South Africa’s manufacturing output growth slowed to an unadjusted 2% year on year in volume in June from an upwardly revised 7,7% in May, suggesting higher interest rates may be taking effect, data showed on Wednesday. Compared with May, production fell a seasonally adjusted 3%, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
Rumours that President Thabo Mbeki has asked Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge to resign could not be confirmed by the Presidency on Wednesday. Presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga told the Mail & Guardian on Wednesday that it was a ”rumour with no substance” and that he had heard about it from the media.
Tracking down rape suspects has been made a police priority, Deputy Minister of Safety and Security Susan Shabangu said on Wednesday. ”One of the issues we are going to make a priority is to ensure that where we have warrants of arrest for rape suspects, the police go down and hunt those individuals and bring them to book,” she said.
Ramp meters will be installed on four interchanges on the N1 freeway this month, the South African National Roads Agency Limited said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Priya Pillay said the ramp meter would control the flow of traffic onto the freeway.
Six-year-old Steven Siebert’s murderer, Theunis Olivier, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Cape High Court on Wednesday. Handing down sentence, Judge Essa Moosa described Olivier as a cold and callous murderer. ”The victim must have endured excruciating pain,” he said.
While most electricity users are being urged to switch off to save energy, Cape Town authorities are keeping street lights switched on day and night in large areas of the city. According to city public lighting manager Charles Kadalie, this is being done in a bid to combat the widespread plundering of copper.
South Africa’s business confidence inched up in July but there was no evidence that the small recovery improved producers’ mood, a survey showed on Wednesday. The South African Chamber of Business’s (Sacob) confidence index crept up to 99,6 in July from June’s 99,1, but the body said domestic economic concerns were still a concern.
Some MPs protested on Wednesday at the Bill to regulate internet gambling. The National Gambling Amendment Bill was introduced to the trade and industry portfolio committee by Fungai Sibanda, the acting director general of the Department of Trade and Industry.
Eleven South African officials were suspended from office on Wednesday for allegedly helping 10 ”dangerous” inmates escape jail, officials said. ”The 11 officials of the Department of Correctional Services were suspended on Wednesday morning. They have been handed their letters of suspension,” department spokesperson Manelisi Wolela said.
Tickets for South Africa’s 2010 Soccer World Cup will bear both the apartheid-era names of cities and the new ones, reflecting the nation’s evolution while avoiding confusing visitors. South Africa’s government has been changing the names of some cities since the end of apartheid in 1994 but the new names are often not known abroad.
South African insurer Liberty Group increased interim headline earnings per share, adjusted for the effects of a black economic empowerment (BEE) deal, by 51,5%, the company said on Wednesday. Liberty, 30% owned by Standard Bank, said BEE normalised headline EPS in the six months to end-June was 583,1 cents.
The PSL’s once-feared Kaizer Chiefs on Tuesday listed six frontline squad members for transfer in a bid to halt a losing streak that got under way last season. Players placed on the transfer list include erstwhile club heroes Emmanuel ”Scara” Ngobese, Patrick Mayo, Gert Schalkwyk, David Radebe, Siphiwe Mkhonza and Serge Djiehoua.
The next object of liberation in South Africa must be the national economy, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Tuesday. ”Our people have been given political rights, but they still lack the freedom to participate fully in the market economy,” he said in an online letter.
The mayor of Mpumalanga’s Govan Mbeki municipality is expected to appear in court on Friday on charges of killing his deputy, police said. Sipho Nkosi will appear in the Evander Magistrate’s Court charged with Thandi Mtsweni’s murder, said Superintendent Sibongile Nkosi on Wednesday.
Thomas Siebert shifts uncomfortably on the wooden court bench and flinches occasionally at the testimony of the man who sodomised and then strangled his six-year-old son to death 18 months ago. He tries to avoid staring at the 48-year-old killer, Theunis Olivier, instead peering around the courtroom and making occasional notes.
The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) said it would ensure that Deputy Health Minister Nosizwe Madlala-Routledge repaid the public funds she used for an unauthorised overseas trip, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday.
