A bid by the state to view an e.tv documentary on the murder of baby Jordan Norton before it is broadcast is nothing less than censorship, the station’s advocate told the Cape High Court on Thursday. The Western Cape directorate of public prosecutions is seeking an order that will allow it to preview the documentary.
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille says the Democratic Alliance is a small white boys’ club.
A Capetonian hopes to become the world’s fastest blind driver by setting a land-speed record next month. Accompanied by a navigator, Hein Wagner is to attempt the feat at a Mafikeng airstrip on September 8 — hoping to make his way into the Guinness World Records book.
A torrent of expletives greeted the man accused of being the Station Strangler when he arrived at the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday for an inquest into the deaths of three boys. Norman Afzal Simons, then a 27-year-old teacher, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for only one killing.
Five brothers who were struggling to keep their dry, dusty sheep farm going became millionaires overnight after uranium was discovered on their land and they were paid R20-million for the mining rights. Just a few months ago the five Ngondo brothers were hard put to meet the mortgage payments after drought claimed 100 of their sheep.
Police have issued a robbery and plunder warning to businesses in Cape Town ahead of what the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) says will be a massive march through the city centre on Tuesday. The march is to call for improved safety measures for violence-plagued schools on the Cape Flats.
The African National Congress has hailed the development of Afrikaans over the past 130 years as an inspiration for South Africa’s other indigenous languages. It has also pledged its commitment to protecting and promoting Afrikaans as well as South Africa’s other indigenous languages.
About 75 people were left homeless after a fire at the Joe Slovo informal settlement on the Cape Flats destroyed their shacks on Friday night, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported. Firefighters struggled to control the fire as they ran out of water.
Embattled Independent Democrats member of the Western Cape legislature Lennit Max says he ”strongly denies” accusations that he has tried to draw out a disciplinary hearing against him in order for him to be able to defect to a new political home next month. He has merely tried to clear his name of allegations made against him, he said on Friday.
The countrywide strike by members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union is likely to end on Saturday, a KwaZulu-Natal union representative said. Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town has been granted a court order against Samwu strikers, and protests seem to have died down in the Free State and Gauteng.
Blackman Ngoro, who was ousted this week as media adviser to the mayor of Cape Town, has bounced back with a new approach to race relations. He has offered space on his website for ”Khoisan intellectuals” to write about their history, and urged that the term ”coloured” should be buried ”once and for all”.
A whale-watching boat braved rough seas and a strong wind on Thursday to tow back a snoek boat that capsized off Onrus near Hermanus in the Western Cape on Wednesday. ”All four of [the boat’s crew members] were rescued by the fishing craft Rosemary,” a National Sea Rescue Institute spokesperson said.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa has suspended eight of his top elected officials with immediate effect following fears that they were intending to cross the floor next month. Holomisa would not supply details, claiming it is an internal matter, but denied they were asked to leave, as was previously stated.
It’s okay for Marc Lottering, to trade in coloured stereotypes, but, if outsiders make jokes or generalise about that group, they run the risk of being taken to the Human Rights Court, writes Mike van Graan.
Western Cape police are investigating necrophilia and the illegal amputation of body parts at the Salt River mortuary. Superintendent Rian Pool said a pathologist took fluid and tissue samples from a body as a ”precautionary measure” to determine whether the corpse had been sexually violated after death.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the establishment of the National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency, aimed at ensuring long-term water security for South Africa. The agency will take responsibility for developing and operating South Africa’s major national dams and water-transfer schemes.
Police on Tuesday seized more documents in their continuing probe into claims of tender irregularities in Cape Town, this time from offices in the Civic Centre. Last week detectives raided the offices of procurement director Mabela Satekge in Wale Street in the city centre, as part of what mayoral spokesperson Mandla Tyala said was an investigation into security tenders awarded by the city.
The City of Cape Town, rocked by allegations of corruption and tender irregularities, is a target for fraudsters, a leading forensic investigator said on Thursday. Steven Powell, a director at Sonnenberg, Hoffmann and Galombik forensics, spoke on corruption and white-collar crime at a Cape Press Club function.
There was uncertainty on Thursday on whether Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool had ordered a raid on the city of Cape Town’s procurement offices targeting tender documents relating to his former transport MEC Mcebisi Skwatsha. Rasool and Skwatsha have been at loggerheads in a bruising leadership battle, which led to Rasool being deposed as provincial leader.
The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) on Wednesday said thousands of municipal workers were beginning to gather in different cities across the country in preparation for their three-day wage strike. The union expects between 150 000 and 200 000 workers to heed the strike call across the country.
South Africa’s municipal debt jumped about R4-billion from R31,8-billion in 2002 to R35,9-billion in 2003, while figures for 2004 are not yet available, said Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi. The figures show that Durban/eThekwini — once a shining light of budgetary prudence — has grown its debt from R2,8-billion to R3,2-billion.
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on Monday said in a statement that it has offered to intervene in the Pick ‘n Pay strike under Section 150 of the Labour Relations Act. The strike will continue until a settlement has been reached, the South African Catering, Commercial and Allied Workers’ Union said on Monday.
Trading at Pick ‘n Pay’s stores across the country was normal on Monday and the strike action was ”far more orderly”, the retail chain company said in a statement. The group, however, still appealed to the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers’ Union to ensure that its members obey the law.
From Tuesday, train commuters in the Western Cape can breathe a little easier — it will be the first day on the job for 400 railway police constables whose duty it will be to reduce crime on trains. ”We are saying that we are serious about rooting out crime committed on trains,” said Western Cape provincial commissioner Mzwandile Petros.
About 50 Pick ‘n Pay employees at one of the retailer’s flagship stores on the V&A Waterfront were arrested and later released for riotous behaviour and trespassing on Friday, Western Cape police said. At a Johannesburg store, customers complained about being kicked and strikers barricading the store entrance.
The African National Congress in the Western Cape on Monday plastered over its cracks with an announcement that provincial transport and public works minister Mcebisi Skwatsha is to quit his post on July 27. This followed a politically damaging dispute between Premier Ebrahim Rasool and the recently elected ANC provincial leadership.
Uncertainty over the position of Western Cape public works minister Mcebisi Skwatsha continued on Friday, the day he was supposed to — according to his premier — quit the post. Provincial African National Congress chairperson James Ngculu said on Friday that as far as he is aware, Skwatsha is still a provincial minister.
The Western Cape education department will not take the Mikro school language case to the Constitutional Court, provincial minister of education Cameron Dugmore said on Friday. He said this decision was taken after consultation with both provincial Premier Ebrahim Rasool and the national Department of Education.
It is tempting to call it a no-brainer: the idea that attempts to prevent transmission of HIV from mothers to children should be matched by initiatives to keep these mothers alive after they give birth. For all this, efforts in South Africa to prioritise the health of HIV-positive mothers have fallen short over past years.
Referring to sometimes less-than-ideal finances in her budget speech in April, Western Cape provincial minister of environmental affairs and development planning Tasneem Essop (pictured) remarked: ”What we will certainly offer is leadership, energy, commitment, dedication and passion — and this does not require a budget.”
Tuesday’s countrywide municipal workers’ pay protest was wrapped up by mid-afternoon with conflicting claims on the effectiveness of the action. The South African Local Government Association said the strike had minimal impact and it will bill participating unions for damage caused during marches.
Cape Town city centre’s station deck minibus taxi rank, which serves 1Â 200 vehicles, is a disaster waiting to happen, according to a senior transport manager. There are also more than 200 traders sharing the confined space of the deck, the committee of inquiry into violence in the Western Cape taxi industry heard on Tuesday.