The Minister of Health has until close of business on Wednesday to respond to a letter of demand from the Treatment Action Campaign, or face litigation. The letter, sent on March 10, gave her seven days to authorise the immediate procurement of anti-retroviral drugs.
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Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon spelled out on Tuesday the goals of his party’s ”Coalition for Change” with the Inkatha Freedom Party, and predicted the two parties would win up to 30% of the national vote on Election Day. He said the coalition aimed to provide the ”core of an alternative government”.
The poor infection control practices in some of South Africa’s top academic hospitals raise the spectre of ”unexplained” HIV/Aids transmission, an article in the SA Medical Journal says. ”There is an urgent need to re-evaluate and improve infection control practices in health care settings,” the article concludes.
Gauteng province’s roll-out of antiretroviral drugs for HIV/Aids patients will begin on April 1, health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa said on Monday. The province hoped to treat about 100 new cases a week, starting in five hospitals, and expanding to 23 institutions by this time next year.
Black economic empowerment companies (BEE) have improved their share of spending by Old Mutual Properties on outsourced services for buildings in the company’s portfolios to 56% in 2004, according to Richard Murphy, head of the facilities management division.
The funeral of the late Transport Minister Dullah Omar will take place in Rylands, Cape Town on Saturday afternoon, it was announced on Saturday morning. Omar died in the Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic at 4am on Saturday morning –just days short of his 70th birthday — after a 15-month battle with Hodgkins Disease, a form of cancer.
Condolences on the death of Transport Minister Dullah Omar — who died in a Cape Town hospital in the early hours of Saturday morning — poured in from well wishers. Omar will be given an official funeral with ”all the honours due to a serving member of cabinet” government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said.
Omar: A biography
Omar wanted ‘simple burial’
Dullah Omar, first names Abdullah Mohamed, was born in Cape Town on May 26, 1934. He became the first Minister of Justice of the new democratic South Africa.
He also became the first Cabinet Minister to be appointed as acting President of South Africa in the absence of the president and deputy presidents.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The Democratic Alliance has rejected African Christian Democratic Party complaints about the DA’s election radio adverts that urge voters not to waste their vote on one of the smaller parties, saying the ACDP has missed the point.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32518">ACDP: ‘Greedy’ DA not playing fair</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has taken the New National Party Western Cape premier to task for pledging that he would open a new airport near Atlantis in the Western Cape. "There is no way that Van Schalkwyk can deliver a new airport in Atlantis," Leon said on Thursday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) announced on Tuesday that it plans to apply for a Cape High Court interdict to stop the sale of the Golden Arrow bus company to black empowerment consortium Hosken Consolidated Investments and Mettle Limited for R270-million.
The Western Cape is to extend its anti-retroviral treatment to include every child under 14 who needs it, Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Monday. The province is acknowledged as having one of South Africa’s most effective treatment programmes.
President Thabo Mbeki launched the Urban Renewal Programme in 2001 to target development in the eight urban areas with the highest poverty levels in South Africa. Approximately R200-million will be invested in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain this financial year.
Swart- en rooigevaar tactics have taken a new twist with the red and black posters strung up by the Democratic Whatever on lamp-posts throughout Mitchells Plain on the Cape Flats. ”The NNP is with the ANC” is the DW’s message specifically for residents of one of the largest coloured communities in the Western Cape
The increase in the number of deaths on the population register is an indictment of government’s handling of the Aids pandemic, the United Democratic Movement and Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. The number of deaths on the register rose by 68% over the past six years to 457Â 000 in 2003.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>The Western Cape leader of the Freedom Front Plus, Dr Corne Mulder, faces a criminal investigation after he was allegedly seen removing Democratic Alliance posters at the weekend. However, Mulder, who is also the brother of FF+ leader Pieter Mulder, on Tuesday angrily denied a DA claim that he broke the law.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
A recent international study conducted in South Africa confirms that social pensions play a significant role in alleviating poverty. The pension system is a firmly entrenched feature of South Africa’s social welfare framework. The country has an unemployment rate of more than 40%, making a conventional, contributory pension scheme unworkable.
