A draw to determine the order in which candidates’ names will appear on the ballot for a new Democratic Alliance (DA) leader was held at the party’s parliamentary offices in Cape Town on Friday. Top spot was won by DA federal chairperson Joe Seremane.
A petite Eastern Cape girl cornered two burglars with her motor scooter this week, attacking one with her crash helmet, media reports said on Friday. Marilee Hibbers (18), of Despatch, said on Thursday she never thought of the danger in which she could have been. Her only goal was to get the two criminals arrested.
Youths in Khutsong in Carletonville, west of Johannesburg, have again protested against their incorporation into the North West, police said on Friday. Superintendent Louis Jacobs said the youths barricaded streets, burned tyres and stoned passing vehicles at about midday.
On the 27th anniversary of Zimbabwe’s independence this week, hundreds of young Zimbabweans were scouring the 150km-long barbed-wire border fence with South Africa for holes through which to wriggle free of the hardship wrought by President Robert Mugabe.
Post Office boss Khutso Mampeule won the first legal round in his battle to keep his job on Friday. The Pretoria High Court ruled that he was entitled to receive a copy of a report into governance problems at the Post Office. The report was compiled by an auditing firm after Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri suspended Mampeule.
A renewed push for the voting age to be lowered to 16 will be made at the African National Congress (ANC) policy conference this year, the ANC Youth League said on Friday. ”We … intend to place this position firmly on the agenda of the ANC’s policy conference,” league president Fikile Mbalula said in Johannesburg.
Calls for Christian holidays to be renamed amount to a minority of non-Christians seeking to enforce their will on the majority, the Afrikanerbond said on Friday. Managing director Jan Bosman was reacting to comments by the Commission for the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.
More members of the African National Congress (ANC) in the Free State are planning to take on the leadership of provincial party leader Ace Magashule in court, the Volksblad reported on Friday. Members of four more ANC regions are expected to apply for court interdicts to stop ANC ward meetings.
A group of about 150 people barricaded Marlboro Drive near Alexandra on Friday in protest against their eviction from an industrial site, Gauteng police said. ”They said they had nowhere to go since they had been evicted from an industrial site building,” Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said.
South Africa’s state-owned airline, South African Airways (SAA), sub-leases four B737-800 aircraft to its low-cost Mango airline on commercial terms, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said in a reply to a parliamentary question on Friday.
The multiparty committee investigating whether provincial Premier Ebrahim Rasool misled the legislature has appointed a constitutional labour expert to help it in its task. This is according to an official in the speaker’s office. The committee met for the first time on Friday morning and decided to appoint advocate Halton Cheadle as a consultant.
Pet owners must not dump food they fear may be contaminated with melamine because it might cause environmental damage or poison animals and people. The South African Veterinary Association issued this warning on Friday and urged pet owners to return all possibly contaminated food to their vets.
Aviation logistics company Equity Aviation expressed surprise that workers were ready to strike. ”I don’t know where this is coming from,” said spokesperson Herman Fleischmann following an announcement by the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union on Friday.
The Public Protector will not investigate Chippy Shaik over arms-deal bribery allegations, his office said on Friday. ”Advocate Lawrence Mushwana concluded that he could not, at this stage, proceed with an investigation as the ‘allegation’ referred to criminal conduct that German authorities were investigating,” said his spokesperson, Charles Phahlane.
Hard-rock band Guns n’ Roses have pulled out of a music festival in Johannesburg on April 27 and Cape Town on May 1, Big Concerts said on Friday. ”Guns n’ Roses were forced to postpone the second leg of their global tour, including appearing at My Coke Fest, due to an injury recently sustained by the group’s bassist, Tommy Stinson,” said Big Concerts spokesperson John Langford.
A British mercenary accused of plotting to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea three years ago has told a court in Zimbabwe that he will be killed if he is extradited to the Central African country, state radio said on Friday. It was the first court appearance by the former SAS officer since his trial in 2004.
