The Development Bank of Southern Africa has approved loans to the value of R25-billion over the past 10 years to finance development in the region. The bank, which describes itself as a financier, adviser and partner in development funding, estimates that since democracy its work has benefited four million households and created, with other funders, 527 874 jobs.
Police and soldiers are manning roadblocks in the Somerset East area of the Eastern Cape to enforce a quarantine following a suspected outbreak of avian influenza. Test results determining the nature of the virus are expected by the end of the week. A particular strain of the avian flu virus can be transmitted to humans.
Torrential rain on Thursday brought chaos to Cape Town, flooding shack areas and roads and causing major traffic snarl-ups. Several people were ferried to higher ground by boat from the aptly named River Club in Observatory when the nearby Liesbeeck River burst its banks. Informal settlements were also affected.
A basic income grant is affordable, sustainable and desirable, a coalition arguing for the adoption of such a scheme said on Thursday. The coalition told journalists at a press briefing at the Turffontein racecourse that giving every South African a basic income of R120 a month would cost between R10- and R24-billion a year.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool on Wednesday welcomed the provincial auditor general’s report into a R227 532 car-allowance overpayment to him, saying the findings are a vindication and manifestation of his commitment to transparency. However, the DA said the report raises two important questions.
A suspected outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu) in the Eastern Cape province has halted all movement of ostriches to the Western Cape until a confirmed diagnosis has been made regarding the cause of serious mortalities at three ostrich farms in the Cradock-Somerset East region of the Eastern Cape.
While the police and the government declined to comment on Wednesday on claims that two citizens held in Pakistan were plotting attacks on South African tourist destinations, the Democratic Alliance urged the authorities to keep the public properly informed of any real danger.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119792">’Terror’ pair under lock and key</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=119782">’Terror’ pair were to ‘attack Jo’burg'</a>
The government needs to review its immigration policy, including possibly rewriting the Immigration Act, says Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. ”There will be a need in the long term for government to look at a more holistic review of our immigration policy,” she said on Monday.
In a move to increases South Africa’s protected areas, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk has proclaimed more than 66 480ha of new land to be incorporated into the country’s national parks system. Three of the areas affected by the expansion fall within the Cape Floristic Kingdom.
The Democratic Alliance has called for a halt to the Western Cape’s multimillion-rand film city project, claiming that wrong decisions were ”deliberately made”. However premier Ebrahim Rasool’s office says due process was followed, and that anyone unhappy with what happened can launch a court challenge.
If you are inclined to bet on the weather, now is the time to buy shares in short-term insurer Mutual and Federal (M&F). A shining star in the Old Mutual camp, M&F announced enviable interim results this week — and gave ”benign weather” as the reason. ”In recent months, South Africa experienced no major weather events. This means that we have not had to pay out on damages associated with such events.”
More than half of the drivers on Eastern Cape roads do not have legal licences. Eastern Cape transport department spokesperson Tshepo Machaea said on Tuesday about 530 000 of roughly one million drivers in the province had either obtained fraudulent licences by bribing departmental officials or were carrying out-of-date licences.
Critics have likened KWV’s sale of a quarter of its shares to an empowerment consortium to filling rugby quotas with players from other sporting codes, and claim that instead of broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE), the deal "over-empowers" a select few in the black elite. The Food and Allied Workers’ Union says the Phetogo empowerment consortium is dominated by the "Lucky 14".
Although the economic powerhouse of Gauteng has only 1,4% of South Africa’s land area of 1,219-million square kilometres, it has 24% of the population aged between 25 and 59 years, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday. It also announced that the life expectancy at birth in South Africa is forecast to be only 50,7 years next year.
The German government has provided €7,5-million (about R60-million) in funding for development in Cape Town’s poverty-stricken Khayelitsha township for social development purposes. This money is to be matched rand-for-rand by South Africa. This was announced by Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo on Monday.
