More than R45,6-million was lost by national and provincial government departments due to financial misconduct in the 2005/06 financial year, the Public Service Commission (PSC) said on Tuesday. Releasing the commission’s report on financial misconduct in government departments, PSC chairperson Stan Sangweni said there were 771 reported cases.
Money is pouring in for the 2010 World Cup as the country anticipates an economic kick from hosting the world’s largest sporting event. With government providing billions of rands to upgrade infrastructure and depressed inner-city areas, there are indications that the private sector is following suit, particularly in Gauteng.
Some MPs protested on Wednesday at the Bill to regulate internet gambling. The National Gambling Amendment Bill was introduced to the trade and industry portfolio committee by Fungai Sibanda, the acting director general of the Department of Trade and Industry.
Thomas Siebert shifts uncomfortably on the wooden court bench and flinches occasionally at the testimony of the man who sodomised and then strangled his six-year-old son to death 18 months ago. He tries to avoid staring at the 48-year-old killer, Theunis Olivier, instead peering around the courtroom and making occasional notes.
The average abused woman leaves her husband 37 times before she divorces him. After every lame excuse, every bunch of flowers and every empty promise, she takes him back again. And again. And again. Why? Women’s rights activists, social workers and clinical psychologists agree: abused women are kept in abusive relationships by a combination of fear, emotional or financial dependence, low self-esteem or a false sense of loyalty.
It took the human species about one million years to reach a population of one billion. Nowadays, we add another billion at the rate of every 14 years. Whereas a century ago, only 10% of the population lived in cities, by 2050 it will be closer to 75%. Tens of thousands of people migrate to cities every day. New megacities are sprouting, many of them on coastlines.
Winter had one last blast before making way for spring as snow fell in parts of South Africa on Tuesday. Snow had fallen near the Hex River in the Western Cape, in Sutherland in the Northern Cape, near Tiffendell in the Eastern Cape and in parts of Lesotho and the Drakensberg, according to South African Weather Service forecaster Elke Brouwers.
Limpopo is the country’s safest province, the South African Institute of Race Relations said on Tuesday. It had the lowest rate of murders, rapes and armed robberies, according to a study based on police statistics released in Polokwane. Limpopo is also one of South Africa’s poorest provinces with a very high rate of unemployment.
South Africa’s workers in the petroleum sector said they were hopeful that talks with their employers later on Monday could end their strike over pay, which has severely affected fuel delivery. "We have a meeting tonight [Monday] beginning at 8pm with the employers of the workers and we are hopeful," a union spokesperson said.
The latest HIV-infection figures of 29% among pregnant women suggest a first-time decline may be starting for the pandemic, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday. ”The overall picture suggests that HIV-prevalence in South Africa may be at a point where we should begin to witness a downward trend,” Tshabalala-Msimang said.
Rosheni Allie, Sisi Khampepe, Carole Lewis, Mandisa Maya, Yasmin Shenaz Meer and more …
Anet Ahern, Helena Dolny, Tina Eboka, Ingrid Johnson, Faith Khanyile, Elizabeth Maepa, Angela Mhlanga, Nombulelo Moholi and more …
Failure to ”saturate” a patient, causing another to suffer ”importance” by not referring him to a urologist, and a fractured ”fumer” are among the reasons given by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for public hospitals being sued for more than R26-million last year.
Six firemen died on Sunday while trying to bring raging fires in Mpumalanga under control, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Monday. The department’s commercial manager Kim Weir said five firefighters died after they could not get their vehicle away from the front of the fire.
People who take the law into their own hands will have to face the consequences, Western Cape minister of community safety Leonard Ramatlakane warned on Saturday. ”The government has proven it will not tolerate lawlessness. There have been a number of arrests related to recent vigilante activity,” he said.
The first new vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) in more than 80 years has entered mid-stage trials in South Africa, where the killer disease is rife, scientists said on Saturday. If the tests are successful, a new shot against M tuberculosis bacteria could be available within eight years.
A court action opposing the construction of the new Green Point Stadium for the 2010 Soccer World Cup was postponed to an unspecified date by the Cape High Court on Friday. The action was brought by an environmental group, the Cape Town Environmental Protection Association.
