South African rookie Cameron van der Burgh’s only thought going into the 50m breaststroke final of the World Swimming Championships on Wednesday was not to finish last. Instead he won a bronze medal. No one was more surprised than the 18-year-old. ”I can’t describe it. I never even thought about it. It’s my first world championships,” said the United States-based nutrition student.
Cape Town’s rates and service charges are to increase by an average of 15%, mayor Helen Zille said on Wednesday. She said electricity charges would increase by an average of 5,6%, solid waste removal charges by 11%, and water and sanitation by 19%.
South Africa’s Solidarity union members propose to go on strike at Milnerton Maritime Radio, a unit of fixed-line phone company Telkom, which could affect shipping off the Cape coast, the union said on Wednesday. Solidarity said it has told the company of its decision to strike from midnight on Wednesday.
The South Africa Bus Employers’ Association (Sabea) said all staff reported for duty on Wednesday morning in accordance with a Labour Court ruling, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. On Tuesday, the court granted an interim order in favour of Sabea preventing a strike planned for Wednesday. This means that any strike will now be unprotected and illegal.
South African councillors are learning about service delivery at an international conference in New Zealand, the South African Local Government Association said on Wednesday. ”The conference could not have come at a better time for South African municipalities … ,” said Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo in a statement.
The government’s justice, crime-prevention and security departments need to work more closely to improve efficiency, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla said on Wednesday. ”I would want to see greater efficiency; I don’t know how we could entrench that systematically,” she said.
The Democratic Repubic of Congo’s ex-vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, who has taken refuge in South Africa’s embassy in Kinshasa, can remain there for as long as he wants, the Pretoria government said on Tuesday. Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said Bemba had yet to reveal his long-term plans.
Businesswoman Danisa Baloyi has relinquished all her posts with companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), she said through her spokesperson on Tuesday. Baloyi’s move follows her removal last Tuesday from the board of the Absa Group and Absa Bank due to public disclosures related to irregularities at Fidentia.
The African National Congress (ANC) leadership debate must shift from personalities to the collective to take the ruling party forward and retain its working-class bias, Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said at a bilateral summit in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The terms of a probe into whether Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool misled the provincial legislature were amended on Tuesday afternoon, in a motion supported by all parties in the house. An ad-hoc committee, to be named by speaker Shaun Byneveldt on Wednesday, will now inquire only into whether the legislature ”has been misled”.
The regional land claims commission and the body representing the Pniel estate land claimants in the Northern Cape had not reached agreement over their differences on Tuesday afternoon, legal counsel said. Legal counsel for the Pniel community property association Adrian Horwitz said the parties were still engaged in an attempt to reach a settlement.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad on Tuesday again rejected suggestions that economic sanctions should be imposed as a means to resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe. Briefing the media at Parliament, he said: ”It should now be clear that those who imposed so-called smart sanctions have themselves questioned the effectiveness of such actions.”
Fidentia’s curators say they have uncovered evidence of a ”multiplicity of wrongdoings” in the troubled asset-management group. They also say investors will face an estimated shortfall of about R1-billion once Fidentia’s affairs have been sorted out. The revelations are contained in a report filed in the Cape High Court as part of an application for a final curatorship order.
A Newcastle man sentenced to five years in jail for two counts of theft after illegally selling electricity through a machine stolen from Eskom had his sentence cut to a R10 000 fine by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday. Petros Lashani Ndlovu was earlier convicted in the Newcastle Regional Court of stealing an Eskom credit-dispensing unit.
KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) coastal municipalities will get help from the National Treasury in footing the bill to clean up in the wake of the freak surf that battered the province’s coastline, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said on Tuesday. However, Mufamadi refused to be drawn on how much aid would be forthcoming.
Uthingo’s contract as the national lottery operator expires within five days, but South African Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa "still seems to have no idea" how to lead his department out of the quagmire following the Pretoria High Court’s reversal of his decision to award the licence to the Gidani consortium, the official opposition said on Tuesday.
