Emerging markets specialist Standard Chartered is in takeover talks with South Africa’s fourth-biggest bank, Nedbank Group, media reports said on Thursday. Nedbank spokesperson Graham Lillie declined to comment on the report. ”We don’t comment on market speculation”.
Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan on Wednesday paid tribute to Bill Flynn after the actor’s death a week ago. ”It is with deep sadness and regret indeed that we have learnt of the passing on of Mr Bill Flynn who was, undoubtedly, one of the most highly gifted performers in South Africa,” said the minister in a statement.
A meeting to avert a possible strike in the industrial-chemical sector was unsuccessful on Wednesday, trade union Solidarity said. Spokesperson Marius Croucamp said a meeting between employees and the union failed to yield results. Employers in this sector were offering a 7,5% wage increase and unions were demanding 10%.
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Football legends past and present gathered on Wednesday at the former South African prison colony that housed Nelson Mandela for 18 years to honour the statesman on his 89th birthday. Current players, along with former maestros, joined administrators and some of Mandela’s fellow former political prisoners on Robben Island off the Cape coast to kick a symbolic 89 goals into a football net.
The decision to prosecute apartheid-era minister law and order Adriaan Vlok is not a departure from reconciliation, the South African Council of Churches said on Wednesday. ”[The decision] seeks to strengthen it [reconciliation] by bringing out the truth,” said the SACC’s newly elected president, Professor Tinyiko Maluleke.
The 26 finalists for the 2007 CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year award were announced this week, with nine of them from South Africa, representing the print media, television and radio broadcasting spectrum. The South African finalists include five producers working with M-Net’s news and actuality show Carte Blanche.
A 39-year-old prisoner at the Ncome prison near Vryheid claims to be the hit man in the murder of Free State official Noby Ngombane, media reports said on Wednesday. Ngombane was shot dead at his home in Bloemfontein on March 22 2005. He was a senior official in Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff’s office.
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Nelson Mandela, the icon of South Africa’s struggle against apartheid, marked his 89th birthday on Wednesday by launching his fellow elder statesmen on a new venture to reduce conflict and despair. The former South African president was the host and star turn at a ceremony to announce the formation of a brains trust of world leaders.
An interim interdict to prevent striking workers from entering, interfering with or obstructing access to Vodacom premises was extended on Wednesday. The Labour Court extended the interdict to Friday, when it will deliver a final decision on whether the interim interdict will be made permanent, said a Vodacom spokesperson.
Cricket South Africa announced a provisional 30-man South African squad on Wednesday, from which the final 15-man Proteas squad to play in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) inaugural World Twenty20 South Africa 2007 tournament will be chosen. The final, 15-man Proteas squad must be submitted to the ICC by August 11.
A white powder found at a post office at Alberton, south of Johannesburg, earlier this month was not anthrax, police said on Wednesday. Eleven people were admitted to hospital on July 6 after they came in contact with an envelope containing a white powder.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has postponed a court interdict that would have prevented a screening of the controversial documentary Unauthorised: Thabo Mbeki by the Mail & Guardian in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening.
Janusz Walus and Clive Derby-Lewis, convicted killers of South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Chris Hani, on Wednesday invited leaders of the SACP to visit them in jail and ask any questions about the murder. Their legal representative faxed a letter to SACP secretary general Blade Nzimande inviting a delegation to meet them and their lawyers.
Seven people died in a bus accident on KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) South Coast on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. Speaking earlier from the accident scene, Victor Chetty, director of protection services for the Hibiscus Coast, said six people had died at the accident in Southbroom and eight were critically injured.
Three women who confessed to the killing of a baby and burying the body in a yard abandoned their bail applications in court on Wednesday. They appeared in the Mamelodi Magistrate’s Court in Pretoria, which postponed the case to August 28. The women are 34-year-old Cecilia Mokgabane Seale, Rosinah Show, an aunt, and Thandi Martha Matubane, the midwife.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is going to court to stop a Mail & Guardian screening of the controversial documentary Unauthorised: Thabo Mbeki in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening. An interdict application will be heard in court on Wednesday afternoon.
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South Africa marked Nelson Mandela’s 89th birthday on Wednesday with tributes and congratulations as the anti-apartheid icon prepared to launch a new international group to help solve the world’s problems. Mandela was to unveil the group of elder statesmen at a news conference in Johannesburg.
South African retail-sales growth jumped to 9% year-on-year in May at constant prices, official data showed on Wednesday, adding pressure on the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates further. Statistics South Africa said the sales growth surged from an upwardly revised 5,9% in April, lifting the number for the three months to May to 8,5%.
The spat between the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Department of Home Affairs over the handling of Zimbabweans fleeing to South Africa continued on Wednesday. Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula ”has no idea” of the volumes of Zimbabwean refugees who will flow into South Africa over the next few months, the DA’s Mark Lowe said.
Four members of a gang believed to have blown up at least five ATMs have been arrested in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), police said on Wednesday. Police spokesperson Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said two were arrested last Friday, a third on Monday and the fourth on Tuesday.
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Playing soccer, often clandestinely and using rolled-up rags for balls, raised the spirits of South African political activists jailed on Robben Island over three decades ago. Now the former prisoners’ experiences will give hope to millions in a new movie.
Najwa Petersen, accused of murdering her showbiz husband Taliep Petersen, has started her 30-day observation and evaluation period at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital. Last week, Magistrate Robert Henney denied bail for 45-year-old Petersen and one of her three co-accused, Abdoer Raasiet Emjedi.
South Africa’s public broadcaster will this week launch a rolling news network that aims to provide an African perspective in a market previously dominated by Western broadcasters. South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) News International will be officially launched by President Thabo Mbeki on July 20.
The decision to prosecute apartheid-era minister of law and order Adriaan Vlok and four others was largely welcomed on Tuesday. The Freedom Front Plus, however, took exception to the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision, announced on Monday, saying it was a mistake.
The Mail & Guardian is going ahead with plans to screen a controversial documentary on President Thabo Mbeki at its Critical Thinking Forum in Johannesburg this week — despite possible legal action against the documentary’s producer by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
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Brazilian soccer great Pele and three-time African player of the year Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon delivered a special birthday gift on Tuesday to former South African president Nelson Mandela. The players are among 50 past and present international stars taking part in a soccer friendly to mark his 89th birthday on Wednesday.
A joint working group under the chairpersonship of President Thabo Mbeki has concluded that the targets set by the Growth and Development Summit four years ago have been 90% fulfilled. A figure of 4,2% is outstanding and 5,8% could be described as work in progress. The group met at the Union Buildings on Tuesday.
Perpetrators of apartheid crimes should be given the chance to tell their stories to enable closure for their victims and for themselves, Director General in the Presidency Frank Chikane said on Tuesday at a press conference at the Union Buildings. He criticised those who say the book on apartheid-era crimes should be closed.
Vodacom is going to court again, this time to prevent striking workers from violence and damaging property, the Communication Workers’ Union said on Tuesday. Vodacom lodged an application for the second interdict last week and the matter would be heard on Wednesday, said CWU spokesperson Mfanafuthi Sithebe.
Strong anti-government sentiment was evident at a housing protest outside Parliament’s main gate in Cape Town on Tuesday. Residents of the city’s problem-ridden N2 Gateway housing project had marched on the institution to bring their grievances about high rentals and poor construction to the attention of Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
Most South African women prefer their men hairless, at least when it comes to body hair, according to a survey released on Tuesday by Dutch shaving product manufacturer Royal Philips Electronics. The Philips Bodygroom Survey also found over half of the men who had taken part ”admitted to attempting to trim, shave or wax” their body hair.
The Department of Home Affairs on Tuesday rejected the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) call for the government to set up refugee camps for Zimbabweans fleeing their country. Cleo Mosana, spokesperson for Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, accused the official opposition party of exploiting the Zimbabwean situation for publicity.