Rescue services are using boats to evacuate residents of a flooded settlement near Philippi outside Cape Town in the wake of a massive cold front that has brought heavy rain to the Western Cape. ”Metro [rescue services] and the police are using rescue boats to evacuate people,” Disaster Risk Management Centre manager Walter Solomons said.
Rain continued to fall in the Western Cape on Wednesday following the occurrence of a cold front in the area this week. Spokesperson for the South African Weather Service Mnikeli Ndabambi said rainy conditions would continue until the end of the week. ”Cold and rainy conditions will persist until the end of the week,” said Ndabambi.
Snowfall and thunderstorms are expected in the southern and western parts of the country, said the South African Weather Service on Tuesday. A cold front over the Western Cape on Tuesday night is expected to result in heavy rainfalls and thunderstorms in the extreme south-western parts of the province.
A man who allegedly claimed over the internet to have had sex with a number of prominent South Africans appeared in the Kroonstad Magistrate’s Court on Monday. District court prosecutor Tanya Buitendag confirmed that Juan Uys appeared in court in connection with a warrant of arrest for theft in the Western Cape.
We all rewrite our personal histories. Putting positive spins on past defeats, deliberately forgetting embarrassing relationships and adapting our views are quintessentially human activities. But it is a far more serious matter when the political history of a head of state is revised and fictionalised, writes Nicoli Nattrass
The man allegedly behind bizarre internet sex claims against prominent South Africans will probably be transferred from Kroonstad to Cape Town sometime this week, said police. Juan Duval Uys (39) was arrested at the home he shared with his mother in Kroonstad on Saturday after a months-long investigation.
President Thabo Mbeki has urged unemployed South Africans to create their own job opportunities through the setting up of small businesses. Addressing Lwandle community members near Cape Town at a presidential imbizo on Saturday, Mbeki told the unemployed to utilise the several business support programmes which the government had set up for their benefit.
The government’s reluctance to allocate adequate resources towards the fight against substance abuse has contributed to the sharp increase in drug-related crimes in the country, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday. Writing in her weekly newsletter, Zille blamed the fuelling of substance abuse in provinces such as the Western Cape on state inaction.
Matric pupils at about 50 schools in the Western Cape are yet to write their mid-year exams because of the recent teachers’ strike, provincial education minister Cameron Dugmore said on Monday. ”Although various schools have been affected differently by the recent public-service strike, I am most concerned about matric learners,” he said.
Nine young girls have been found dead around South Africa in the past seven months after they had been reported missing. The nine comprise the most widely publicised cases. The most recent find was the decomposed body of Elizabeth Martin (13), found in a water tank at a farm in Leeu-Gamka in the Western Cape.
The body of a young girl, suspected to be that of a 13-year-old reported missing in Merweville, was found on Friday, Western Cape police said — the same day that a newly born baby was found dead in a dustbin in Mamelodi East, Pretoria. Spokesperson Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe said police found the girl’s decomposed body in a water tank at a farm outside Leeu-Gamka.
Affirmative action is dead in many respects, says Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin. Beeld newspaper reported him on Friday as saying the policy was not being applied in South Africa because of skills shortages. Erwin was defending the government’s affirmative action policy on Thursday at the South African Business Club in London.
In a weekend with only one Currie Cup game being played, there will also be two compulsory friendlies around the country. The Sharks will be hosting Griquas at the Absa Stadium in Durban in the only Currie Cup fixture. In East London, it’s the Bulldogs versus the Lions, and in George it’s Western Province versus South Western District.
Film tourism might be an ambiguous term, but it refers to the idea that every time a specific location or destination is used in a film, the film indirectly promotes the destination to its viewers. "This has been evident within the Bollywood film market," says Mark Visser of the Cape Film Commission.
The Cape Flats community would be outraged if Taliep Petersen’s widow, Najwa, and her alleged accomplices in Petersen’s murder were released on bail, the Wynberg Regional Court heard on Tuesday. Najwa and co-accused Abdoer Emjedi have launched a bail application before magistrate Robert Henney, acting Regional Court president in the Western Cape.