Warders at Krugersdorp Prison told parliamentarians on Thursday their colleagues might have used excessive force when three inmates died after assaults that took place behind the walls. An oversight committee that spoke to both warders and inmates following the weekend incidents said warders were deeply sorry about what had happened.
A gripe over pension legislation favouring women appears to have led to Thursday’s hostage drama at the South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC) Cape Town office. SAHRC chief executive Tseliso Thipanyane said the hostage-taker earlier lodged a complaint with the commission about the legislation.
No violent incidents were reported in the Carletonville township of Khutsong on Thursday, the day after youths barricaded roads and stoned passing vehicles, North West police said. Superintendent Louis Jacobs said the situation had calmed down after about 400 youths took to the streets on Wednesday night.
South Africa’s Cabinet has urged Zimbabwe’s government and opposition to stop pointing fingers at each other in public. ”We are aware, as we move closer and closer to getting negotiations on track, chances are that both parties would be making all kind of statements about and against each other,” said government spokesperson Themba Maseko.
The Zulu royal household budget is R36,4-million for this financial year, an increase of R6-million over the previous year. Addressing the KwaZulu-Natal legislature on Thursday, Premier Sbu Ndebele said this included R14-million for the refurbishment of King Goodwill Zwelithini’s palaces and another R2,2-million allocated to the king’s farms.
Pet owners will be compensated for animals that died from eating contaminated pet food, Royal Canin pet-food manufacturers said on Thursday. This follows the deaths of 30 animals to date after a batch of the company’s pet food was found to be contaminated with a substance called melamine.
Four schoolboys appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday for allegedly stabbing a 17-year-old Greenside High School pupil, police said on Thursday. The four youths were caught by six Greenside High matric boys outside the school on Wednesday afternoon.
The Swaziland Solidarity Network on Thursday condemned King Mswati III’s planned spending of R15-million on his birthday bash. The network said it is concerned about the king’s spending while 42% of the country’s population is HIV-positive, more than 46% unemployed and there is a need for extensive food aid.
A Port Alfred National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) station commander rescued her own Hobie Cat, which had been stolen, the institute said on Thursday. Keryn van der Walt said the NSRI responded to reports of a capsized yacht off-shore off Bhirah in the Eastern Cape at about 11am on Wednesday.
Miloon Kothari, United Nations special rapporteur for adequate housing, was appalled at the living conditions of Johannesburg’s poor. "These are emergency conditions … it’s worse than I expected," he said on Tuesday, walking through San Jose, a dilapidated, 16-storey building in Berea.
It is too early to make pronouncements on the debate over the future of South Africa’s provinces, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) said on Thursday. ”For us in the NCOP, it would be premature to pronounce ourselves on the possible outcome,” NCOP House chairperson Tsietsi Setona told the Johannesburg Press Club.
Correctly applied, affirmative action is not about discriminating against white people, said public service commissioner JD Squire Mahlangu on Thursday. He was speaking at a Cape Town conference on human-resource management in the public sector. The conference, the first of its kind, has drawn about 250 delegates from all over the world.
Several hundred South Africans picketed at the Zimbabwe border to show solidarity for Zimbabwe’s struggle for democracy and human rights, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Thursday. Cosatu’s Limpopo provincial secretary Jan Tsiane said the protesters gathered at the Beitbridge border post between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Singaporean President Sellapan Ramanathan again pushed for a free-trade agreement between his country and South Africa during discussions with President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria on Thursday. ”As South Africa we indeed want this free-trade agreement,” Mbeki answered, but said the issue was still being discussed in the Southern Africa Customs Union.
Mvelaphanda Group chairperson Tokyo Sexwale has joined the prestigious Brookings Institution’s International Advisory Council. Founded 90 years ago in Washington DC, the Brookings Institution is known for independent research and influential advice to policymakers in the United States and around the world, his office said in a statement on Thursday.
Transformation will not be complete unless more black South Africans participate in the economy, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Elizabeth Thabethe said on Thursday. Thabethe was speaking at the second Annual Stokvels (savings club) Convention held at the Pyramid Conference Centre in Johannesburg.