Transnet’s plans to boost freight rail capacity include a feasibility study on a rail ring around greater Johannesburg to reduce delays, media reports said on Thursday. Moira Moses, the group executive for Transnet projects, said in a presentation: ”We want to build a new hub [to replace City Deep].” This proposal still needs to be presented to the Transnet board.
The former head of the Congress of South African Trade Unions told striking public-sector workers on Wednesday that negotiations should take place at the table and not on the streets. Mbhazima Shilowa’s comments were a sign of deepening differences between the ruling African National Congress and its allies.
Countrywide pay protests by public servants ended peacefully on Wednesday with conflicting claims on the turnout. One union said 600Â 000 workers took part in countrywide marches, while the government put the figure at 70Â 000. Congress of South African Trade Unions spokesperson Patrick Craven said reports suggested Wednesday’s events had been ”excellent”.
President Thabo Mbeki has rejected the Moseneke commission’s recommendations that government leaders’ salaries be increased by huge percentages, Public Service Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Wednesday. Fraser-Moleketi said the new salaries, as recommended by the commission, would not be implemented.
Power to parts of Boksburg that were affected by a massive fire at an Atlasville substation would be restored by 5pm on Wednesday, the Ekurhuleni municipality said — but some suburbs are set to wait until next Wednesday to have electricity restored as the substation had been badly damaged by the fire.
Some poverty-alleviation programmes have not yet helped the poor, despite the funding the programmes had received, the Public Service Commission said on Wednesday. An ad-hoc report noted that both national and provincial departments had been taking a broad range of continuing measures to alleviate poverty.
South African President Thabo Mbeki gave his clearest indication yet on Wednesday of his preferred choice of successor, heaping praise on his official deputy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Mbeki, who has previously said he would like a woman to succeed him, told Parliament Mlambo-Ngcuka was "a true leader of the people".
The rise of religious ”Jihadist” extremism in Africa is a serious concern, a top United States official told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town on Wednesday. ”When we talk about the growth rate we have to be quite concerned,” said Jendayi Frazer, assistant US Secretary of State for African Affairs.
President Thabo Mbeki strongly criticised the Sunday Times on Wednesday for what he termed its peddling of ”falsehoods” in a report published earlier this month. The report dealt with the alleged rejection by Western Cape health authorities of doctors for top posts because they were white.
The Democratic Alliance on Wednesday said the planned replacement of Gauteng vehicles’ number plates had been kept a secret by the provincial department of transport. It was announced on Tuesday that the province’s motorists will have to purchase new number plates from January next year, as the current number system is almost exhausted.
Police have rejected as a hoax an email that warns people against ”stonings and shootings” on Gauteng highways on Saturday. National spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said on Wednesday the email claimed the South African Police Service and metro police were on standby because of the alleged threat.
South Africa’s retail sales growth slowed sharply to 5,4% year-on-year in April, official data showed, suggesting higher interest rates may finally be biting into stubbornly high consumer spending. Consumer demand has been the main driver of faster growth in Africa’s biggest economy over the past couple of years, but it has also added to inflationary pressures.
The meeting between President Thabo Mbeki and Springbok rugby coach Jake White is going ahead as planned, the Presidency said on Wednesday. ”The meeting is still on, as far as I know,” said presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga. This after the SA Rugby Union advised White on Tuesday to cancel, claiming he had not followed internal protocol in arranging the talks.
An attempt to steal electric cable could be to blame for the fire at a substation in Kempton Park on Tuesday, the Ekurhuleni municipality said on Wednesday. General manager for electricity and energy Mark Wilson said the fire started about 2.30pm on Tuesday and was extinguished at 6pm.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) began a meeting on Africa on Wednesday with warnings that the continent faces being left further behind as its growth rates fail to match those elsewhere in the world. Africa is forecast to grow 6,2% in 2007, having achieved 4,9% over five years from 2001 and 5,5% last year alone, said a joint report.
Injuries to Fourie du Preez and Ricky Januarie mean Sharks scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar will start for the first time in the number nine jersey when South Africa host Australia in the Tri-Nations opener at Newlands on Saturday. In all there are 11 changes to the Springbok team that ran out against Samoa last weekend.
