Having lost, in quick succession, coach Muhsin Ertugral to Kaizer Chiefs and assistant coach Ian Gorowa to Moroka Swallows, Absa Cup holders Ajax Cape Town on Tuesday turned to their youth coach, Craig Rosslee, to head their technical operation for the coming Premier Soccer League season.
The corporate sector is the primary creator of jobs and work opportunities, said businessman Tokyo Sexwale in a speech released on Tuesday. ”The extent to which this sector is treated or maltreated, welcomed or unwelcomed, by far determines its continued appetite [for] and commitment to capital expansion and job creation,” he said.
North West province has set aside R14-million for laboratory tests to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) and get patients on treatment as soon as possible, the provincial health department said on Tuesday. A departmental spokesperson said every month at least 2Â 100 new TB patients start treatment in the province.
A 38-year-old man’s leg was amputated when he fell under a train at the Roodepoort railway station on Tuesday night, paramedics said. Netcare 911 spokesperson Mark Stokoe said the man was standing close to the doors of the train when it pulled into the station at 6.20pm, en route to Johannesburg.
Restive South African miners are likely to go on strike in coming months, but the relatively tight platinum market may have already priced in the effects of limited disruptions. Gold prices could see a brief psychological lift if miners walk off the job, but South Africa’s share of global output is waning and that market is less sensitive to supply issues.
As the wife of the United States president tours Africa, she will be shining a spotlight on malaria as well as Aids. While the former does not grab the same headlines, it far outstrips Aids as the continent’s biggest child killer, claiming one young life every 30 seconds.
President Thabo Mbeki is to deliver the opening address at the African National Congress’s policy conference in a bitterly cold Midrand, Gauteng, where delegates started arriving on Wednesday morning. The conference takes place against intense behind-the-scenes jockeying over the leadership of the party, and coincides with a bitter public-service strike.
Many residents of Gauteng woke up on Wednesday morning to a layer of snow turning lawns, rooftops and cars white, while the South African Weather Service predicted a freezing day with temperatures staying below eight degrees Celsius in Johannesburg. A number of roads in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal were closed to motorists due to snow on Wednesday morning.
The United States Justice Department has launched a corruption probe into Britain’s BAE Systems, a potential headache for Gordon Brown just hours before he succeeds Tony Blair as British prime minister. BAE, Europe’s biggest military contractor, said on Tuesday the probe will include its dealings with Saudi Arabia.
Zimbabweans who have fled to South Africa marked the International Day against Torture on Tuesday by recounting their experiences at the hands of President Robert Mugabe’s security services. Few were convinced that South African President Thabo Mbeki’s efforts to mediate in their homeland would bear fruit.
Trade-union leaders will meet on Wednesday to discuss suspending the public-service strike during the 21 days they have to consider the government’s final offer. It is understood that the unions discussed the possibility of suspending the strike at a meeting on Sunday, but some wanted more time to consult their members.
The African National Congress’s (ANC) policy conference, which will play a key role in deciding whether President Thabo Mbeki leads the party for a third term, gets under way in Midrand on Wednesday. About 1 500 delegates are expected at the four-day meeting at Gallagher Estate.
Former Mangaung mayor Pappie Mokoena, his wife and other former senior municipal officials appeared on fraud charges in the Bloemfontein High Court on Tuesday. The matter concerns a Scorpions investigation at the Mangaung local municipality relating to alleged fraud amounting to R170-million.
A little-known organisation has taken offence to the Potchefstroom city council blaming ”racist anarchists” for the vandalisation of new street signs. The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation said its reputation had been ”besmirched” by the remarks of council spokesperson Kaizer Mohau.
Severe cold and more snow is to hit large parts of the country later on Tuesday and Wednesday, the South African Weather Service has warned. It said temperatures will drop as low as minus nine degrees Celsius in places such as Sutherland in the Northern Cape. The town was blanketed in snow on Monday.
A regional chairperson of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa), Thabo Thakalekola, was on Monday night released from jail in Maseru on R1 000 bail, following his arrest last Friday by the Lesotho mounted police on charges of treason. Thakalekola is a freelance journalist and radio presenter.
