The government has denied deciding to set up refugee camps for foreigners displaced by xenophobic violence. Reports suggesting such a move were ”baseless and therefore not true”, it said on Wednesday. ”The government has noted with concern media reports that the Cabinet has taken a decision to establish refugee camps,” a statement said.
President Thabo Mbeki faces an uphill battle to remain politically relevant in his last year in office after his failure to contain an eruption of violence that has killed dozens of foreign workers in South Africa. Mbeki was already under fire for failing to prevent a crippling power shortage when mobs went on the rampage this month.
Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said on Friday that those responsible for continuous xenophobic attacks in Gauteng townships will be ”severely dealt with”. He was responding to the violence in Alexandra and Diepsloot that erupted in the past week, in which three people were killed and dozens injured.
The leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition group said on Saturday he would contest a run-off against Robert Mugabe after disputed elections on March 29. But Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he would only participate in the run-off if international observers and media had full access to ensure the poll is free and fair.
Forcibly installing prepayment water meters was ruled to be unconstitutional by the Johannesburg High Court, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals) said on Wednesday. Stuart Wilson, spokesperson for Cals, said the meters were found to infringe the constitutional rights of people to have access to sufficient water.
South African President Thabo Mbeki’s failure to criticise neighbouring Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe has weakened his international stature, analysts said. Once hailed as a leader focussed on Africa’s revival, Mbeki’s silence on Zimbabwe has been blamed either on misplaced loyalty or crippling deference.
South African President Thabo Mbeki’s refusal to take a tougher line on neighbouring Zimbabwe has further damaged his credibility and handed rival Jacob Zuma another opening to improve his image. Regional leaders last year mandated Mbeki to lead mediation between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition.
Freedom of expression, says cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, better known as Zapiro, should only be limited when exercising it would cause physical harm or death. He was speaking at a discussion themed Cartoonists: Where Do We Draw the Line?, hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand journalism department on Tuesday.
Extremists have to be excluded from dialogues between Muslims and Jews, the South African Union for Jewish Students’s Ilan Solomons said during the Cook for Peace event held at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) on Sunday. ”Extremists are always those small vocal percentages that create the stereotype of an entire nation,” said Solomons.
An extinct population of small-bodied humans has been found on the Palau group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, a University of the Witwatersrand researcher said on Tuesday. Palaeoanthropologist professor Lee Berger discovered the fossils while vacationing in Palau in 2006. ”We were on a kayak excursion when a guide asked me if I wanted to see a cave with some old bones.”
South African crane operator Zoliswa Gila rises high above the pervasive chauvinistic view that her job should be reserved for members of the male sex. ”Most people think I am crazy to do the job I am doing, saying it’s only for men,” the 31-year-old said at Green Point in Cape Town where she is helping build a 68 000-seater stadium.
African National Congress treasurer general Mathews Phosa has called for an improvement in the country’s black economic empowerment (BEE) policy and urged the legal profession to consider whether the current BEE "framework" is "functional" and whether it is assisting emerging black entrepreneur.
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/ 19 February 2008
The City of Johannesburg cannot evict inner-city tenants living in central Johannesburg unless adequate alternative accommodation is provided, the Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday. ”Potential homelessness must be considered by a city when it decides whether to evict people from buildings,” said the court.
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/ 19 February 2008
Classes at all the Tshwane University of Technology’s campuses were suspended amid student protests on Tuesday, authorities said. ”The decision was taken due to the prevailing atmosphere on campus and the potential for violent clashes between striking and non-striking students,” vice-chancellor Errol Tyobeka said.
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/ 15 February 2008
Award-winning South African actress Ashley Callie (32) died on Friday. ”It is with sincere regret that the Callie Family confirms that earlier today Ashley passed away as a result of the head injuries she sustained in a car accident,” her family said in a statement. ”Ashley continues to live on in our hearts and minds.”
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/ 14 February 2008
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille is to request a meeting with African National Congress president Jacob Zuma to discuss the future of the Scorpions, she said on Thursday. ”I intend to put this challenge to him. I will write to Mr Zuma and request an urgent meeting to state unambiguously the disastrous consequences that disbanding the Scorpions will have for South Africa.”
