Johannesburg’s first real snowfall in more than 20 years and the freezing temperatures that accompanied it claimed at least one life on Wednesday morning. Motorists were warned to avoid all passes in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday due to snowfalls, the South African Weather Service said.
Many residents of Gauteng woke up on Wednesday morning to a layer of snow turning lawns, rooftops and cars white, while the South African Weather Service predicted a freezing day with temperatures staying below eight degrees Celsius in Johannesburg. A number of roads in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal were closed to motorists due to snow on Wednesday morning.
Trade-union leaders will meet on Wednesday to discuss suspending the public-service strike during the 21 days they have to consider the government’s final offer. It is understood that the unions discussed the possibility of suspending the strike at a meeting on Sunday, but some wanted more time to consult their members.
Severe cold and more snow is to hit large parts of the country later on Tuesday and Wednesday, the South African Weather Service has warned. It said temperatures will drop as low as minus nine degrees Celsius in places such as Sutherland in the Northern Cape. The town was blanketed in snow on Monday.
A Cape Town woman on Tuesday continued her testimony about her horror taxi ride at the hands of a ”taxi conductor”. One of the two women named in the case, Lorraine Pindela, told the Cape Town Regional Court the shock of the ordeal caused her to menstruate in the taxi.
The Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town was packed to capacity on Tuesday during the bail application of Najwa Petersen, who is alleged to have murdered her husband, popular entertainer Taliep Petersen. Magistrate Jackie Redelinghuys postponed the combined bail application of Petersen and her three alleged accomplices.
Severe cold is to hit large parts of the country later on Tuesday and Wednesday, the South African Weather Service has warned. It said temperatures would drop as low as minus nine degrees Celsius in places such as Sutherland in the Northern Cape. The town was blanketed in snow on Monday.
The Cape High Court has ordered the Western Cape government to ensure that health services in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha area are fully reinstated with immediate effect. Handing down judgement in an application for the reinstatement of 41 sacked Khayelitsha health workers on Tuesday, Judge Siraj Desai said the court was not the right forum to rule on their dismissal.
Confusion reigned at a press conference of the Western Cape branch of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in Cape Town on Tuesday. After calling a media briefing on the ”suspension” of the public-service strike, Cosatu organiser in the province Mike Louw told journalists: ”We’re not suspending the strike.”
A national warning was issued by the South African Weather Service on Monday morning with regards to a strong cold front affecting the country this week. Already prevalent in the south-western Cape, the cold, windy conditions are expected to sweep across the central interior of the country on Tuesday.
A committee of the Western Cape legislature has cleared former provincial transport and public works minister Mcebisi Skwatsha of claims that he failed to disclose an interest in two companies. Skwatsha is the African National Congress’s Western Cape provincial secretary.
Lawyers for Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool on Monday called for the recusal of most of the members of a special committee probing whether he misled his legislature. The committee, which was to have begun formal hearings on Monday morning, was postponed indefinitely following the application.
Gauteng residents should brace themselves for a strong cold front and isolated showers accompanied by wind in the coming week, the National Forecast Centre said on Sunday. Forecasters said the chilly weather should be expected in the middle of the week, with chances of light isolated showers on Tuesday.
South Africa lacks women in high positions, the Public Service Commission (PSC) has found. A lot still needed to be done to empower women, the PSC said in a report released on Friday. ”Critical in this endeavour is the creation of an enabling environment to ensure that women’s talents and potential are harnessed …,” it said.
One of President Thabo Mbeki’s VIP protection-unit bodyguards has appeared in court in Cape Town after allegedly shooting a man dead in a shebeen on the weekend. The Western Cape head of the Independent Complaints Directorate, Thabo Leholo, confirmed on Friday that Sergeant Sabata Vula faced charges of murder and attempted murder.
A court application for the reinstatement of health workers dismissed during the public-service strike sought to punish a government that was trying to restore order, the state argued in the Cape High Court on Thursday. ”We have been berated for taking action in a chaotic situation,” said an advocate for the Western Cape government, Dumisa Ntsebeza.
Cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) have more than quadrupled in the Western Cape in the past three months, the Cape Times reported on Thursday. Since World TB Day in March, 45 XDR-TB cases have been notified in the province. Eight people have died, according to provincial health department figures.
Irreparable harm had been caused by dismissing health workers in Khayelitsha clinics during the public-service strike, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) argued in the Cape High Court on Thursday. Last week, the TAC and seven Khayelitsha residents lodged an application to reverse the health workers’ dismissal.
A severe shortage of liquefied petroleum gas has crippled the gas trade in the Western Cape, the Cape Argus reported on Thursday. Its website quoted retailers as saying the gas supply had run out and they were not sure when the situation would be resolved. ”There is now absolutely no product coming in for the next week or so,” said one gas supplier.
The Cape Town Book Fair has achieved much in its second year, writes Darryl Accone.
Former Australian Test rugby star David Campese wasn’t able to ”goose step” this obstacle. Campese, who scored 64 Test tries and played in 101 Tests for Australia, has been an outspoken critic of his national team since he retired in 1996. Now it appears as if Campese has been shunned by the current Wallabies.
The government lacks efficient policies for land reform and redistribution, South African Council of Churches (SACC) secretary general Eddie Makue said on Wednesday. As far as he knows, they don’t exist, he said at the opening of a three-day SACC national land-reform conference in Kempton Park.
South Africa has no copper mines, but copper exports to China are booming: the result of a cable-theft epidemic that regularly plunges whole suburbs into darkness, strands thousands of train passengers and is wreaking havoc with the national economy.
Twelve people were arrested after a second night of vigilantism against suspected drug dealers at Mitchells Plain in Cape Town, police said on Wednesday. Captain Randall Stoffels said about 1Â 000 people marched to three homes of suspected drug dealers. The top floor of a double-storey house was burnt down.
The electronic National Transport Information System (eNatis) is operating well countrywide, the National Road Public Management Corporation said on Wednesday. The corporation manages eNatis on behalf of the Transport Department.
In what could be seen as the government’s final move to have the public-service wage dispute solved through talks, it gave unions a deadline of 6pm on Wednesday to accept its revised ”settlement offer”. The settlement salary package includes a 7,5% wage increase.
The time has come for a settlement in the public-service wage dispute, Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the dismissal of a group of striking Western Cape health workers was a violation of their patients’ constitutional rights, the Cape High Court has been told.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter on Tuesday expressed his full confidence in South Africa’s preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. ”I am a happy Fifa president,” he told journalists after meeting President Thabo Mbeki at Tuynhuys. ”Everything is on track.”
The multiparty committee that will inquire into whether Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool misled the legislature will hold open hearings next Monday, its chairperson said. Since its April 20 appointment, the committee has held closed meetings to finalise procedure and fine-tune the timetable.
Police forensic-science laboratories have a backlog of 6Â 086 samples, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Monday. Crime investigating officers have to wait an average of 54 days for results of samples sent in. He said the largest backlog was in the Western Cape’s chemistry laboratory.
Claims that African National Congress (ANC) Western Cape provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha used his influence to steer a land deal to party cronies were scurrilous and untrue, the party said on Friday. It was reacting to an article in Friday’s Mail and Guardian. Nic Dawes, associate deputy editor of the M&G, said that the newspaper stands by its article.
M&G gagged Being a journalist myself, I am absolutely disgusted by what has happened. Can we regard South Africa as a genuine democratic nation and an example to the rest of Africa when those who once fought for democracy undermine one of the most important pillars of this phenomenon? How can it be that authorities […]