The community survey carried out in February yielded a 95,3% response, which is the highest of any survey conducted by Statistics South Africa, deputy director general Kefiloe Masiteng said on Tuesday. Data collected from the 274 344 homes surveyed around the country will now be processed in time for the results to be released at the end of this year.
South Africa’s national women’s soccer team have objected to Equatorial Guinea ”bending it like Beckham” by allegedly fielding two male players against them. Banyana Banyana team manager Fran Hilton-Smith said on Tuesday a complaint had been laid with the Confederation of African Football.
Residents and businesses in the Amathole district in the Eastern Cape will enjoy high-speed internet access as well as free voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone calls within the network by the middle of this year. This is thanks to a new project to roll out WiMAX broadband services in the district.
It might be classified by the South African Football Association as a training outing and will therefore not go into the Fifa record books as an official international, but Swaziland team manager Polycarp Dlamini says Bafana Bafana should not expect a romp in the park at Ellis Park on Tuesday night.
Cape Town’s mayor says vigilance will be needed to sustain democracy in South Africa after bruising battles with the African National Congress in her first year leading the sole bastion of opposition to the ruling party. "So far, we have passed the test," Helen Zille said in an interview with the media ahead of the March 15 anniversary of her installation as mayor.
South Africa’s new low-cost domestic airline Mango has done better than expected, the airline said on Tuesday. The airline, operated as a subsidiary of South African Airways, has carried more than 300 000 passengers since it started operating four months ago and has sold more than 600 000 tickets.
Amid the majestic beauty of South Africa’s Magaliesberg mountain range, veterans of the battle against whites-only rule are trying to banish demons that still haunt them. Matlapeng lodge translates from Xhosa as the ”Place of Stone”, but tears flow freely and deep-seated fears are revealed by the former warriors.
The contract for South African Breweries (SAB) to produce, market, sell and distribute Amstel lager has been terminated, Heineken NV said on Monday. Heineken would build a brewery in South Africa and Amstel would be sourced from existing European breweries until the new brewery was complete.
The South African Football Association (Safa) has condemned an alleged match-fixing incident that led to the arrest of three soccer officials in Polokwane. ”This is a very sad state of affairs … Having people in positions of responsibility who are initiating such actions of bribery is very disappointing,” Safa spokesperson Morio Sanyane said on Monday.
A test that could dramatically reduce the diagnosis time for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) will be evaluated during the next 12 months, the parties involved in the project said on Monday. The two tests will be evaluated on about 40Â 000 TB patients at increased risk of MDR-TB ahead of an anticipated roll-out.
Fidentia’s interim curators failed to arrive at a meeting with about 50 former Fidentia employees at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) on Monday. In a statement on behalf of the employees, Fidentia’s former spokesperson, Ross Edwards, said the curators — Dines Gihwala and George Papadakis — were informed of the meeting, but failed to appear.
A Grahamstown resident whose dreams of being a soccer star were shattered when a bullet from the gun of a negligent police officer struck him in the head nine years ago is suing Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula for R8-million. This is according to lawyers acting on behalf of 27-year-old Daluxolo Simama.
Public impressions of corruption and the actual size of the problem are hugely different, a study presented at the National Anti-Corruption Forum in Pretoria on Monday shows. While bribes occurred at only 11,5% of the private-sector companies surveyed, 74% believed there was corruption.
Vodacom has obtained an interim court order preventing workers who belong to the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) from continuing their strike, the CWU said on Monday. ”It is unfortunate that the judge granted Vodacom the interim interdict. That has forced us to suspend our strike,” CWU spokesperson Mfanafuthi Sithebe said.
The continuous decline in economic activity and jobs in the Sedibeng district municipality, which includes Vereeniging, is giving rise to poverty, Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa said on Monday. Shilowa was speaking at the opening ceremony of National Council of Provinces’ (NCOP) sitting at the Saul Tsotetsi Recreation and Sports Centre in Sebokeng.
