South African food and industrial group AVI has reached an agreement to acquire Denny Mushrooms for R197,5-million rand, less all interest-bearing debt as at the effective date. Denny is a producer of fresh, canned and value-added mushroom products in South Africa, with a market share exceeding 50%.
The Health Department would not be suspending anti-retroviral programmes for children as had been reported in the media, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. However, it had warned participating hospitals to make sure they had enough supplies of the medication before enrolling new patients, spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said.
The Western Cape’s head of housing has had his employment contract suspended following an internal investigation into alleged malpractices and irregularities within the department, the MEC for housing said on Sunday. The audit was completed in March this year and brought to light underspending of R144-million in the delivery of housing during the 2003/04 financial year.
Sheryl Ozinsky, one of South Africa’s best known tourism players, has resigned from the board of Cape Town Tourism. The board confirmed her resignation in a statement on Saturday, saying that Ozinsky was ”seeking challenges that will enable her to use her passion, experience and energy in tourism marketing”.
Taking his cue from President Thabo Mbeki, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool — while delivering his maiden premier’s speech in the provincial legislature — committed his government to implementing 20 ”measurable actions” within the next 100 days, including training 515 new railway police.
South Africa’s nine major cities have not fully recognised the importance of ”systematically” managing built-up areas and critical stresses have been placed on natural resources, the first State of the Cities report warns. The report brings together detailed empirical data about the country’s nine largest cities.
The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition (ATC) called on the South African government on Thursday to expel the Israeli ambassador as well as cut all trade and diplomatic ties with Israel, which it accuses of "ethic cleansing". The ATC will be supporting a protest before the gates of Parliament on Friday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66642">More die as Israeli army marches on</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=66608">SA govt condemns Israeli incursion</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=66598">Israeli tanks fire on peaceful protest</a>
Erectile dysfunction, although frequently the butt of jokes, is usually an indicator of underlying serious medical conditions, pharmaceutical company Lilly said on Thursday. Although no broad studies had been undertaken in South Africa, seven out of 10 men between the ages of 35 to 79 interviewed at primary health care clinics in the Western Cape said they had had some experience of the condition.
The New National Party’s federal council is to meet in three weeks — on Saturday June 5 — to assess the party’s future after its poor showing in the national and provincial elections. A newspaper report on Tuesday said the Free State region of the party will motivate that the party should disband.
Institutionalised, representative democracy in our country is in trouble. This is not because the African National Congress’s sizeable electoral victory supposedly heralds the imminent arrival of a one-party state. It is simply because, only a decade after the introduction of a universal electoral franchise in South Africa, just more than 50% of all eligible voters participated in the formal process of representative democracy.
As South Africa’s new government braces itself for the task of extending clean water supplies to more people, environmentalists are warning there may soon be little water to distribute if conservation efforts are not stepped up. They believe the country will run out of water by 2030 unless current water resources are better maintained.
Three Cape Flats community leaders, including former gangster Rashied Staggie, were effectively jailed for 13 years on Wednesday for a burglary at the Faure police armoury six years ago. Staggie’s sentence will run concurrently with the 15 years he got last year in the Cape High Court for rape.
The Electoral Court presided over a tug of war on Tuesday over 2 666 votes that could give the African Christian Democratic Party a seventh National Assembly seat but leave the Azanian People’s Organisation with one. The ACDP claims the votes, cast in Khayelitsha on April 14, were wrongly credited to Azapo.
As part of the unbundling of listed black empowerment group New Africa Investments, its subsidiary New Africa Publications Magazines Limited has been sold to unlisted publishing house Cape Media for an undisclosed sum. Announcing the sale on Tuesday, Nail said the main asset in the company is business publication, <i>Leadership</i>.
South African Tourism on Saturday launched a new marketing brand at the opening of the annual tourism Indaba in Durban on Saturday. The new Tourism and Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said at the Indaba that increasing air access to South Africa would be of his priorities.
