.
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/ 4 September 2007
The SAS Manthatisi has become the first naval submarine in the world to be brought into a new class by the International Classification Society, Germanischer Lloyd, the South African Navy said on Tuesday. ”Through the certification of SAS Manthatisi, the SA Navy adds another ”world first” to its long list of achievements,” Captain Digby Thomson said.
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/ 4 September 2007
Members of the Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee in Alexandra on Tuesday occupied a construction site in the northern Johannesburg township to protest against a lack of service delivery and housing. The committee’s chairperson, Frieda Dlamini, told the Mail & Guardian Online that people are desperate for houses.
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/ 4 September 2007
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has ruled out fixing the price of bread in South Africa. ”If we try and cap prices here we will create all manner of difficulties for ourselves,” he told MPs in the National Assembly on Tuesday. Manuel was responding to a call from Pan Africanist Congress MP Motsoko Pheko to fix the bread price.
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/ 4 September 2007
The South Africa National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has expressed ”alarm” at the apparent attempted assassination of a newspaper editor last month. ”Though it has no evidence that this was an assassination attempt, the fact that Media24 has taken precautions based on that assumption requires the media industry to sound a stern warning,” Sanef said on Tuesday.
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/ 4 September 2007
A divorced father of four was sent to jail for 25 years by the Grahamstown High Court on Tuesday for raping and sodomising a mentally-ill girl of 13. ”The crimes were as bestial as they were heinous,” Judge Andre Erasmus told 44-year-old Mlandeli Mvandaba, of Zola township, Bathurst.
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/ 4 September 2007
Corruption continues to be a serious problem at the Department of Home Affairs, its director general said on Tuesday. Speaking after his first 100 days in office, Mavuso Msimang said he hopes to root this out by motivating staff, putting in place better technology and improved facilities. He conceded that the department continues to be ”sick”.
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/ 4 September 2007
The world’s top platinum producer, Angloplat, launched a R35-billion black economic empowerment (BEE) deal on Tuesday to sell mines to two black-led firms and hand out shares to its mostly black workers. The deals will forge two new major players in South Africa’s platinum sector, the world’s largest, and burnish credentials of Angloplat.
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/ 4 September 2007
South African opening batsman Loots Bosman will miss the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup after he was ruled out with a back injury on Tuesday. Bosman injured his back when he dived into the boundary boards during a one-dayer against Zimbabwe last month.
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/ 4 September 2007
White women should be struck off a list of groups recognised as previously disadvantaged in terms of the employment equity legislation, the Black Management Forum said on Tuesday. In its written submission, the forum requested that the current employment equity legislation be amended to exclude white women as beneficiaries.
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/ 4 September 2007
The extent of illegal border crossings from Zimbabwe into South Africa has been exaggerated, according to a migration-studies report released on Tuesday. The report said: ”Recent statements by officials and media reports exaggerated the numbers of Zimbabweans moving across into South Africa or already in the country.”
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/ 4 September 2007
A South African court sentenced a German man to 18 years in prison on Tuesday but suspended the jail term after he pleaded guilty in a case involving a global black market in atomic weapons technology. Gerhard Wisser, an engineer living in South Africa, was accused of having ties to a network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan.
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/ 4 September 2007
The embattled Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) has suffered a further blow with the defection of its deputy president Themba Godi and two MPLs to the newly formed African People’s Convention (APC). Godi’s move to the APC was announced by National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete at the start of proceedings on Tuesday.
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/ 4 September 2007
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Young Communists League took issue on Tuesday with African National Congress national chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota over his remarks about those singing the freedom song, Umshini Wami. ”We respect comrade Lekota’s views but we disagree with them strongly,” Cosatu said in a statement.
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/ 4 September 2007
Former National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha and his two co-accused, software specialist Muziwendoda Kunene and IT specialist Funokwakhe Madlala, had their fraud case postponed in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday. The case was postponed to October 1 for trial and plea.
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/ 4 September 2007
Former Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie has decided not to testify in his murder trial in the Cape High Court. His advocate, Koos Louw, closed his client’s case on Tuesday morning without calling any witnesses. Staggie is charged with the August 1996 killing of taxi driver Mogamat Ryklief, allegedly in revenge for the slaying three days earlier of Staggie’s twin brother.
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/ 4 September 2007
Privileged to the end, the grand re-entry of Benni McCarthy into the Bafana Bafana squad for Sunday’s African Nations Cup qualifier against Zambia at Newlands Stadium will materialise on Wednesday — a day after the remaining South African players are due to be ensconced in their Cape Town camp.
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/ 4 September 2007
The JSE was a bit firmer by midday on Tuesday as a number of local deals buoyed sentiment for buyers. The local bourse was also getting positive direction from the FTSE, which was down in early trade, but recovered during the morning. By midday on the JSE, the all-share index was up 0,30%.
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/ 4 September 2007
A man who was recently released on bail, charged with allowing dog fights at his home, on Monday almost landed back in Pollsmoor Prison for arriving late at court. When Cape Town prosecutor Miriam Motsoahae called Wayne Browers’ name, he did not respond.
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/ 4 September 2007
South African banking group FirstRand plans to reduce its stake in health insurer Discovery Holdings, giving its shareholders a direct stake in the company, it said on Tuesday. The unbundling, for which FirstRand will seek shareholder approval, will improve Discovery shares’ liquidity on the Johannesburg bourse.
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/ 4 September 2007
South African international midfielder Gift Leremi (22) was killed after he lost control of his car and was flung out of his vehicle, Ekhuruleni Metro police said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Inspector Jimmy Maboko said Leremi was driving his BMW along the R556, between Vaal Road and Brackendowns, Alberton, at 9pm on Monday, when he lost control.
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/ 4 September 2007
The Gauteng branch of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) will go to the police to find out whether Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya applied for amnesty over political activities during apartheid, the organisation said on Monday. Earlier this month, Sanco asked the National Prosecuting Authority whether Makhanya had applied for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
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/ 4 September 2007
Sol Plaatje 2007: Relocated Mandelaville residents still live in shacks clinging to a hillside facing the Durban Roodepoort Deep mine dump — an aged, yellowing scar on the landscape. There is no electricity here, no direct access to clean water and no municipal services such as rubbish collection. But the view from Sol Plaatje is finally looking up.