The battle between the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the eThekwini municipality over controversial plans to rename several Durban streets and landmarks was adjourned on Thursday in the Durban High Court. The DA is asking the court to prevent the municipality from proceeding with the second phase of the renaming process to have the first phase reversed.
The wife of slain theatre personality Taliep Petersen appeared with three men in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, charged with his murder. Petersen was shot in his Cape Town home in December last year. In the dock were his wife, Najwa, as well as Abdoer Emjedi, Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders.
South Africa’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is to lead an African Union (AU) fact-finding team to the Comoros after elections in the rebel Anjouan island. An AU ministerial committee has rejected the outcome of the Anjouan poll.
South Africa’s current account deficit narrowed to 7% of gross domestic product in the first quarter as lower oil imports offset a fall in mine exports to narrow the trade deficit, the central bank said on Thursday. The shortfall compared with a 7,8% deficit in the fourth quarter of 2006 and 5,7% in the third quarter.
Barcelona’s soccer superstar Ronaldinho helped his side to a 2-1 victory over South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns at a packed Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Wednesday night. The visitors were trailing 1-0 for most of the exhibition match, raising the hopes of the 45 000-strong crowd.
An identity document that was never delivered, which was later linked to a woman’s suicide, is under investigation, the Department of Home Affairs said on Wednesday. Bongekile Mkhize, a 24-year-old aspiring nurse, left a note in which she said she could no longer live without an ID book.
South African government and union negotiators postponed until Friday talks aimed at ending a costly three-week civil servants’ strike to enable labour unions to consult members, officials said. ”We are coming back on Friday. Labour requested more time to get a mandate from their members,” said Lewis Rabkin, spokesperson for the Public Services and Administration ministry.
The Proudly South African organisation has been disowned by its sponsor, the Department of Trade and Industry, media reports said on Thursday. It was struggling to survive without government funding or an office in a government department, Parliament heard on Wednesday.
The Lion King is marking its 10th anniversary with a first run on the continent that inspired its storyline. The tale of Simba the lion, already seen by 35-million people since its Broadway debut in 1997, has been playing to packed houses since it opened in Johannesburg on June 6.
The government and public unions met for all of 10 minutes on Wednesday night before deciding to postpone wage talks to Friday to give unions more time to canvass their members. A government-imposed deadline for unions to accept a wage settlement offer came and went at 6pm without the parties meeting.
The African National Congress (ANC) was the party demonstrating the most positive growth trend going into the 2009 national elections, the South African Institute of Race Relations said on Wednesday. It is ”the ANC and not the Democratic Alliance that is attracting growing popular support”, spokesperson Frans Cronje said at the launch of a report.
The government lacks efficient policies for land reform and redistribution, South African Council of Churches (SACC) secretary general Eddie Makue said on Wednesday. As far as he knows, they don’t exist, he said at the opening of a three-day SACC national land-reform conference in Kempton Park.
Forty-eight people were arrested while protesting about service delivery in Mamelodi East, near Pretoria, on Wednesday, police said. Spokesperson Captain Julia Claasen said the crowd dispersed peacefully after they had barricaded roads and burned tyres from the early hours of the morning.
While holding elections in Côte d’Ivoire is a priority, this should not be done at the expense of peace in the country, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. Briefing the media following discussions with the Ivorian prime minister, Mbeki said the unification and disarmament process currently under way in the West African country was the main priority.
Civil rights group AfriForum is to lodge a complaint with the International Olympic Committee if the South African Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) refuses to withdraw its ”threat”, made on Tuesday, of sending a 50/50 racial-quota team to the next Olympic Games.
Benoni’s alleged visionary, Francesca Zackey, was handling criticism of her ministry ”very well”, her mother said on Wednesday. The 17-year-old has been inundated with people seeking prayer and healing since she claimed to have started seeing visions of the Virgin Mary some weeks ago.