A project to establish an initiation village for urban Xhosa was launched by the Western Cape provincial government on the Cape Flats on Tuesday. The initiative, the first in the country, seeks to provide space for what is essentially a rural custom in a city setting.
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People are growing weary of violence and do not wish to die for someone else seeking a seat in Parliament, Independent Electoral Commission chairperson Brigalia Bam said on Monday. She added that in the past three weeks there had been 18 political rallies and only three incidents of violence, all in KwaZulu-Natal.
Special Report: Elections 2004
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/ 28 February 2004
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The name of former African National Congress Women’s League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela does not appear on the party’s list of candidates for Parliament, released on Friday. Former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni, convicted of fraud last year, is also not on the list.
Elections 2004 special report
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/ 27 February 2004
The Scorpions conducted raids at 11 residents and business premises of employees of South African Airways (SAA) Technical in a bid to root out alleged corruption at the unit on Friday, the airline said. Some of the raids were conducted at the purchasing department of SAA Technical at the request of SAA, the airliner said.
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/ 27 February 2004
The Scorpions conducted raids at 11 residences and business premises of employees of South African Airways technical services in a bid to root out alleged corruption at the unit on Friday, the airline said. Some of the raids were conducted at the purchasing department of SAA technical services at the request of the SAA, the airline said.
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/ 26 February 2004
A pause for rest during a traverse in the Hex River Mountains led to the serendipitous discovery of a new species of Disa flower, a nursery manager at the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens said on Thursday. The new flower is related to the red Disa, which is unique to the Western Cape.
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/ 26 February 2004
At first glance, Israel’s planned 700km wall and fence on its Eastern flank seems defensible, as it will undoubtedly reduce suicide bombings on Israeli territory. Under closer scrutiny, it emerges as a gross injustice that is justifiably condemned in much of the world, and even by some Israelis.
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/ 26 February 2004
They say the wheels of Parliament turn slowly. Obviously no one told anyone in the hallowed halls of the resignation of Andrew Feinstein, the African National Congress MP who resigned as co-chairperson of Scopa as political pressure came to bear in the arms deal scandal way back in 2001. He is still listed as the member for the Sea Point constituency office.
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/ 24 February 2004
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More than 20-million people have registered for the April election, an increase of 14,7% in the number of registrations since 1999, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) announced on Tuesday. The voters’ roll shows that 17% of all eligible voters are between the ages of 18 and 25, and 44% are younger than 35.
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/ 24 February 2004
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The Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape on Tuesday challenged the New National Party/African National Congress alliance to say who it would nominate as the individual parties’ premier candidates. The DA unveiled its provincial election manifesto and named its candidates for provincial and national legislatures.
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/ 24 February 2004
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The Freedom Front Plus and Cape People’s Congress have agreed on a cooperation strategy for the April 14 general election, the two parties announced on Tuesday. The leaders of the two parties said their aim is to prevent the African National Congress gaining a two-thirds majority in the election.
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/ 20 February 2004
The government will be hard pressed to meet its land restitution deadline of 2005 with the Cinderella budget Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel awarded to the Department of Land Affairs, a land reform expert told the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>.
Ruth Hall, from the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape, called the allocation disappointing.
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/ 19 February 2004
The next Cabinet should include many new faces, despite President Thabo Mbeki’s often conservative approach to reshuffles, political analysts predicted this week. They forecast a big migration from the provinces, with Limpopo Premier Ngoako Ramatlhodi leading the way.
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/ 19 February 2004
Department of Labour inspectors on Thursday recommended the prosecution of managers of listed retail group Mr Price’s store at the Boulders in Midrand after they denied inspectors access to documentation and prevented them from interviewing staff.