A court application for the reinstatement of health workers dismissed during the public-service strike sought to punish a government that was trying to restore order, the state argued in the Cape High Court on Thursday. ”We have been berated for taking action in a chaotic situation,” said an advocate for the Western Cape government, Dumisa Ntsebeza.
On paper, Proudly South African probably seemed like a good idea. In practice, it’s turned out rather differently.
South Africa has embarked on the construction of 2,3-million subsidised houses since 1994, the Presidency said on Thursday. Releasing a set of 72 indicators of development, it said the number of households had increased because of population growth and a shift to smaller households.
An association to support the development of South Africa’s growing nuclear industry has been formed. This was announced in Pretoria on Thursday by Rob Adam, chairperson of the newly formed Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa.
The continued threat of sanctions against Sudan will only hamper progress towards deploying a hybrid African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force to Darfur, the government said on Thursday. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said that sanction threats against Khartoum were ”surprising” and unhelpful.
Cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) have more than quadrupled in the Western Cape in the past three months, the Cape Times reported on Thursday. Since World TB Day in March, 45 XDR-TB cases have been notified in the province. Eight people have died, according to provincial health department figures.
Taliep Petersen’s wife, Najwa, received electric shock therapy before his murder last year and could relapse into psychosis if she remained in custody, the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday. She also made an apparent suicide attempt some years ago, her psychiatrist said.
The tax-evasion case against embattled mining magnate Roger Kebble was postponed at the Johannesburg Regional Court on Thursday. The case was heard in the chambers of a magistrate Carstens because of the continuing public-service strike. Carstens postponed the case to July 16.
Irreparable harm had been caused by dismissing health workers in Khayelitsha clinics during the public-service strike, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) argued in the Cape High Court on Thursday. Last week, the TAC and seven Khayelitsha residents lodged an application to reverse the health workers’ dismissal.
Former captain Bob Skinstad and hard-working loose forward Danie Rossouw have been drafted into the Springbok team for Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test with New Zealand in Durban. Skinstad and Rossouw will take over from the injured Pierre Spies and Juan Smith at number eight and blindside flanker respectively.
A severe shortage of liquefied petroleum gas has crippled the gas trade in the Western Cape, the Cape Argus reported on Thursday. Its website quoted retailers as saying the gas supply had run out and they were not sure when the situation would be resolved. ”There is now absolutely no product coming in for the next week or so,” said one gas supplier.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) expressed sadness and dismay that children up to the age of four were dying more than any other age group in South Africa, it said on Thursday. Responding to a Statistics South Africa report, Unicef country representative Macharia Kamau called for ”immediate and decisive action”.
President Thabo Mbeki is to brief the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on the progress with his Zimbabwe mediation efforts at the end of June. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Thursday this would probably take place on the fringes of the African Union summit in Ghana.
South African Solidarity union said on Thursday it had declared a dispute with Kumba Iron Ore, the first legal step towards a strike, after the company made a final wage offer of 8% against the union’s demand of 12,5%. Solidarity spokesperson Reint Dykema said in a statement the next step will be to ask the CCMA mediating body to appoint a facilitator.
Growth in South African household spending slowed to 7,5% year-on-year in the first quarter from 7,75% in the last quarter of last year, while debt reached record levels, the central bank said on Thursday. A household spending boom has contributed to high economic growth of 5% last year, but it has also added to inflationary pressures.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.