The South African Airways (SAA) Bill, which converts the national airline into a public company, got the nod of the second chamber of Parliament, the National Council of Provinces, on Tuesday. The SAA Bill has already received the nod of the National Assembly.
From April 1 insurance companies will pay out life insurance and funeral claims to relatives of people who die of Aids-related illness, the Life Offices’ Association (LOA) said in Johannesburg on Tuesday. Insurance companies belonging to LOA will no longer apply the HIV/Aids exclusion clause to life and disability policies.
South African steel giant Mittal Steel has contravened the Competition Act by charging excessive prices, the Competition Tribunal ruled on Tuesday. The tribunal, however, dismissed a complaint that Mittal Steel contravened the Act by inducing its customers not to deal with a competitor.
A multi-faceted public transport system action plan, involving integrated metered taxis and long-distance public transport, has been announced by Transport Minister Jeff Radebe. Noting that about R9-billion has been allocated of the medium-term budget to public transport, Radebe told journalists that the aim is to create "integrated rapid public transport networks".
The 2010 Soccer World Cup has become the benchmark against which everything in South Africa is measured, and this has forced the local organising committee to answer some difficult questions, its chief executive, Danny Jordaan, said on Tuesday. The reason is that 2010 is not just about 90 minutes of football, but is part of the transformation of the country, Jordaan said.
A shortage of tickets rather than high prices will hamper Sooth Africans who want to see any of the 2010 Soccer World Cup matches, chief executive of the local organising committee Danny Jordaan said on Tuesday. ”There will be more than three million tickets in total, but … we would be lucky if we have one million of those available for South Africans,” Jordaan said.
A curatorship order against troubled asset-management firm Fidentia was made final by a Cape High Court judge on Tuesday. The company was placed under provisional curatorship at the beginning of last month after a Financial Services Board probe reported alleged misappropriation of hundreds of millions of rands.
The South African Police Service team won more than 200 medals in the World Police and Fire Games in Australia, police said on Tuesday. ”The team won a total of 202 individual medals,” said Senior Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo. These were 79 gold, 61 silver and 62 bronze medals.
No arrests have yet been made in the murder of a 60-year-old woman and five girls who were found dead in a house at Zwide township, Port Elizabeth, police said on Monday. The elderly woman was found in her bedroom and the children, aged between five and eight, were found in the bathroom on Sunday night.
Zimbabwe’s economic problems "are not technical", South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni told South African MPs on Tuesday. He said: "In other words, it is not possible for the central bank in Zimbabwe to resolve the inflation problems unless, for example, the fiscal policy position changes."
Some exceptional items gave rise to the growth in the deficit on the current account of the balance of payments towards the end of last year, but this has been "easily financed by capital inflows", South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Tito Mboweni told MPs on Tuesday.
South African and foreign intelligence agencies have been monitoring an alleged training camp linked to Muslim fundamentalists at Greenbushes, Port Elizabeth, the Herald Online reported. According to an intelligence source, the camp is no longer operational because of possible botched surveillance activities.
Economic expansion in the region and the huge growth in tourism along the Garden Route have prompted budget airline 1time to re-launch its route to George with an inaugural flight from Johannesburg on Friday. The carrier pulled out of George in March 2006 due to lack of capacity.
Former prisoners have urged the government to reduce the period for which a criminal record is kept to five years, as it limits their chances of ”going straight”, a conference heard on Monday.
All stadiums will have a construction company on site by the end of the week in preparation for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the local organising committee (LOC) said on Monday. LOC chairperson Irvin Khoza, CEO Danny Jordaan and Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile were briefing the media in Johannesburg after the LOC board meeting.
An ad-hoc committee to inquire whether Premier Ebrahim Rasool misled the provincial legislature will be named by Wednesday, Western Cape speaker Shaun Byneveldt said. A March 13 call by the Democratic Alliance for an investigation into the matter was unexpectedly supported by Rasool’s African National Congress, and by other parties in the legislature.