A high crime rate, unreliable electricity supply and inflexible labour laws saw South Africa drop six places over two years on a global economic competitiveness barometer released on Wednesday. Ranked 46th overall out of 128 countries measured, South Africa was the second-best performer on the continent.
Africa will have to find its own way and develop its own growth agenda, which will not be either the Indian or Chinese way of forging economic development, Mvelaphanda Holdings executive chairperson Tokyo Sexwale argued on Wednesday at a World Economic Forum media briefing at the start of the forum conversation on Africa.
Transnet pensioners and their beneficiaries will receive bonuses totalling R125-million at the end of July, Transnet group chief executive Maria Ramos announced on Wednesday. The bonus will be paid and funded solely from Transnet’s resources.
Most South Africans — 79% — are against the proposed legalisation of prostitution in the country for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, a survey by African Response has found. The survey included a sample of 400 respondents from the major metropolitan areas of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. The participants were interviewed face to face.
Telecommunications could become cheaper from August this year following a proposal by Telkom to reduce prices, acting chief executive Reuben September said on Wednesday. ”The proposed price reductions will not only ensure more savings for our existing customers but will also attract new entrants to the broadband experience,” he said.
A pressure group has threatened to bring a class action against the government and the wine industry over the issue of alcohol abuse among farm workers. The Black Association of the Wine and Spirits Industry called on Wednesday for the establishment of an industry fund to change people’s attitudes towards drinking, and to set up an institution to treat alcoholics.
Boosted by one of his best performances for South Africa in the recent 4-0 African Nations Cup qualifying win over Chad, Belgium-based Elrio van Heerden has learnt that fate has a habit of dealing out the wrong cards at the most inopportune moment.
South African trade unions have launched one of the biggest national strikes of the post-apartheid era in a move widely seen as spearheading the left’s challenge to win control of the ruling African National Congress ahead of next year’s presidential election. Public-service unions seem determined not to back down on their demands.
The case of former spy boss Billy Masetlha was rolled over to Thursday because some of the assessors in the case could not make it to court. Chief state prosecutor Matric Luphondo said the disruption of public transport due to the public-service strike meant that some of the assessors could not reach work.
South Africa’s Telkom, Africa’s biggest telecoms company, posted a 1% decline in annual headline earnings per share on Wednesday, as operating expenses jumped. South Africa’s fixed-line operator said headline EPS fell to 1 710,7 cents in the year to end March, below analysts’ expectations.
As the country braces itself for a mass public-sector protest action on Wednesday, government and union negotiators moved closer to clinching a deal in the wage talks. Talks between the two parties at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council in Centurion continued well into the early hours of Wednesday morning.
South Africa’s civil-service strike broadened on Wednesday as other union workers walked out, piling more pressure on the government in a dispute stoking political tensions in Africa’s largest economy. Union leaders have vowed to shut the country down in sympathy with civil servants, whose two-week-old strike has already caused chaos in hospitals, schools and public offices.
South Africa could experience a total economic shutdown on Wednesday as hundreds of thousands more public-sector workers join an ongoing strike in a pay dispute, labour unions warned on Tuesday. ”It’s going to be a total shutdown … in public services and the economy,” said Willie Madisha, president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
Former National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha was using ”evasive tactics” to avoid giving information to the inspector general of intelligence, the Hatfield Community Court heard on Tuesday. Masetlha is accused of contravening the Provisional Oversight Act by withholding evidence from Inspector General Zolile Ngcakani.
The Springboks and the Wallabies disappeared beneath the radar on Tuesday as they continued their preparations for Saturday’s opening Vodacom Tri-Nations encounter at Newlands. The two southern hemisphere protagonists, each looking to continue winning after successful starts to their 2007 international campaigns, held closed practice sessions in Cape Town.
Springbok coach Jake White was on Tuesday cleared by the South African Rugby Union of breaching its code of conduct, following a row with a journalist in a Johannesburg pub. It was alleged that the argument over a tabloid newspaper’s coverage of the Springboks had led to the journalist being assaulted by another pub patron.