The -billion pledge by the world’s leading industrial nations to combat the spread of HIV/Aids and other diseases in Africa has fallen disappointingly short of expectations and is a major setback for the fight against the pandemic ravaging the continent, activists and campaigners said.
Public-service unions officially made a counter-proposal, demanding a 10% wage increase from the government on Friday. ”Unions’ demands remain the same but in order to facilitate the reaching of a settlement the unions have agreed to put on the table a proposal of 10% ..,” Don Pasquallie said on behalf of the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
While the Dutch Reformed Church had decided on a more accommodating approach to gay membership at its national synod meeting in Gauteng this week, it also firmly rejected gay marriage and sex. The synod was clear in its stance that marriage could only be between a man and a woman, newly elected moderator Professor Piet Strauss said on Friday.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called for the reversal of Thursday’s 50 basis point interest-rate hike. ”Cosatu believes that the South African Reserve Bank’s policy of raising interest rates … is seriously out of step with the needs of a developing economy like South Africa,” the union said in a statement on Friday.
Researchers, scientists and healthcare workers resolved on Friday to open a new front in South Africa’s war on Aids, encouraged by the government’s fresh approach to the crisis and improved weapons to protect those most at risk of infection.
Parishioners of a Johannesburg Roman Catholic church, concerned at a growing shortage of priests, have challenged church authorities to allow priests to marry. The proposal is made in a ”discussion document” compiled by a working group of the pastoral council of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Rosebank.
Media reports of Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya having ”snubbed” the South African National Aids Conference in Durban are incorrect, the ministry said on Friday. ”The ministry never confirmed the participation of Dr Skweyiya at this conference …,” it said in a statement.
Alleged drug trafficker and leader of the Wonder Kids gang on the Cape Flats, Christopher ”Ougat” Patterson, was on Friday refused bail at the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court. He appeared before magistrate Grant Engel, who remanded him to July 27 when he and three others, including his wife Denise, are to appear in court again on drug-dealing charges.
The number of awaiting-trial detainees in South Africa remained unacceptably high, National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli said on Friday. He was addressing a seminar arranged in Cape Town by the justice initiative of the Open Society Institute, part of the network of Soros foundations.
Four mineworkers rescued after being trapped underground at the Driefontein Gold Mine on the West Rand suffered only minor injuries, the mine said on Friday. Spokesperson Willie Jacobsz said five workers were trapped at number six shaft near Carletonville on Thursday night after a seismic event measuring 2,5 on the Richter Scale.
Armed soldiers and police were deployed at schools and hospitals around the country on Friday as the government flexed its muscles to rein in striking public servants. Casspirs off-loaded troops wearing bullet-proof vests and armed with R4 automatic rifles to join police keeping watch at the Kalafong Hospital.
With only 30 places available for the World Cup, competition in the South African squad is as fierce as ever as a bunch of fringe players look to impress national coach Jake White this weekend when the Springboks face Samoa in a one-off Test at Ellis Park.
The budget for the Gauteng health department has increased by 15,8% to improve health services for the province’s growing population, provincial minister Brian Hlongwa said on Friday. ”The growth in the budget is a reflection of the increasing demand for quality health services,” he said.
Businessman Tokyo Sexwale said on Thursday that he was not a candidate for African National Congress president as nominations were not yet open, but he had been approached to stand. ”Lobbying is taking place but the candidates have not yet been identified,” said Sexwale.
South Africa needs to spend billions of rands to ease a nationwide housing crunch, its housing minister said on Friday, highlighting a glaring legacy of decades of apartheid. Lindiwe Sisulu told Parliament during her annual budget speech that the country had made progress in easing a huge backlog in requests for housing.
South African central bank Governor Tito Mboweni warned on Friday of a strong upward bias in inflation beyond high fuel and food costs, pointing to further interest rate increases. The Reserve Bank raised its key repo rate by 50 basis points to 9,5% on Thursday to help stem surging inflation and high consumer spending.