Human error and adverse weather conditions caused the airplane crash which claimed the life of former national cricket captain Hansie Cronje in June 2002, the Civil Aviation Authority said on Thursday. ”The report indicates the probable causes of the accident to be human factor-related, with weather and mechanical as well as technological factors contributing,” said the CAA.
A leading climatologist has warned that the government should take a long-term view of changing climate conditions, or face potential consequences that could ”seriously compound” the existing challenges facing South Africa. Government is aware of it, but needs to recognise this as a long term issue of seriousness,” said Professor Bruce Hewitson.
Former state president PW Botha had advised a right-wing coup plotter to get out of politics and ”get a movement with an iron fist”, the Boeremag treason trial heard on Thursday. State witness Lourens du Plessis told the Pretoria High Court he had visited Botha at home in June 2001 to discuss the political situation in the country.
New African National Congress Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool has pledged to lobby national government to review the system of political defections — also known as party jumping between elections — which he believes the electorate views with distaste.
Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool on Friday named a male-dominated ten-person cabinet, a team which he said was ”destined to deliver” to the people of the province. ”Our goals are clear: our mandate is decisive,” he said. ”There is much to celebrate. But the work starts immediately.”
President Thabo Mbeki has bolstered the role of women in the cabinet but he acknowledged that it had ”not yet reached 50%” of its membership. However, there are now 12 women out of 28 full cabinet ministers. This is up from nine ministers in the last government.
Once Oom Krisjan had stopped laughing, he had a moment to reflect on the appointment of Kortbroek as Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism — and decided that Marthinus was, perhaps, a suitable replacement for Mohammed Valli Moosa after all. As residents of piesangland and the visdorpie well know, short pants are the attire of choice for tourists from Germany and Britain
A tough municipal by-election in a Chatsworth, Durban, ward will see the African National Congress-aligned Minority Front — led by new KwaZulu-Natal sports MEC Amichand Rajbansi — fight it out to retain a marginal seat from a determined challenge from the official opposition Democratic Alliance.
The circus is over, newly elected Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Monday in his inaugural speech in the provincial legislature where he, together with a new speaker, deputy speaker and 42 other MPLs were sworn in. Rasool said the possibilities are greater than ever before for having a dignified and stable provincial government.
Morkel loses bid for W Cape seat
The official opposition Democratic Alliance has selected its team representing the nine provinces in the National Council of Provinces but former Western Cape premier and former Cape Town mayor Gerald Morkel failed to be selected for one of two Western Cape seats available.
In 1999 pregnant women in Khayelitsha were able to access the drug AZT and two years later, highly active anti-retroviral therapy was introduced to the area. The Western Cape is one of the best-resourced provinces in the country and spends a healthy R1 377 per capita on health, second only to Gauteng, which spends R1 668.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress named its candidates for premiers in the nine provinces on Wednesday night, after a national working committee meeting was held in the Mother City. It is the first time that candidates have only been named after the election.
The Western Cape department of health has asked the Scorpions for help in busting a suspected crime syndicate stealing hospital linen. ”In the past three years we have lost hospital linen to the value of more than R23-million,” provincial minister of health Piet Meyer said on Wednesday.
The New National Party and the African National Congress held talks on Tuesday night to discuss the representation of the NNP in the Western Cape government. It is understood that the NNP are unhappy with the offer of two posts in the 11-seat Cabinet.
The National Prosecuting Authority would not stop hunting apartheid-era criminals unless asked to do so by Parliament, the NPA said on Tuesday. ”And as far as we are concerned no law on blanket amnesty is being considered,” said NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi.
There were virtually no surprises on Tuesday as political parties finalised the names of candidates to be sworn in to the National Assembly on Friday. The African National Congress’s list includes President Thabo Mbeki and Deputy President Jacob Zuma, and there are 21 new faces who will represent the Democratic Alliance.