Potchefstroom’s city council is to make an announcement on the city’s name on Wednesday. In a media invitation, the city council said the mayor, Maphetle Maphetle, will make an announcement ”about the decision that has been taken in relation to the name change of Potchefstroom”.
Free primary-school education, curbing spiralling housing costs and accelerating land reform are some of the issues to be thrashed out at the upcoming African National Congress (ANC) policy conference. The ANC will also debate how foreign land ownership can be regulated without affecting investment.
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry has denied claims that a jet-fuel leak at the Blaauwpan dam, a protected wetland near OR Tambo International Airport, had not been cleaned up. This follows media reports that contamination at the dam had not been cleared nine months after oil spilled into a storm-water drain at the airport.
In the first substantive meeting between the media and the government since 2001, President Thabo Mbeki and senior Cabinet ministers met a delegation of editors in Pretoria on Sunday and agreed to meet yearly from now on. Sunday’s meeting tackled key legislative issues affecting media freedom, among other issues.
The murder case of baby Jordan resumed in its usual start-stop fashion on Monday with the court having to adjourn until noon to obtain two missing pre-sentencing reports. The Cape High Court also heard that an unnamed, privately engaged probation officer had shown no interest in interviewing Dina Rodrigues at Pollsmoor Prison.
Heroic 12-year-old Neil Brenkman managed to sneak his father’s 9mm pistol to him during an armed robbery at their Pretoria home on Saturday night, reported News24 on Monday. One of the gang of robbers was killed in the ensuing gunfight. The others fled.
A South African National Defence Force clerk accused of defrauding her employer of R1,1-million will go on trial in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on June 28. The case against Zelda Wolmarans and co-accused Shona Heydenrych was postponed on Monday as Heydenrych’s lawyer was not available.
Police used a water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse street traders protesting in Durban’s Warwick Triangle area on Monday against the arrest of four of their fellows. The traders, angry over the arrest of four vendors who apparently did not have licences to trade, stoned police officers, passing traffic and police vehicles.
A man who has been on Sandton police’s ”wanted list” since 1999 has been found — in jail, serving a 12-year sentence. Police spokesperson Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said on Monday that Lawrence Mncube has been in Modderbee Prison in Ekurhuleni since 2005, for robbery.
After spending Sunday night in Johannesburg, the All Blacks arrived in Durban on Monday and the management sprung a surprise by naming their side to play South Africa in the Tri-Nations Test at the Absa Stadium on Saturday well ahead of time. Coach Graham Henry said there had been a number of difficult decisions.
Uncapped Bismarck du Plessis will join the South African squad as cover for injured captain John Smit ahead of the Tri-Nations match against New Zealand in Durban on Saturday. Hooker Du Plessis becomes the 31st member of a squad that was hit by injuries in the Springboks’ 22-19 win over Australia in the opening match of the tournament.
A man on Sandton police’s ”wanted list”, whom police have been looking for since 1999, has been found — in jail serving a 12-year sentence. Police spokesperson Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said on Monday that Lawrence Mncube, who has been in Modderbee Prison in Ekurhuleni since 2005 for robbery, was also wanted for four other crimes.
Internet usage in South Africa is skyrocketing. The number of active South African browsers on the web has grown by 121% from 1,8-million in May 2005 to 3,9-million in May this year. In the same period, the number of page impressions grew by 129% from 91-million to 207-million.
Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili was due in South Africa on Monday afternoon, a day before his scheduled talks with President Thabo Mbeki, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He would be welcomed at Cape Town International Airport by Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
Further power cuts maybe on the cards as Eskom workers prepare to down tools. Three unions representing two-thirds of Eskom employees will take action against the parastatal from July 4 if their wage demands are not met, they announced at a joint press briefing in Johannesburg on Monday.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter arrived in South Africa on Monday for talks with organisers of the 2010 Soccer World Cup and for his first on-site inspection of work to build and upgrade the stadiums. This is the Swiss’s first visit to the 2010 World Cup hosts since work began to build and upgrade stadiums.
