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.
More than 300 people gathered at the Hector Peterson memorial on Wednesday for a wreath laying ceremony as part of Youth Day commemorations. Peterson, then aged 13, was shot dead by police in the June 16, 1976, schoolchildren’s uprising. He was the first victim of that event.
In an effort to develop a classification of marine habitats for South Africa, the marine science community is working virtually round the clock to meet a July deadline for identifying marine priority areas for the country’s first National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.
Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister, could be called to testify for the state in the Roodefontein corruption trial which resumes next Monday. Former Western Cape premier Peter Marais and former development planning MEC David Malatsi are accused of taking hundreds of thousands of rands in bribes to smooth the way for provincial approval of a gold estate at Plettenberg Bay.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool will have to pay back nearly a quarter of a million rand paid to him as an extra car allowance while he was the province’s finance MEC, his office said on Thursday. Meanwhile, a Democratic Alliance MPL said she had told Rasool a year ago that his allowances — as printed in the budget — seemed too high.
The Department of Public Works did not get enough money in this year’s Budget to carry out all its appointed tasks, including tackling a maintenance backlog at government buildings, says Minister of Public Works Stella Sigcau. In February this year, her department was allocated more than R4,8-billion.
Communities in the Western Cape should get traditional knowledge royalties on rooibos tea products, provincial economic development minister Lynne Brown said on Wednesday. Brown has already promised she will lead the fight to reclaim the rooibos name from the company that has copyrighted it in the United States.
The government should measure the success of its land reform process on whether productivity of the land is maintained after a change in ownership, the Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday. DA MP Kraai van Niekerk claimed that the present reform projects have left a trail of failures.
The future of the New National Party (NNP) lies in strengthening its ties with the African National Congress (ANC), the party announced following a federal council meeting in Centurion on Saturday. The NNP and ANC have agreed to ”strengthen and deepen the relationship of cooperation between the two parties”, NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk told reporters.
The affair of the mystery donor Hans that has plagued the Democratic Alliance for two years was ”100% unsatisfactory”, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Helen Zille said on Friday. She was speaking on Cape Talk radio after the announcement earlier in the day of a secret settlement with the trustees of fraudster Jurgen Harksen’s estate.
The Democratic Alliance has agreed to make an undisclosed payout to the trustees of convicted fraudster Jurgen Harksen’s estate to settle a donation to the party by the mysterious ”Hans”. The trustees were to have taken the DA to the Cape High Court next week over the DM99 000 (about R450 000) which they claimed was part of more than R1-million Harksen said he gave to the party and its former Western Cape leader Gerald Morkel.
The South African Chamber of Business has won a $20 000 award for its simple toolkit to assist small and medium enterprises address HIV/Aids in their workplaces. The chamber also won accolades for its strategy to monitor the implementation of this product through its chamber movement.
Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile has scrapped racial quotas for teams, saying they have not helped to accelerate the transformation of sports codes, which are currently not representative of the people of South Africa But national teams will remain lily-white unless selectors and coaches are put under
pressure, writes Rapule Tabane.
On the eve of a federal council meeting to discuss the future of the New National Party following its poor performance in April’s national and provincial elections, the party’s Gauteng administrative office has closed. The move is in no way a sign of the party’s imminent dissolution in Gauteng, provincial leader Johan Kilian said.
Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana on Wednesday stated that more than 600 000 domestic employers have registered with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to date. The minister expressed his satisfaction with the process of registering domestic workers.