Embattled medical scheme Pro Sano spent over R17-million on advertising and marketing campaigns in just over three years, with no net gain in membership. And its reserves of R314-million could be depleted within three years if current losses continued, curator Joe Seoloane has said in a report to the Cape High Court.
A Zastron man shot dead his three-year-old daughter and tried to shoot his wife before turning the gun on himself, police said on Monday. Inspector Harry Nagel said the 32-year-old man allegedly shot the girl first and then tried to shoot her mother in Matlakeng at about 4.30pm on Sunday.
Workers’ Day celebrations will mean very little to many unemployed South Africans, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. Speaking on the eve of the public holiday, the party’s labour spokesperson, Mark Lowe, said the government has failed to respond to the challenges faced by the unemployed.
The South African Department of Labour is on a national drive to stamp out child labour, according to a government news agency. At the last count in 1999, over 4,8-million of South Africa’s 13,4-million children between the ages of five and 17 were involved in some form of economic activity, which is illegal in terms of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.
The Sunday Times has brought it to the South African Press Association’s (Sapa) attention that pages were not pulled off copies of the newspaper distributed to the public late on Saturday night — this after Sapa reported that: ”Early editions were distributed with page three at the front of the paper, missing the wrap-around of pages one, two, 11 and 12.”
South African world heritage site, the Vredefort Dome, is under threat, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported Monday. The area around one of the world’s oldest meteorite craters is experiencing major development as tourists and investors flock there. Geologist Frans Waanders said people and even scientists chipped off pieces of rock during visits.
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South African cricket captain Graeme Smith said on Sunday he would not use politics as an excuse for South Africa’s performance in the Cricket World Cup in the West Indies. A Johannesburg Sunday newspaper quoted Jonty Rhodes as saying Smith had been hamstrung by the selection policies of Cricket South Africa administrators.
Police found cocaine worth R60-million and arrested three men in two separate drug busts at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport over the weekend. On Saturday morning, cocaine was found in three boxes marked ”engine parts” that had arrived from South America, said a national police spokesperson.
The government has broken its own deadline for resuming the Lotto, said the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Sunday. DA MP Pierre Rabie, the party’s spokesperson on trade and industry, said Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa had promised when suspending the Lotto that it would be operational again within one month.
The body of Bob Woolmer, the murdered coach of Pakistan’s cricket team, arrived in South Africa on Sunday morning, six weeks after his body was discovered in a Jamaican hotel room. A casket bearing Woolmer’s embalmed body arrived at Cape Town International Airport shortly before 10am on a South African Airways flight from London.
A 10-man Moroka Swallows beat Maritzburg United 3-2 in a Castle Premiership match played at the Germiston Stadium on a chilly Saturday afternoon. Swallows went into the half-time break 3-1 up against the relegation-bound Maritzburg. Rudy Isaaks opened the scoring in the 12th minute.
Top South African long-distance swimmer and Olympic Games hopeful Tyron Venter (21) beat his closest rival by 14 minutes to win the 7,5km Cadiz Vista Nova Freedom Swim from Robben Island to Big Bay, Bloubergstrand, on Saturday. Natalie du Toit came in fourth. She was the first woman home in 1:57.
Gordon Igesund’s Sundowns have now lost all three games this year against Ajax when they went down by two goals to one in a Premier Soccer League match in Cape Town on Saturday. Ajax attacked from the start, and in the second minute Calvin Marlin brought about a good save from Tembi Santini.
South African long-jump champion Godfrey Khotso Mokoena (22) continued his brilliant form at the Ville de Dakar international athletics meeting in the Senegalese capital on Saturday when he won his event with a world-class, wind-assisted distance of 8,32m. It was only 2cm less than his best of 8,34m during the South African season.
The front page was hurriedly pulled off the early edition of this weekend’s Sunday Times to comply with a court order barring its lead story, resulting in the newspaper being distributed without it. The interdict was issued by Judge Bruce Burman after a party alleged that the lead story contravened the Divorce Act.
Two men and a 16-year-old boy have been arrested in connection with the rape of an 18-year-old pregnant woman, Northern Cape police said on Saturday. The three, who allegedly raped the woman on Sunday, were arrested at Galeshewe near Kimberley on Friday, said Captain Tony Modise.