Two climbers marooned on a tiny ledge on a cliff face above Swellendam in the Western Cape were rescued in a daring airlift on Monday. The men, trapped on the ledge since Sunday, were physically fit when they were brought down, said rescue organiser Kevin Tromp of Wilderness Search and Rescue.
Nine municipal by-elections will take place in South Africa this Wednesday, but the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has already won another five wards uncontested. Trends indicate that the ANC could win all but two of the contested by-elections.
Give recognition where it’s due: Mike van Graan thinks it’s time to pay tribute to the public representative that demonstrates the most support for arts and culture.
New research by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has shown that 57% of South Africans are living below the poverty line of R1Â 290 a month for a family of four. And the ”poverty gap”, which measures the required income transfer to all poor households to lift them from poverty, grew from R56-billion in 1996 to R81-billion in 2001.
A team from the national Department of Social Development is visiting the Western Cape to outline the processes of the establishment of the South African Social Security Agency, the government news agency said on Monday. The agency will ultimately take over from provinces the payment of social welfare grants.
Unusually dry weather in the Western Cape has prompted officials to consider imposing water restrictions in the region. Water levels are worryingly low and restrictions may be ”inevitable”, according to Rashid Khan, regional director of the Western Cape Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.
In November 2003 the Cabinet approved a national plan for HIV/ Aids prevention, care and treatment. The plan estimated that 53 000 people would be placed on anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment by the end of March this year. Eight months on, fewer than 10 000 people with HIV/Aids are receiving anti-retrovirals through the public health system.
In what will be the first major inner-city development in South Africa for a black economic empowerment group, South Africa’s Coessa Holdings — acting in partnership with a Johannesburg businessman — plans to develop a new, R390-million residential, commercial and retail lifestyle centre in Cape Town, to be known as Icon.
A doctor shortage has led to the Red Cross Children’s hospital closing its doors to patients requiring medical emergency assistance on a number of evenings. To address the situation in the long term, the hospital called for the quicker processing of work permits for foreign doctors at the home affairs department and registration through the Health Professions Council.
The New National Party on Thursday warned ”certain individuals and institutions” that they are exposing themselves, through unfounded accusations, to possible civil and criminal defamation claims. This came after two Democratic Alliance Western Cape MPLs laid charges of bribery and/or corruption against senior NNP members.
Two Democratic Alliance Western Cape MPLs on Thursday laid charges of bribery and/or corruption against members of the New National Party, including party leader and Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk. The charges relate to planning permission in exchange for donations to the NNP.
NNP calls charges ‘sewer politics’
The Western Cape public works and education departments may sell off some state and school properties to raise money for a school-building initiative that could cost R500-million. The provincial government is looking at alternative means of generating funds to build new schools.
The South African Police Service will launch a crime prevention programme in the 63 areas of South Africa identified as experiencing the most contact crimes, Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said on Tuesday. Nqakula also touched on the Firearms Control Act that comes into effect on Thursday.
The trial over the controversial Roodefontein development was postponed for a second time on Monday, pending a decision by Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla on whether to provide legal aid for the accused. Former Western Cape premier Peter Marais and his then environment MEC David Malatsi are appearing in the Bellville regional court.
The City of Cape Town for the second consecutive year has been named the number one long haul destination in the UK’s 2004 Trends and Spends Survey. The survey saw Cape Town beat off contender cities such as New York (second place), followed by Chicago, Boston, Miami, Dubai, Barbados and Las Vegas.
The Western Cape auditor general undertook on Tuesday to investigate a R220 000 overpayment to premier Ebrahim Rasool, and the circumstances surrounding it. The undertaking by auditor general Willie Brits was given at a provincial Standing Committee on Public Accounts meeting called by the Democratic Alliance to investigate the overpayment to Rasool while he was the finance MEC.
A call by South Africa’s chief land commissioner for more post-settlement aid to land reform beneficiaries has been welcomed. The lack of sufficient post-transfer support for beneficiaries of land redistribution in South Africa could derail the country’s land reform programme, analysts have said.