South Africa’s central bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Friday there was upward pressure on prices from sources other than food and oil, and that while interest rates were generally too high, low rates cause overspending. ”We are noticing a kind of generalised tendency for prices to rise … so we are seeing generalised price [increases],” he told a breakfast meeting.
Three Cabinet ministers were jeered by striking workers when they arrived at the Kalafong Hospital near Pretoria to assess security during the public-service strike. Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula arrived at the hospital under heavy guard.
Gauteng would be short of 5-billion litres of fuel in 2010, Sipho Maseko, chief operating officer of BP Africa, has said. Media reports said the province did not have sufficient capacity to move imported product from the coast and this would put the soccer World Cup and economic growth at risk.
In a shift from their original bargaining position, public-service unions are set to table a new demand on Friday for a 10% pay increase, in a bid to end the week-long public-service strike, union sources have told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>. The unions will also propose the appointment of a facilitator to help break the wage impasse.
Hundreds of people crowded into the Great Hall at Wits University in Johannesburg on Thursday evening to hear businessman Tokyo Sexwale talk about leadership. His address is part of the Wits public lecture series and is billed as ”Towards a common future: Public conversations on leadership with Tokyo Sexwale”.
South Africa’s controversial health minister returned to the spotlight on Thursday after snubbing a major Aids conference, announcing a ”significant” decrease in the number of pregnant women infected with HIV. ”This is mainly as a result of our continued focus on prevention as the mainstay of our response to combat HIV,” Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told Parliament.
Plans to bring the public service to a total halt on Friday are going ahead, said the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Thursday. General secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said that all public servants will down tools on Friday to press for a 12% general salary increase.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has again changed its mind about screening a controversial documentary on President Thabo Mbeki that was canned about a year ago. ”No, it will not be shown,” said SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago on Thursday after the Freedom of Expression Institute released a statement indicating that it would be screened.
South Africa’s central bank raised its key repo interest rate by 50 basis points to 9,5% on Thursday, citing rising inflationary pressures and high consumer spending. South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said the outlook for inflation had deteriorated.
Almost half of the waste landfill sites around the country are unauthorised, and many need to be closed, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Thursday. Opening debate on his department’s budget vote in the National Council of Provinces, he told MPs millions of South Africans did not have access to domestic waste-collection services.
There was no malice in the announcement made about a proposal to establish a monorail in Gauteng, nor in the oversight in not consulting with Transport Minister Jeff Radebe, the Gauteng Executive Council found on Thursday. This was after the council received a report on the matter on Thursday morning, said spokesperson Annette Griessel.
A new-look South African side will hope to impress coach Jake White in a one-off international against Samoa in Johannesburg on Saturday. White has made 13 changes to the starting team that completed a 2-0 series win over England last weekend, resting most of his first-choice players and handing a debut to flanker Luke Watson.
African presidents and editors are to debate the thorny issue of media freedom on the continent at next month’s African Union summit in Accra, Ghana. This was announced on Thursday by chairperson of The African Editors’ Forum Mathatha Tsedu.
African, especially Southern African, nations must link tuberculosis (TB) testing and treatment with HIV-prevention programmes if they are to win the Aids battle, a top World Health Organisation (WHO) official said on Thursday. Dr Kevin de Cock, head of WHO’s HIV/Aids department said that traditional treatments for Africa’s rampant TB problem could worsen the Aids pandemic.
All levels of government have to work towards more balanced economic growth in South Africa, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said on Thursday. Mufamadi was speaking at a conference for local government representatives to meet provincial and national government figures.
Construction of Cape Town’s R2,9-billion Green Point Stadium, being built to host a 2010 Soccer World Cup semifinal, is five weeks ahead of schedule. The city’s 2010 spokesperson, Pieter Cronje, told a media briefing in Cape Town on Thursday that contractors had completed phase one, which was excavation and laying foundations.