Springbok loose forward Joe van Niekerk will be lost to South African rugby after the World Cup, which is to be played in France in September. With the emergence of new talented players coming through the ranks, Van Niekerk has opted to take his services abroad to Northampton Saints.
South Africa needs to create jobs that will last beyond the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha said on Monday. ”In some countries that have hosted the World Cup, the jobs that were created collapsed after the Cup. [We] need to discuss what happens beyond the Cup and what do we do to sustain these jobs.”
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is to sue the Premier Soccer League (PSL) for breach of contract after the PSL agreed to sell exclusive television rights to the pay-channel Supersport. The PSL announced last week that it had sold the right to broadcast soccer matches to Supersport for about R1-billion.
It was regrettable that immigration officers had joined the public-service strike, the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) said on Monday. TBCSA spokesperson Reynold Thakhuli said the decision by the essential services committee to allow the officers to join the strike was detrimental to competitiveness.
A 12-year-old boy helped his dad fight off a gang of armed robbers in Pretoria in one of at least 19 violent incidents that Gauteng paramedics dealt with at the weekend. Netcare 911 spokesperson Mark Stokoe said three people died in the 19 incidents.
It was the result Bafana Bafana wanted, but hardly a classy and composed display as they were outplayed by Congo for much of the frantic 1-1 African Nations Cup qualifying draw at the Municipal Stadium in Pointe Noire on Sunday afternoon. Bafana are now well positioned to qualify for next year’s African Nations Cup finals.
The Nurgalieva twins, Olesya and Elena, do not decide beforehand which of them will cross the line ahead of the other when they compete together. For this reason, Olesya, who won the 2007 Comrades Marathon down run, was champion on merit. Meanwhile, an unidentified runner collapsed on the finish line and later died, organisers said.
Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) affiliates will meet on Monday to come up with a range of percentage increases they are prepared to accept to end the three-week-old public-service strike. It is understood that the Independent Labour Caucus has already set a percentage range within which it can accept a deal.
Harmony Gold team runner Leonid Shvetsov of Russia has set a new mark of five hours, 20 minutes and 49 seconds in winning the 2007 Comrades Marathon down run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. He was first across the line at the Sahara Stadium in Durban on Sunday and lived up to his pre-race prediction that he was ready for anything.
A devastating strike and looming policy conference are finally prodding the shadowy contest for the leadership of South Africa’s governing party into the open, even if no candidate wants to admit it. The next African National Congress president will be formally elected in December at a party conference.
The South African Football Association (Safa) was on Saturday embroiled in a dangerous confrontation with South Africa Football — its satellite wing delegated to handle the financial affairs of the country’s international teams. The new organisation has been perceived as usurping the functions and responsibilities of Safa itself.
Bafana Bafana arrived in Pointe Noire for Sunday’s key African Nations Cup qualifier against Congo and soon a storm of discontent had enveloped the South African camp. Coach Carlos Albert Parreira was fuming over the failure of the Congolese to provide his players with the kind of ball that will be used in Sunday’s game.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor has called for a meeting to discuss the effects of the public-sector strike as well as recovery plans with provincial education minister. The Sunday Times reported that high-school pupils disrupted a Youth Day speech by President Thabo Mbeki on Saturday, demanding that he end the strike.
A campaign to record the names and burial places of all those killed on June 16 1976 was launched on Saturday, Youth Day, in Soweto at the memorial of Hector Petersen, one of the first children to die in the uprising. ”We need to know more about who they were,” said Ali Hlongwane, chief curator at the adjacent Hector Petersen Memorial.
Abandoned in a bar as a baby and given just weeks to live by doctors seven years later, Tommy Jarvis is living proof Aids is no longer an automatic death sentence for youngsters in South Africa. Tommy, now a strapping 13-year-old who spends his spare time riding his bike and practising karate, makes light of the day that medics gave up on him.
The 12Â 000 runners in the 2007 Comrades Marathon were sent on their way at 6.30am on Sunday from outside the Pietermaritzburg City Hall to the sounds of a Zulu praise singer and the traditional Chariots of Fire theme music. The first runners were expected at the Sahara Stadium in Durban at about 11am. A fast time was anticipated in both the men’s and women’s races.