Cape Town’s renaming panel has recommended that slain musician Taliep Petersen be remembered in a street name, and that a clutch of apartheid-era prime ministers drop off the map. A total of 46 changes suggested by the panel of experts were released on Wednesday.
The unprecedented economic growth in Gauteng is fading following a weakening in business conditions within the province, the Gauteng Business Barometer (GBB) said on Wednesday. In a statement, the GBB said growth levels had tapered off and the economy was set to experience a slowdown that would last until next year before growth accelerates.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) could match an offer by SuperSport to screen Premier Soccer League matches, the public broadcaster reported on Wednesday. However, it was not prepared to overpay for the broadcasting rights, SABC chief executive Dali Mpofu told MPs.
Trade unions in the gold-mining sector might be headed for strike action following the failure by the Chamber of Mines to meet their demands for a 15% wage increase, the unions said on Wednesday. The National Union of Mineworkers and trade union Solidarity declared a dispute with employers on Wednesday following deadlocked negotiations.
The prosecution team in the Jordan-Leigh Norton murder case on Wednesday called for life sentences for mastermind Dina Rodrigues and three of her four co-accused. For co-accused Bonginkosi Sigenu, prosecutors Nicollette Bell and Maria Marshall called for a long-term jail sentence but not life imprisonment.
South Africa has no copper mines, but copper exports to China are booming: the result of a cable-theft epidemic that regularly plunges whole suburbs into darkness, strands thousands of train passengers and is wreaking havoc with the national economy.
Dina Rodrigues’s advocate, Johan Van der Berg, called on Wednesday for a fair and balanced sentence for her for the premeditated murder of baby Jordan-Leigh Norton. He delivered his closing argument in the Cape High Court concerning an appropriate sentence for his 26-year-old client.
Twelve people were arrested after a second night of vigilantism against suspected drug dealers at Mitchells Plain in Cape Town, police said on Wednesday. Captain Randall Stoffels said about 1Â 000 people marched to three homes of suspected drug dealers. The top floor of a double-storey house was burnt down.
The case of Glenn Agliotti, accused of the murder of mining magnate Brett Kebble, was postponed to October 5 in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Agliotti looked relaxed as he spoke to his lawyers before proceedings started. He wore a dark suit with his trademark pink shirt.
In commemoration of World Refugee Day on Wednesday, the Johannesburg City Hall hosted numerous NGOs and civil society groups that came together to highlight the troubles faced by refugees, particularly children, living in South Africa. Some refugee children shared their stories with the crowd.
Some of the migrants who sought help at the newly established Migrants’ Help Desk in Johannesburg were highly qualified people, the city said on Wednesday, World Refugee Day. Some had BSc degrees in mathematics, statistics and geology, said municipal spokesperson Virgil James.
A man has been arrested and is being questioned by police after causing a disturbance in the public gallery of the National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon. Shortly after proceedings began, the man began shouting at bemused MPs sitting below. Deputy Speaker Gwen Mahlangu, who was in the chair at the time, repeatedly told the man to stop.
As President Bingu wa Mutharika’s minority party faces the possibility of losing more seats in Parliament, Malawi’s civil society has expressed concern that this year’s budget, expected to be presented next week, might be stalled. Last week, the Supreme Court granted powers to the speaker of Parliament to expel defecting lawmakers.
The National Assembly on Wednesday approved the controversial Public Service Amendment Bill, despite the objections of most opposition parties. Essentially, the Bill provides for a single public service at national and provincial levels and allows for secondment of employees.
When public-service trade unions decide whether to accept or reject the government’s final pay offer on Wednesday it will not be ”one union, one vote”. Voting rights are assigned by the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council to unions according to the size of their membership, and a majority (50% plus one) is needed for a deal.
South African businesses had little good to say about the country’s schooling system, according to a survey released on Wednesday. Private-sector employers had ”grave reservations” about its overall quality, indicated the research by the Centre for Development and Enterprise survey.