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/ 25 January 2007
South Africa should have condemned Burma’s military regime and supported a call for sanctions against it, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Thursday. It joined others who have criticised the country using its inaugural vote at the United Nations Security Council earlier in January to vote against a resolution demanding an end to human rights abuses in Burma.
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/ 25 January 2007
Farmers’ unions and Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana will thrash out their differences at a meeting in Pretoria on Friday. The unions have lashed out at Xingwana after she commented last year that violence against women and children was rife in the sector and accused farmers of inhumanely evicting workers.
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/ 25 January 2007
Johannesburg Metrobus workers will strike on Monday over the encashment of accumulated sick leave, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Thursday. This will leave tens of thousands of workers, pupils and students in the city stranded, warned Samwu branch secretary Dumisani Langa.
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/ 25 January 2007
Milk and dairy prices will rise ”a lot” this year amid expected shortages, the Milk Producers’ Organisation (MPO) warned on Thursday. Prices could go up as much as 20% to 30%, said MPO MD Bertus de Jongh. ”The price increase will likely start in March and heighten in winter.”
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/ 25 January 2007
President Thabo Mbeki awarded 18 of South Africa’s top matric students the Thabo Mbeki Matric Merit Award in Pretoria on Thursday. ”It is us who feel honoured to be in your company,” Mbeki told the matriculants, a sentiment shared by Education Minister Naledi Pandor.
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/ 25 January 2007
No dates have yet been set for the scrapping of taxis in Gauteng, Transport Department spokesperson Sam Monareng said on Thursday. Dates have also yet to be set for the destruction of old vehicles in the North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, he said. All Monareng could indicate was that dates would be announced ”soon”.
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/ 25 January 2007
Former Springbok captain Bob Skinstad was confirmed in the Sharks’ Super 14 squad as SA Rugby announced its five squads for the southern-hemisphere provincial rugby tournament on Thursday. Skinstad has not played serious rugby since 2003, but has come out of retirement in a bid to win a place in the Springbok World Cup squad.
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/ 25 January 2007
Criticism of the ritual slaughter of a bull by Tony Yengeni violates the Constitution, the Cultural, Religion and Linguistic Rights Commission said on Thursday. Of concern is South Africans’ ignorance of each others’ beliefs and practices, commission chairperson Mongezi Guma said. As a result, there is a tendency to undermine culture and religion.
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/ 25 January 2007
South Africa captain Graeme Smith criticised the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday after an appeal by Herschelle Gibbs against a two-Test ban was turned down. Smith was speaking after it was announced that ICC appeals commissioner Richie Benaud had rejected Gibbs’s appeal against a ban imposed by match referee Chris Broad.
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/ 25 January 2007
Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour is scheduled to appear before a parliamentary committee next week to explain how a high-profile prisoner escaped from the country’s most secure prison. Balfour has to explain how Annanias Mathe, who faced more than 50 charges, including murder and rape, escaped from C-Max last year.
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/ 25 January 2007
The United States is expected this week to place two South African Muslims on its list of al-Qaeda suspects and will freeze their assets, diplomats in South Africa said on Thursday. The United States is also pushing to have Junaid Dockrat and his cousin, Farhad Dockrat, placed on a United Nations list of suspects tied to Osama bin Laden’s group as well as Afghanistan’s Taliban.
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/ 25 January 2007
If you thought the shenanigans in the office of the parliamentary chief whip of the African National Congress couldn’t get any more entertaining, think again. The South African Broadcasting Corporation is to flight a 13-part television series next month, centring on a fictional chief whip and his ex-wife, also an MP in the party, in a story that includes blackmail, sex and lust for power.
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/ 25 January 2007
South Africa’s producer price inflation (PPI) slowed to 9,3% year-on-year in December from November’s 10%, adding weight to the argument that interest rates may not rise much further. On a monthly basis, PPI decelerated by 0,6% compared with a 0,5% expansion in November, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday.
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/ 25 January 2007
Brett Kebble murder accused Glenn Agliotti had his case postponed to June 20 in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. Scorpions prosecutor Gerrie Nel told the court: ”It’s a fairly lengthy postponement date but the state is involved in extradition proceedings to ensure other accused appear in this matter.”
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/ 25 January 2007
Herschelle Gibbs’s appeal against the ban imposed by Chris Broad following an incident during the first Test between South Africa and Pakistan at Centurion has been rejected by Richie Benaud, the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) code of conduct commissioner.
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/ 25 January 2007
With former Brazilian national coach Carlos Alberto Parreira due in the country on Friday to launch what has been hailed a new dawn for Bafana Bafana, everything at the South African Football Association remains in disarray. Parreira is due to launch South Africa’s bid to regain a measure of respect in international soccer with a three-day training camp from February 5 to 7.