Ace Magashule, the Free State African National Congress (ANC) chairperson, has made a scathing attack at a regional conference on supporters from the Thabo Mofutsanyane district in the eastern part of the province, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Saturday.
The Sharks scored four tries to earn a valuable bonus point when they beat the Lions 33-3 in Durban at the Absa Stadium on Saturday. The victory took the men from Durban into second place on the Super 14 points table and kept alive their hopes of hosting a home semifinal in two weeks’ time.
The Stormers piled the misery on the bottom-of-the-log Reds by thumping them 37-24 in a one-sided Super 14 match at Newlands on Saturday. Captain Luke Watson and left wing Brent Russell both scored a brace of tries in a match where the final score line did not reflect the home side’s dominance.
Billed as the ”derby of the damned”, the showdown between traditional rivals Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs evolved into a desperate 1-1 Premier Soccer League draw at Ellis Park on Saturday afternoon. Chiefs dominated the opening period against a listless Buccaneers.
For six weeks, Andre van Zijl has been pumping petrol around the clock at a petrol station in Knysna. Why? To raise awareness about HIV/Aids. The 57-year-old Aids campaigner aims to log 1Â 000 working hours this week in his latest publicity stunt to highlight the devastating scale of the Aids epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa.
It might have been labelled the ”derby of the damned”, with the teams damned by their own supporters for a succession of uninspiring performances this season, but the sold-out signs still went up on Friday morning for Saturday’s showdown between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs at Ellis Park.
The Bulls kept up their hunt for a semifinal place with a massive 40-19 win over the Blues at Loftus Versfeld on Friday. Overcoming a bad start, they rallied back to take the lead before half-time and then showed tenacity to keep the Blues attack frustrated for most of the game.
Wits and Benoni Premier played out a scrappy, goalless draw at the Bidvest Stadium in a Premier Soccer League clash on Friday night. Both teams created good scoring chances, but their finishing was poor as shots went either skyward or horribly wide. Wits lacked creativity, while Benoni seemed intent to walk the ball into the net.
A boy was shot dead and two others wounded, allegedly by a man who had a quarrel with his brother, Eastern Cape police said on Friday. Captain Jackson Manatha said the three youngsters were shot at a homestead in Nxaxo near Centane in the old Transkei on Thursday night.
South African Airways (SAA) denied on Friday that it had paid large bonuses to executives when the airline was only marginally profitable. The bonuses were paid for the previous and profitable financial year. The Inkatha Freedom Party had claimed that directors received large performance bonuses for the 2005/06 financial year.
KwaZulu-Natal’s transport minister, Bheki Cele, on Friday accused the Witness newspaper of being manipulated by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in the ongoing issue of provincial ministers’ vehicles speeding with blue lights. IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango said: ”He’s talking absolute rubbish.”
Thousands of South Africans gathered in various locations across the country on Friday to celebrate the country’s 13th year of freedom from apartheid rule. In the Eastern Cape, President Thabo Mbeki addressed the packed Bisho Stadium and urged South Africans to join the fight against crime and corruption.
Millions of South Africans who do not benefit from the country’s political freedom should not be forgotten as South Africa celebrates Freedom Day, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said. ”You cannot really celebrate your ‘freedom’ if you are unemployed, have no income and have no proper house,” the federation said in a statement.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbu Ndebele in his Freedom Day address said it was important for the province to built a better life and economy for its people. ”On Freedom Day we must look at what it is that government and the people of South Africa have done to better the conditions of our people.
All South Africans were called upon to join the fight against crime and corruption by President Thabo Mbeki in his Freedom Day speech at Bhisho in the Eastern Cape on Friday. ”There is a minority in our country who have made crime their business, who terrorise our communities, robbing our people … raping women and children …,” Mbeki said at the Bhisho Stadium.
South Africans have much to celebrate on the country’s 13th Freedom Day, but they face the same number of real threats to hard-won liberty, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said. ”It is a sad irony that after 13 years there are 13 very real threats to our hard-won liberty, and we need to have a frank and honest discussion about them.”