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/ 7 February 2008
Human rights issues concerning refugees, immigrants and exiles needed urgent discussion and action at all three levels of government, experts said on Thursday during a panel discussion at the University of the Witwatersrand. The discussion dealt with the Central Methodist Church raid in Johannesburg as well as the country’s immigration policy.
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/ 25 January 2008
Nosimilo Ndlovu speaks to three young men who are passionate about filmmaking.
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/ 17 January 2008
Secondary school attendance can lead to a lower risk of HIV infection amongst young people in rural South Africa, according to a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health on Thursday. The study examined sexual behaviour and HIV prevalence among 916 young men and 1 003 young women aged 14 to 25.
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/ 18 December 2007
Witwatersrand University has recently been accredited as a Fifa Centre of Medical Excellence to cater for soccer players in need of medical care, the university said on Tuesday. The Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the university would ensure that players received expert medical care and advice.
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/ 2 December 2007
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=ancconference_home"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/321750/Icon_ANCconference.gif" align=left border=0></a>To say that the ANC Women’s League’s choice of presidential candidate leaves much to be desired would be a significant understatement. When the country’s most powerful women’s collective decides to back a man who has expressed some of the most irresponsible and retrograde views on women and sexuality, the rest of South Africa needs to ask some ÂÂdifficult questions, writes Pumla Dineo Gqola.
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/ 26 November 2007
Recognising the courage in Sisonke Msimang’s ”My father the ‘sex pest”’ (November 9) demands that we all take what she has to say seriously. I believe Msimang when she says her father was falsely accused of sexually harassing the woman who laid such charges against him. Like her, I value Audre Lorde’s words about the need to speak the truth publicly and deal with the risks, writes Pumla Dineo Gqola.
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/ 24 November 2007
Journalist Charlene Smith on Friday demanded a public apology from Mark Gevisser, author of the book Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred, saying he had published ”serious inaccuracies”. She was referring to an article by her, published in the Washington Post, that Gevisser quoted in his biography of Mbeki.
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/ 13 November 2007
Gauteng faces huge classroom shortages and the government does not have the resources to cope, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. DA spokesperson David Quail said that in the next four to six years, the Gauteng department of education will require 9 566 additional classrooms.
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/ 7 November 2007
Hawkers, often the breadwinners of their families, should not be marginalised in the run-up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup, a colloquium on the international soccer spectacle heard in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Stadiums under construction are often far from amenities and hawkers are providing much-needed services to construction workers.
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/ 6 November 2007
The only fixed-line telephone for the first community television station in South Africa to get a year-long broadcasting licence is hidden away in an outdoor broadcasting van for fear of freeloading by staff and guests. When you call the station let it ring for a long time, publicist Deon Botha advises.
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/ 2 November 2007
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The battle for leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) would be either a two- or three-way race, businessman Saki Macozoma told students and academics at the University of the Witwatersrand on Thursday. ”That’s what I read,” he said in a lecture facilitated by the Platform on Public Deliberations.
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/ 12 October 2007
Three doors down from the old home of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, make-up artists apply the finishing touches to the presenters of Soweto TV as they prepare to host a daily debate. ”Welcome to Dlala Ngeringas [Fun Debate],” says Zuko Xabanisa as the cameras start rolling in the classroom-turned-studio.
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/ 11 October 2007
South Africa’s gold companies, already mining at the world’s deepest depths, are looking to plumb even deeper veins in a new gold rush spurred by record prices.
The deeper miners go, the richer the ore being uncovered. The price in dangers, though, includes rockfalls, poisonous gas explosions, flooding and earthquakes.
Hundreds of University of Johannesburg students were protesting on their campuses on Monday morning, Gauteng police confirmed. Police spokesperson Constable Sefako Xaba said police had been called to the campus on Bunting Road where about 200 students had gathered.
An 8% ”overall range” of price hikes was confirmed by the University of the Witwatersrand council, the institution said on Saturday. This followed three days of protests at the university over increases in the upfront fees payment students are expected to make in 2008, and against students having to pay for their own accommodation.
Talks between protesting students at the University of the Witwatersrand and management will continue, vice-chancellor and principle Loyiso Nongxa said at a media briefing on Thursday. ”Negotiations between students and management will continue on Friday until a compromise is reached,” he said.