With a contingent of supporters from the adjoining Chinatown shopping complex designed to make them feel at home, holders China delivered the goods and generally held the upper hand in a frost-bitten goalless draw against South Africa when the eight nation under-23 soccer tournament got under way at the Johannesburg Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
Irate South Africa coach Jake White has challenged Australia for maligning his weakened Springbok squad. Since White named a 28-man squad without 24 top players for the Springboks’ Tests in Australia and New Zealand next month, the decision has drawn condemnation from South Africa’s Tri-Nations partners.
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni says the higher-than-expected CPIX (consumer inflation less mortgage costs) at 6,4% year-on-year in May — released on Wednesday morning — would "spoil the party further". He indicated in a speech on Wednesday evening that when interest rates were low, many people went on spending sprees.
Trade unions are expected to finalise their consultations on the future of the public-service strike on Thursday. The unions caucused on Wednesday night at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council in Centurion, south of Pretoria. Several unions attending that meeting said they were ready to suspend the strike.
Delegates to the African National Congress’s (ANC) policy conference were tight-lipped on Wednesday evening about the outcome of behind-closed-doors debate on the party’s strategy and tactics document. Earlier, party president Thabo Mbeki told delegates that the ANC had never sought to prescribe to the South African Communist Party the policies it should adopt.
About 60% of the country’s population reside in urban areas, according to the State of the World Population report for 2007. The report was released by the United Nations Population Fund on Wednesday. The chief operating officer of the Social Development Department, Zane Dangor, said the increased rural-to-urban migration attested to the poverty in rural areas.
Freezing weather and snowfalls in parts of South Africa have seen the death of a homeless man in Johannesburg, the delay of airline flights and the closure of mountain passes. Snowfalls left more than 300 bus passengers and 20 truck drivers trapped between Harding and Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal.
Springbok coach Jake White has hit back at critics of his selection of an under-strength Tri-Nations squad to tour Australia and New Zealand. ”I find it odd that I’m not allowed to take this squad overseas. We have to look at the bigger picture in a World Cup year and, besides, there are only three new caps in the squad,” White told reporters on Wednesday.
Thirty-eight homeless people are destitute after a fire destroyed the Salvation Army’s Goodwill House in Kimberley, a home spokesperson said on Wednesday. Salvation Army Captain Desiree Schrickker said the fire ravaged the house on Tuesday afternoon after a new homeless occupant tried to make a fire in the fire-place in the building.
A man was killed and two were seriously injured when a truck plummeted from the M1 highway in Sandton on to a road beneath on Wednesday, Johannesburg Emergency Services said. Spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said the driver of a Clover Dairy truck lost control on the bridge over South Road just before 4pm.
Eskom has expressed concern that the current cold weather will put additional pressure on an already tight electricity-supply system. ”We are currently experiencing an increase in electricity demand due to the weather. ”The cold was so severe that a new morning peak-demand record was set this morning [Wednesday],” the power utility said.
Taxi drivers declared a truce on Wednesday against bus companies they claim are illegally poaching business from them along Johannesburg’s Louis Botha Avenue. This comes after a committee was formed to investigate the taxi operators’ claims and to verify the bus companies’ permits.
Runaway fires in KwaZulu-Natal have claimed the lives of two firefighters and caused damage of about R1-billion over the past week, the province said on Wednesday. Agriculture and environmental affairs minister Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said thousands of livestock and extensive patches of grazing land have been destroyed.
The debate surrounding two centres of power at the African National Congress (ANC) policy conference is set to overshadow other issues being debated by members concentrating on organisational reviews. Meanwhile, the South African Communist Party’s Blade Nzimande has reacted to President Thabo Mbeki’s opening address.
A group of striking public-service workers protested metres away from the African National Congress (ANC) policy conference venue in Midrand on Wednesday. Law-enforcement authorities closed the road leading to Gallagher Estate while Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha intervened.
The number of community-service doctors in Gauteng will be reduced from 202 at present to 45 next year, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Wednesday. ”This is a 78% cut that is bound to adversely affect health services,” said the party’s health spokesperson for the province, Jack Bloom.
The Mail & Guardian on Wednesday faced possible legal action and even an interdict over a new instalment it plans to publish in its series of articles detailing the criminal networks surrounding Glenn Agliotti, a friend of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi.
Jacob Zuma’s aide Ranjeni Munusamy has been refused media accreditation for the African National Congress (ANC) national policy conference in Midrand. This effectively prevents her from attending the event, she said on Wednesday. Munusamy worked as a political journalist before she joined Zuma’s camp.
She wows with glittering outfits, has a host of friends from various backgrounds, is always perfectly manicured and preened, and makes a killer bobotie. And she’s running for president. Evita Bezuidenhout is one of the many entertainers lining up for the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, which starts on Thursday.
South Africa’s inflation rate, targeted by the central bank, quickened to 6,4% year-on-year in May, official data showed on Wednesday, strengthening the likelihood of an interest-rate rise in August. The annual CPIX measure — consumer prices minus mortgage costs — rose slightly above market expectations, and April’s increase, of 6,3%.
Springbok captain John Smit confirmed on Wednesday that he is to join French club Clermont-Ferrand following the Rugby World Cup. A statement from the South African Rugby Union said that Smit had signed a two-year contract from 2008 to June 2009. Smit (29) has led the Springboks a record 42 times in his 67 caps and will lead South Africa at the Rugby World Cup.
Twenty-eight people were arrested during a protest outside municipal offices in Boipatong, near Vanderbijlpark, on Wednesday, police said. About 50 disgruntled municipal contract workers had been burning tyres and stoning police because they did not want their three-month contracts to end, Captain William Mcera said.
Johannesburg’s first real snowfall in more than 20 years and the freezing temperatures that accompanied it claimed at least one life on Wednesday morning. Motorists were warned to avoid all passes in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday due to snowfalls, the South African Weather Service said.
Delegates were on Wednesday morning filling up the ballroom at Gallagher Estate, venue of the African National Congress’s (ANC) policy conference in a bitterly cold Midrand, Gauteng, raising the roof with song. About 1Â 500 delegates are expected to attend the four-day conference, due to be opened by President Thabo Mbeki.
Police in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, have unveiled a strategy to take the battle against crime to drug dealers and gangs, media reports said on Wednesday. The strategy includes the deployment of 54 more reservists and assigning five more flying-squad vehicles to patrol routes into Mitchells Plain.
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.