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/ 25 January 2007
A security guard responding to an alert was seriously injured in an explosion at an ATM in Meyerton around 2am on Thursday. Police spokesperson Captain William Mcera said a guard at the NTN shopping centre called for backup when he became suspicious of four men who had gathered around an ATM.
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/ 25 January 2007
Batsman Herschelle Gibbs’s appeal hearing against a ban of two Test matches was tougher than expected, Proteas coach Mickey Arthur said on Wednesday. The proceedings, which were conducted by teleconference, lasted about two hours. Arthur said he could not give details of what prevailed.
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/ 25 January 2007
Gidani is continuing its preparations to operate the national lottery despite a legal challenge from Uthingo. ”We continue to assert that we won the license to operate the national lottery from 1 April 2007 in a thorough, scrupulous and well-managed, fair contest,” Gidani chairperson Bongani Khumalo wrote in a statement.
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/ 24 January 2007
South Africa’s plans for growing the Test team will be severely disrupted if the two-match ban for Herschelle Gibbs is upheld, Proteas coach Mickey Arthur said on Wednesday. ”Herschelle is very much part of our plans, and he is beginning to find some good form again,” said Arthur.
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/ 24 January 2007
A long-awaited report on good governance in South Africa identifies crime, graft and xenophobia as potential pitfalls for the continent’s biggest economy, according to a leaked copy obtained by the media. The African Peer Review Mechanism report places official corruption among South Africa’s biggest problems.
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/ 24 January 2007
Bellville prosecuting authorities on Wednesday withdrew charges against a bomb hoaxer on board a kulula.com flight out of Cape Town. Alberton stock controller Barend Griffin (26) had joked that he had a bomb in a carton that contained a bathroom appliance while at Cape Town International Airport waiting to board a flight to Johannesburg.
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/ 24 January 2007
South Africa has expressed concern about the increasing incidents of its citizens being deported on arrival in foreign countries. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told a media briefing in Pretoria on Wednesday that the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates are countries where South Africans are regularly deported from.
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/ 24 January 2007
Two South Africans on Wednesday remained adamant they are not linked to terror group al-Qaeda. ”… There is nothing further to state in any further press release, other than our clients’ emphasis that they are innocent,” said Shaheed Dollie, attorney representing Junaid and Farhad Dockrat.
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/ 24 January 2007
Insufficient government planning is behind the crisis in funds for the building of stadiums for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the Democratic Alliance (DA) charged on Wednesday. ”The insufficient planning is clear in the 2004 estimate of R1,6-billion for the upgrading and construction of 13 and not 10 stadiums,” said DA spokesperson James Masango. In 2005, the estimate was R2,5-billion.
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/ 24 January 2007
Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa workers marched to its offices in Pretoria on Wednesday to demand compensation for radiation illness, Earth Life Africa said. ”The company has been disputing that the people are ill and are delaying providing compensation for them,” spokesperson Mashile Phalane said of the 100 demonstrators.
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/ 24 January 2007
Herschelle Gibbs’s appeal hearing against a ban of two Test matches imposed on him for breaching the International Cricket Council’s code of conduct was concluded via teleconference on Wednesday. The hearing was conducted by former Australia captain Richie Benaud, who was appointed as the appeals commissioner.
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/ 24 January 2007
South Africa will decide before the end of the week whether or not to send troops to Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission in that country, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Wednesday. He said the issue is being discussed at the Cabinet lekgotla (meeting) being held at the Presidential Guesthouse in Pretoria.
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/ 24 January 2007
Award-winning Tsotsi star Presley Chweneyagae appeared briefly in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday when his case was postponed to February 27. His lawyer, Shane Lowley, asked the magistrate for the postponement on the grounds that the defence had no documentation and statements to work with as his client was arrested the previous day.
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/ 24 January 2007
The JSE remained rampant in noon trade on Wednesday, having roared to a record high on the back of higher commodity prices and positive world markets. By 12.11pm, the all share index was up 1,13% at 25 386,79 after reaching a record high of 25 438,49.
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/ 24 January 2007
South Africa’s targeted CPIX (consumer price index excluding interest rates on mortgage bonds) inflation was steady at 5% year-on-year in December, slightly below forecasts and easing pressure for higher interest rates, official data showed on Wednesday. Statistics South Africa also said headline consumer inflation — which includes mortgage costs — accelerated to 5,8% year-on-year in December.
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/ 24 January 2007
World acclaimed female boxer Laila Ali is looking for male sparring partners to help her prepare for her world super middleweight title defence against Gwendolyn O’Neill at Emperor’s Palace, east of Johannesburg, on February 3. This was disclosed by the promoters of the fight, Golden Gloves Promotion, after Ali arrived in the country on Tuesday.