Wallabies players would be happy to kick the Springboks out of the Tri-Nations and instead play an extra Test against the All Blacks following South Africa’s decision to send an under-strength team on tour to Australia and New Zealand. Springbok coach Jake White will leave key players at home.
A Cape Town woman on Tuesday continued her testimony about her horror taxi ride at the hands of a ”taxi conductor”. One of the two women named in the case, Lorraine Pindela, told the Cape Town Regional Court the shock of the ordeal caused her to menstruate in the taxi.
The Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town was packed to capacity on Tuesday during the bail application of Najwa Petersen, who is alleged to have murdered her husband, popular entertainer Taliep Petersen. Magistrate Jackie Redelinghuys postponed the combined bail application of Petersen and her three alleged accomplices.
Gauteng’s development programmes are not only about readiness for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Premier Mbhazima Shilowa said on Tuesday. ”We must avoid creating the impression that our programmes are driven by the desire to prepare for the 2010 World Cup,” Shilowa said in his budget speech to the provincial legislature.
A fire that destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest in and around the Tsitsikamma National Park in the Eastern Cape has finally been brought under control, South African National Parks (SANParks) said on Tuesday. A SANParks spokesperson said he was not sure about the extent of the damage caused by the raging fire.
No decision has been made yet on whether to prosecute two apartheid-era police bosses for the alleged poisoning of Reverend Frank Chikane, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Tuesday. The NPA it was still deliberating the matter with the legal teams of former minister of law and order Adriaan Vlok and ex-police chief Johann van der Merwe.
Severe cold is to hit large parts of the country later on Tuesday and Wednesday, the South African Weather Service has warned. It said temperatures would drop as low as minus nine degrees Celsius in places such as Sutherland in the Northern Cape. The town was blanketed in snow on Monday.
The Cape High Court has ordered the Western Cape government to ensure that health services in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha area are fully reinstated with immediate effect. Handing down judgement in an application for the reinstatement of 41 sacked Khayelitsha health workers on Tuesday, Judge Siraj Desai said the court was not the right forum to rule on their dismissal.
Unruly taxi drivers who think they are immune to road rules and terrorise passengers by forcing them to commute in their vehicles should be dealt with, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. Ann Barnes, the party’s spokesperson for traffic in Johannesburg, said authorities had to start ”confiscating taxis and charging drivers”.
Confusion reigned at a press conference of the Western Cape branch of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in Cape Town on Tuesday. After calling a media briefing on the ”suspension” of the public-service strike, Cosatu organiser in the province Mike Louw told journalists: ”We’re not suspending the strike.”
The proposed monorail link between Soweto and Johannesburg was ”not logical” and needed a concrete submission, the Transport Department’s director general said on Tuesday. ”What has been in the press doesn’t present itself as logical. We are not adverse to any innovative proposal but it needs to be dealt with properly,” Mpumi Mpofu said.
The South African Rugby Union (Saru) said it had no choice but to back Springbok coach Jake White’s decision to send a second-string squad for Tri-Nations matches in Australia and New Zealand. Saru said in a statement on Monday that it had ”to intervene in such a drastic manner based on medical, conditioning and scientific reports”.
South Africa under-23 coach Steve Komphela is still not clear as to who will start for his team when they kick off their Sasol eight-nation tournament against China on Wednesday at the Johannesburg Stadium. Komphela has to choose 11 players from a squad of 26 players, who are also fighting for a place in the team to compete at the All Africa Games next month.
Gale-force winds caused damage to houses and shacks on the Cape Peninsula, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday. Winds of up to 60km/h ripped the roofs off almost a dozen shacks in Groot Brak River. Local authorities were arranging alternative accommodation for the affected people.
After a four-hour battle, Durban firefighters on Monday night brought under control a blaze that had ripped through a 32-storey building in the city centre. Three helicopters — from the police, national Ports Authority and the army — airlifted at least 70 people from the roof of the Seaboard Hotel, which caught fire at about 7pm.
Cracks emerged in a crippling public-sector strike on Monday after two unions representing about 160 000 members withdrew from one of the largest mass actions in post-apartheid South Africa. The Health and Other Services Personnel Union accused the Congress of South African Trade Unions of pursuing a political agenda in the strike over pay.