Doctors have not indicated when ailing Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang will be discharged from hospital, her spokesperson said on Monday. Earlier on Monday, the Presidency said that President Thabo Mbeki had not met Tshabalala-Msimang’s husband to discuss relieving her of her duties due to her ill health.
Trustees of the late Brett Kebble’s estate had by Monday not been formally notified that the Western Cape’s African National Congress (ANC) branch would keep the mining magnate’s donations. If the party refused to pay back the millions Kebble had given it, the trustees would turn to the Insolvency Act, said an attorney.
Rules at Oprah Winfrey’s posh school at Henley-on-Klip near Johannesburg apparently make a reformatory look like a holiday resort, the Witness reported on Monday. Its website said that was the word from upset parents, who felt the school rules made it difficult for them to keep contact with their children.
South African scientists’ research on gamma rays has helped an international astronomy team win a top European Union award — and their technology could also be in your washing machine. ”We effectively stood in the shoes of people like Galileo,” said Professor Okkie de Jager of North West University in Potchefstroom on Monday.
A Cape High Court judge on Monday criticised the police for their lack of professionalism at the scene of the murder of Stellenbosch student Inge Lotz. ”In my 22 years on the Bench, I have never seen anything so bad,” Judge Deon van Zyl remarked as it emerged that a key piece of evidence had been moved.
South Africa is struggling to contain an outbreak of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) is sending a permanent staff member to help, reported the Lancet. The medical journal said the WHO TB expert would advise the Health Department on how to deal with the outbreak of the often-fatal XDR-TB.
New coach Carlos Alberto Parreira’s desire to organise more regular matches for his new team as they prepare for the 2010 World Cup finals has seen South Africa announce a friendly later this month against Bolivia. South Africa will host the South Americans in Durban or Johannesburg on March 28, just days after returning from an African Nations Cup qualifier in Chad.
A number of former Fidentia employees have gathered outside the Cape Town offices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Monday. About 80 retrenched workers want the body’s intervention into what they call ”unfair labour practices” by the company’s interim curators.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon on Monday called on President Thabo Mbeki to urgently review the government’s approach to Zimbabwe after Sunday’s arrest of opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The South Africa government should condemn this latest crackdown on a legitimate democratic protest, he said.
South Africa’s Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has scored a major breakthrough with the taxi business fraternity in what could culminate in the registration of more than 40Â 000 taxi operators in Gauteng alone, according to a release from the Labour Department on Monday.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress and the official opposition Democratic Alliance have been urged by Independent Democrats member of Parliament Lance Greyling to ”give back the money” they received from slain businessman Brett Kebble ”without a fight”.
President Thabo Mbeki has not met ailing Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s husband to discuss relieving her of her duties due to her ill health, the Presidency said on Monday. City Press reported that Tshabalala-Msimang’s husband, Mendi Msimang, had asked Mbeki to relieve the minister of her duties.
The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has elected its first black provincial leader in Gauteng. John Moodey was elected unopposed at the party’s provincial congress in Benoni on the weekend. ”My aim is for the party to remain relevant and to transform ourselves from an opposition party into a viable government-in-waiting,” he said.
Trustees of Brett Kebble’s estate have issued notices of demand to the African National Congress (ANC) to repay millions it had received from the slain mining magnate, the Sunday Times reported. The notices demanded the return of ”R24-million in stolen money paid to the ANC and leading members from Kebble’s personal account between 2002 and 2005”.
Officially no one is a candidate and there is not even a campaign, but in reality the contest to become the next South African president is well under way ahead of a crucial vote in December. The African National Congress (ANC) meets at the end of year to choose the person expected to lead the party into the 2009 general elections.
The Richtersveld community is taking legal action against a merger between De Beers Namaqualand and Alexkor, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Saturday. The Communal Property Association is to meet with Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin on Monday to discuss the merger, announced by President Thabo Mbeki in his State of the Nation address.
Not even the spectre of the supposedly unlucky number 13 could derail the Mamelodi Sundowns juggernaut as the rampant Brazilians extended to 13 their unbeaten run of matches in accounting for a gallant, but outclassed, Santos 2-1 at the Johannesburg Stadium on Saturday night.