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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The City of Cape Town’s renaming panel, set up in a bid to avoid the controversy that has enlivened the process in other centres, has hit a stumbling block. The Western Cape African National Congress announced on Tuesday that it rejected the 17-member panel and demanded that the body be reconstituted.
President Thabo Mbeki on Tuesday in Parliament condemned the violence that has marked protests during the ongoing public-service strike — but opposition parties expressed concern about police officers joining the strike in sympathy as well as trade-union leaders’ ”message of selfish own interests”.
Five men arrested in connection with a burglary at Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Soweto home are to appear in the Orlando Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, said Gauteng police. The men were arrested on Monday. Tutu was in Europe at the time of the break-in.
An Alberton school principal was shot dead at his home on Tuesday, Gauteng police said. Spokesperson Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said Nick Karvelas (44), head of the Little Sparrows Private School in Randhart, was apparently called home by a servant. ”It appears that the house was about to be robbed.”
Economic growth in South Africa is breaking historical records, President Thabo Mbeki told MPs on Tuesday. Speaking at the start of debate on the Presidency’s budget vote, he said that by September this year the economy ”will have been growing for eight solid years, longer than ever before in the recorded economic history of our country”.
Less than an hour before they were scheduled to resume talks with government negotiators on Tuesday, all the public-service unions rejected a 7,25% wage increase proposal brokered by mediators. ”This is not substantially different from [what] the government has been offering …,” Willie Madisha, president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, said.
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila is scheduled to arrive in Cape Town on Wednesday on a three-day official visit. Kabila will hold discussions with President Thabo Mbeki at Tuynhuys on Thursday, the Foreign Affairs Department said in a statement on Tuesday.
South Africa’s rugby bosses were hauled over the coals by lawmakers on Tuesday over the continued dearth of black players in the Springbok team 13 years after the end of the apartheid era. Members of the portfolio committee on sport lined up to accuse rugby administrators of not doing enough to develop rugby at school and club level.
South African President Thabo Mbeki is facing mounting threats to his widely perceived plan to retain influence after he stands down as head of state. The presidential succession debate has already plunged the African National Congress (ANC) into some of its worst factional turmoil.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has expressed his gratitude to the South African Police Service for swiftly recovering items stolen from his home, including his Nobel Peace Prize. ”Archbishop Tutu said he and Mrs Tutu felt dreadfully violated by the break-in, but considerably reassured by the efficiency of the police,” said a statement from Tutu’s office on Tuesday.
South Africa is not running out of beer, South African Breweries (SAB) said on Tuesday. SAB spokesperson Janine van Stolk said there had been some recent reports that had led consumers to believe that there was a new, general shortage of beer.
The South African government confirmed on Tuesday that a South African man was among a group of hostages released in Nigeria. ”We are confirming his release,” said Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa. ”We welcome this development.”
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) severed power supplies to Zimbabwe over an unpaid debt of US-million, it emerged on Tuesday. Zimbabwe, which is already experiencing chronic shortages of power, was importing 100MW of electricity from DRC’s Snel power company.
It would be considered a phenomenon of sorts if Bafana Bafana completed a build-up for an important game without a single casualty or mishap — and Monday proved no exception when Vuyo Mere limped off the training pitch at the Germiston Stadium prior to Sunday’s African Nations Cup qualifier against Congo in Pointe Noire.
South Africa wants to boost foreign mining investment, but not if it fails to help develop a country still suffering from huge inequality of wealth, the deputy president said on Monday. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told a seminar on mining investment she was aware of a debate about the merits of sealing major deals with resource-hungry countries like China.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will not join Wednesday’s general strike because employers need to be given 10 days’ advance notice. The union’s 280Â 000 members would instead hold demonstrations and pickets when not on duty in support of public servants’ wage demands.