South African musician Hugh Masekela believes he is no longer welcome as a performer in South Africa, the Times Online reported on Wednesday. The trumpeter said that many talented musicians whose voices became symbols of protest against white domination found it hard to get bookings in South Africa.
The discovery of a mutilated body on the N1 highway near Vanderbijlpark seven years ago resulted on Tuesday in three former police officers and a former reservist going on trial on charges of kidnapping and murder. The four have pleaded not guilty in the Pretoria High Court to charges of kidnapping and murdering 29-year-old Sandy Botomane in May 2000.
All veld fires that raged through Mpumalanga recently have been brought under control, the department of local government and housing said on Tuesday. ”Although the fires have been brought under control, fire fighters and the provincial disaster-management team are still monitoring the situation,” the department said in a statement.
The National Lottery, stopped at the end of March, appears set to start up again within the next fortnight. Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa will announce the name of the preferred bidder to run the operation in Pretoria within days, his spokesperson, Vukani Mde, told the South African Press Association on Tuesday.
Police have closed their investigation into the rape of a student at Johannesburg’s Chris Hani-Baragwanath hospital because they do not have enough information to continue, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. Confirming a report in the Star, Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said: ”We don’t know where the scene of the crime is and don’t have witnesses or physical evidence.”
Hammer-murder accused Fred van der Vyver could have been tipped over the edge by a quarrel with his girlfriend, a Cape High Court judge said on Tuesday. Judge Deon van Zyl made the remark in a ruling rejecting Van der Vyver’s application for discharge at the end of the state’s case.
Legislation paving the way for regulating interactive gambling, such as on the internet, has been tabled in the National Assembly. According to a memorandum attached to the draft National Gambling Amendment Bill, the interactive gaming industry in South Africa is unregulated.
Full investigations into apartheid-era atrocities are needed, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) urged President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday. ”As the PAC we feel that we should have full investigations into unclosed chapters of the past,” PAC president Letlapa Mphahlele told reporters after meeting Mbeki at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
The Tshwane/Pretoria name change ”is neither here nor there”, said the Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) on Tuesday. ANC Gauteng secretary David Makhura told a press conference the party believed Tshwane was the capital. But it was still a ”matter of process” to make this ”attitude” a reality.
Limpopo is the country’s safest province, the South African Institute of Race Relations said on Tuesday. It had the lowest rate of murders, rapes and armed robberies, according to a study based on police statistics released in Polokwane. Limpopo is also one of South Africa’s poorest provinces with a very high rate of unemployment.
Winter had one last blast before making way for spring as snow fell in parts of South Africa on Tuesday. Snow had fallen near the Hex River in the Western Cape, in Sutherland in the Northern Cape, near Tiffendell in the Eastern Cape and in parts of Lesotho and the Drakensberg, according to South African Weather Service forecaster Elke Brouwers.
South Africa have secured the services of former Australia coach Eddie Jones as their technical advisor for the World Cup finals, South Africa Rugby confirmed on Tuesday. ”Eddie brings with him a wealth of international experience and knowledge,” said SA Rugby’s manager of national teams, Andy Marinos.
It is only logical that when a ruling party elects its own leadership it prefers also to be electing the leadership of the country, the Gauteng African National Congress (ANC) said on Tuesday. ANC provincial secretary David Makhura was speaking at a press conference after the provincial executive committee’s meeting earlier this month.
Convicted child killer Theunis Olivier is a serial liar who deserves no mercy, the father of murdered six-year-old Steven Siebert said on Tuesday. Briefing the media at the Cape High Court, Thomas Siebert said Olivier had told a lot of lies regarding the events leading to Steven’s death.
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A bag of papers belonging to African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma which was found outside a Durban flat has been sent for forensic testing. Police spokesperson Phindile Radebe said the bag was found outside a Durban beachfront flat that had been broken into early on Monday morning.
New-generation antiretroviral (ARV) drugs could cost 500% more than those now being dispensed by the Health Department, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Tuesday. Speaking at the opening of the Women in Partnership against Aids, Tshabalala-Msimang said: ”The reduction of prices of medicines is a critical concern.”