Growth in demand for credit from South Africa’s private sector slowed marginally to 24,84% year-on-year in May, data showed on Friday, easing slightly pressure for more interest-rate increases. Private-sector credit extension slowed from 25,08% year-on-year in April, the South African Reserve Bank said, below forecasts of a 25,6% rise.
On Thursday, the South African Football Association’s (Safa) vice-president and chairperson of the national association’s tottering SA Football subsidiary, Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana, laid charges with the police against former SA Football CEO Sbu Mngadi over alleged forgery and misappropriation of funds.
South African banks, which account for the majority of loans issued, may have no idea how deeply indebted their customers are, Business Report said on Friday. Unisa’s Bureau for Market Research has conducted a study on the extent of indebtedness on behalf of one of the banks.
Delegates return to the African National Congress’s (ANC) policy conference on Friday morning for a third day of concentrated debate. Meanwhile, as other delegates pressed on with shaping their vision for the party and the country, the organisation’s deputy president, Jacob Zuma, took time off on Thursday to woo the workers.
Truman Prince, the reinstated municipal manager of the Central Karoo district municipality, says he is ready to resume his duties in that local authority, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Friday. The municipality decided to reinstate him in a meeting on Thursday.
There was ”broad consensus” at the African National Congress’s (ANC) policy conference in Midrand on the need for a developmental state with more government intervention, but ratings agencies need not worry, the party said on Thursday. ”We’re not sending out a threatening message,” said the ANC’s Jeremy Cronin.
Thursday was described as the ”toughest yet” by a delegate at the African National Congress (ANC) policy conference in Midrand. ”It was the toughest … there are different views in terms of the decision to nominate a presidential candidate,” said Ernest Makopo from Gauteng.
Independent market research has found that more than two-thirds of Capetonians are in favour of the Green Point Stadium, City of Cape Town officials said on Thursday. ”These are exciting and gratifying scientific results, and it shows a growing excitement in Cape Town,” said the city’s director of service-delivery integration.
A Boeing 737 belonging to Angola’s state TAAG airline crashed in the northern city of M’banza Congo on Thursday, killing at least six people and badly injuring others, Angola’s Angop news agency said. The airplane was carrying 78 passengers and was en route from Luanda to M’Banza Congo, which is in northern Angola.
African National Congress (ANC) delegates attending the party’s policy conference in Midrand agreed there is still a need for the tripartite alliance, national executive committee member Joel Netshitenzhe said on Thursday. The alliance should be made up of the social movement, trade-union movement and the revolution movement.
With the small-business tax-amnesty deadline looming, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) will extend its office hours from Thursday, a Sars spokesperson said. From Thursday, Sars branch offices will extend their operational hours until 6pm, Adrian Lackay said. Sars offices will also be open on Saturday.
Most public-service unions on Thursday agreed to sign the government’s final wage offer, ending the longest public-service strike in South African history. Although teachers’ unions, whose members were at the forefront of the strike, did not accept the deal, majority approval means it will be implemented across the whole public service.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is exploring the possibility of entering into a coalition with other parties in Parliament. The leader of the official opposition in the National Assembly, Sandra Botha, told the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday that a coalition brings ”more weight” to bear on important issues.
A group opposed to Potchefstroom’s expected name change to Tlokwe has threatened to ”punish” the town’s residents if the mayor doesn’t reverse the name-change procedure within 40 days, a mayoral spokesperson said on Thursday. Meanwhile, another street sign bearing former president Nelson Mandela’s name has been defaced.
The Cape High Court on Thursday jailed Dina Rodrigues and two accomplices for life for the baby Jordan-Leigh Norton contract murder. Judge Basheer Waglay said the murder, in June 2005, was ”calculated, callous and cold-blooded”, and ”cowardly and cruel in the extreme”.
There were varying responses on Thursday from delegates who had attended African National Congress (ANC) policy conference ”commissions” to discuss the strategy and tactics document at Gallagher Estate in Midrand. A delegate from KwaZulu-Natal said there were different views from most of the delegates at the commission he attended.
Dina Rodrigues, the mastermind in the June 2005 murder of baby Jordan-Leigh Norton, was on Thursday sentenced to life in prison. Two of her co-accused, Sipho Mongezi Mfazwe and Mongezi Bobotyane, also received life sentences. The packed public gallery applauded the sentences loudly.
Debates at the African National Congress (ANC) policy conference in Midrand were on Thursday held in the dark for about an hour after a power failure. The electricity came on shortly after 11am. A security guard at the venue said that generators had powered electricity in one area of the venue. However, on the other side delegates had discussions in the dark.
The government’s final wage offer was accepted by the majority of public-service unions on Thursday, bringing an end to the longest public-service strike in South African history. The unions caucused on Wednesday night at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council in Centurion, south of Pretoria.
The Richtersveld in the Northern Cape has been awarded world heritage status, becoming the eighth such site in the country, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Thursday. The ”dramatic mountainous desert” featured harmonious interaction between humans and nature, said the World Heritage Committee.
President Thabo Mbeki has conveyed his ”warmest congratulations” to the United Kingdom’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. South Africa was convinced Brown would build on the United Kingdom’s constructive engagement in Africa, said foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
”Very cold” conditions were expected to persist over some parts of the country, the South African Weather Service warned on Thursday. The Eastern Cape, eastern Free State, Lesotho, western KwaZulu-Natal and Highveld areas of Gauteng and Mpumalanga would be affected, according to the service’s website.
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.
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.
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.