South Africa

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Friday welcomed Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour’s order for Durban fraud convict Schabir Shaik to be removed from St Augustine’s Hospital and sent to Westville Prison. ”We welcome the news that Schabir Shaik is back behind bars, thus immediately ending his luxury hotel-like stay in hospital,” said IFP spokesperson Sybil Seaton.

Limpopo has the lowest crime levels in the country, Premier Sello Moloto has told the opening of the provincial legislature. He said this was according to a South African Institute of Race Relations study, Beeld newspaper reported on Friday. Although Moloto praised the police for their crime-combating efforts, he said there is still a shortage of staff.

A forthcoming review of pharmacy dispensing fees announced by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Thursday was well received by pharmacists. When the health minister launched the controversial new structure for the fees pharmacies could charge when dispensing medicine last year, pharmacists were outraged.

The Port Elizabeth High Court on Thursday granted an order to place the Southern Spears rugby franchise under provisional liquidation, radio news reported. The Spears were originally intended to participate in the Super 14 competition this year, but their proposed entry into the competition led to controversy.

The application to place Fidentia Asset Management under curatorship is justified and the curators should be left to do their job, the Financial Services Board (FSB) said on Thursday. The FSB’s deputy registrar for financial-service providers, Gerry Anderson, said: ”There was every justification for the FSB to have applied to court for a provisional order …”

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has started rescue operations and food deliveries in central Mozambique where flooding has forced an estimated 85 000 to flee their homes, the organisation said on Thursday. The missions come as flood waters in the Mutarara, Caia and Marromeu districts near levels last seen during the catastrophic Mozambique floods of 2001.

The Mail & Guardian is now the second most cited news source in the country, according to Media Tenor, an international organisation that does research into media content trends. ”These media could expect to see further growth in their reputations, as they become the trusted destinations for groundbreaking news,” Media Tenor said in a statement.

South Africa looks set to unveil tax relief or incentives for companies and more money to cut widespread poverty in next week’s 2007 budget, thanks to another massive revenue overrun. But individuals are unlikely to receive significant relief due to already high, inflationary consumer spending, despite an expected budget surplus, analysts say.

The Department of Correctional Services has taken out a R27 500 newspaper advert in which it defends itself against claims that it has given certain prisoners preferential treatment. The department has faced criticism recently over its handling of the incarceration of fraud convicts Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik.