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South Africa

Agriculture

Watchdog demands final report - 7 October
The provincial legislature's finance watchdog, the standing committee on public accounts, is expected to ask the provincial Treasury to release the long-awaited report on missing millions at the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture. Yesterday members of the committee agreed to call an urgent meeting with the Treasury to discuss the contents of the forensic audit report. - IOL website

Arms and Ammunition

Denel comes under fire in parliament - 20 October
The state arms manufacturer, Denel, came under considerable fire in the public enterprises committee on Tuesday for regularly demanding injections from the state, paying its executives large salaries and bonuses while operating at a loss and not looking closely enough at diversification. But Talib Sadik, Denel chief executive, argued that the organization was looking better and better and losses had dropped from a high of R1.6 billion four years ago to just R544 million in the last year. - Business Report website

Banking

Crisis makes wealthy research investments - 21 October
Following large scale investment fraud and the financial crisis, about 53 percent of wealthy clients of 240 private banks and wealth managers surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) identified their own research as primary source of financial advice. This is an indication, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey for 2009, that clients no longer trusted the quality of advice they have been getting from these institutions. - Business Report website

Communications

Vodacom keeps mum on costs  - 14 October
Vodacom would be subpoenaed to provide details of its costs if it refused to provide Parliament with the information, the communication's committee, led by ANC MP Johnny de Lange, said yesterday. De Lange was responding to Vodacom chairman Pieter Uys' refusal to disclose information at the committee's first day of hearings into the cost structures of cellphone operators. - Business Report website

Competition Commission wants greater role for Icasa - 14 October
The Competition Commission on Wednesday called for the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) to play a greater regulatory role in determining cellphone interconnection rates. Icasa should also ensure these rates were set on a defensible basis, commissioner Shan Ramburuth told the national assembly's communications committee. The committee is holding public hearings on what it says is the excessive and exorbitant costs of mobile interconnection rates  in the industry. - TechCentral website

Competition Commission targets cellular operators - 19 October
MTN and Vodacom are in the price-fixing spotlight as the Competition Commission subpoenas key people in the telecoms industry to provide information related to allegations against the companies. - Business Report website

See also : Legislation

Correctional Services

Jails do more harm than good - 9 October
The government should consider community service for those convicted of non-violent, petty crimes, because most people emerge from jail more damaged than before, Jody Kollapen, former chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, has said. He was speaking at a public seminar on "Human Rights in African Prisons", at the Centre for the Book last night. - IOL website

Number of deaths in prisons continues to decline - 12 October
The number of inmates that die in prison continues to decline, according to the annual report by the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services. This as the number of female inmates and children in custody declined last year. According to figures the report drew from the Department of Correctional Service's Management Information System (MIS), the number of inmates that died in prison fell to 1 048 last year, from 1 136 in 2007. The discrepancy became evident shortly before the writing of the report and would be subject to further investigation, the inspectorate said. - BuaNews Online website

DA warns against pardon for Schabir Shaik - 19 October
Fraud convict Schabir Shaik applied for a presidential pardon in April last year, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. The Presidency had confirmed to the DA that it had received an application from Shaik for a presidential pardon on April 24 2008, DA spokesperson James Selfe said. However, the Presidency could not confirm the status of that application. - Mail & Guardian website

Officials duck questions on Shaik pardon talk - 19 October
Has convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik applied for a presidential pardon? Neither the Presidency nor the Justice Department would say today whether such an application had been received. Justice spokesman Tlali Tlali said all applications for presidential pardon were made through the Justice Department, but that only the president had the power to make such a decision. - IOL website

No deadline on Shaik - 20 October
President Jacob Zuma is under no obligation to consider immediately the application for a pardon by fraudster Schabir Shaik, says Zuma's office. The Presidency confirmed that Shaik, who was convicted on charges of fraud and corruption linked to Zuma, had applied for a presidential pardon. If it is granted, his criminal record would be expunged and his medical parole conditions would fall away. - Times Live website

Shaik pardon : unwise but not illegal? - 20 October
The news that "terminally ill" Schabir Shaik has applied for a Presidential pardon does not come as a surprise. Shaik is not an ordinary criminal. He is a criminal convicted of bribing the President of the country. I imagine Shaik would fancy his chances to be granted a full pardon by President Jacob Zuma. Shaik, after all, might have some rather damaging secrets (or at least gossip) that he would be happy to keep for himself in return for a pardon. But for those of us with long memories such a pardon – if granted – would remain as a permanent stain on our President’s name, much like the name of President Clinton was permanently sullied by the pardons he granted in the last hours of his Presidency to some serious crooks who had given money to his political campaigns. - Pierre de Vos on the Constitutionally Speaking blog

Courts

Commercial crimes unit's impressive record - 15 October
South Africa's Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit (SCCU) has managed a near 100 percent conviction rate over the past financial year. And in the Western Cape, the number of people found guilty of commercial crime has risen steadily since the May 2007 opening of the SCCU in Bellville. - IOL website

Defence

6 August 2009
National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) statement on South African arms sales regulation
SA Government Information website

Cost of arms deal aircraft order rockets to R47bn - 15 October
Armscor is scheduled to hold talks with Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu over the future of a much-delayed Airbus A400M military heavy-lifting aircraft order after it was divulged yesterday that their price had rocketed. When the overrun is added to the original price, the value is expected to almost match the entire value of the strategic defence package, popularly known as the arms deal, to refit the navy and air force with corvettes, submarines, light utility helicopters, lead-in fighter trainers and advanced light fighter aircraft. Armscor chief executive Sipho Thomo told the National Assembly defence and military veterans committee chaired by ANC MP Mnyami Booi that the A400M's price had rocketed to R47bn from R17bn, while initial estimates were as low as R9.5bn. - Business Report website

Government to announce decision on Airbus A400M contract in matter of days - 22 October
Government will announce a decision on the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft contract in a matter of days, government spokesman Themba Maseko said on Thursday. Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu had briefed Cabinet on the matter during its regular fortnightly meeting on Wednesday and Cabinet "took a view on the matter", he told a media briefing. - The Richmark Sentinel website

Economy

Money meltdown hits the elderly - 12 October
Civic organisations and academics say that unemployed young people were moving in with elderly relatives to access support from their R1 010 monthly pensions. Others were relying on child support grants, turning to prostitution to get food, or deserting their families and "drifting" hopelessly after being retrenched and unable to provide for their basic needs. "According to Statistics South Africa's Income and Expenditure Survey, two thirds (2 932 000) of people between the age of 15 and 34 are unemployed and of those, two thirds have never been employed before". - IOL website

Emigration and Immigration

Canadians 'astounded' by ruling - 8 October
Former Canadian prime minister Joe Clark believes the decision to give "racial oppression victim" Brandon Huntley refugee status in Canada should not have happened. A diplomatic row erupted last month when Huntley, 31, was granted refugee status in Canada on August 27 after claiming he had been attacked because of his race. - IOL website

Canada seeks Huntley case review - 20 October
The Canadian government has slammed the ruling that granted asylum to "crime refugee" Brandon Huntley as perverse, irrational and based on a "jaundiced assessment" of South Africa. Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney wants that country's federal court to review immigration and refugee board chairman William Davis's decision to grant 31-year-old Huntley refugee status based on his race, and then to send Huntley's case back to the board for a rehearing. - IOL website

Canada argues against Huntley asylum - 20 October
Canadian government's Memorandum of Argument. - IOL website

Environment

Sasol, Eskom top South Africa's pollution list : report - 21 October
Petrochemicals group Sasol and electricity firm Eskom topped the list of South Africa's largest polluters, according to the country's 2009 Carbon Disclosure Project report. The report, which targeted South Africa's 100 largest listed companies, said a few carbon-intensive companies dominated the country's carbon footprint. State-owned Eskom is not listed, but gave information voluntarily. - Business Report website

2010 soccer World Cup emissions to soar : Minister - 19 October
Carbon emissions from next year's soccer FIFA World Cup are expected to soar from the 2006 benchmark set by Germany, host nation South Africa said on Monday. Harmful emissions accelerate global warming and major sports events, including Olympic and World Cup tournaments, have since the early 1990s been designed to minimise the impact on the environment. "The FIFA 2010 World Cup will have the largest carbon footprint of any major event with a goal to be climate neutral", South Africa's Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica told Reuters in response to emailed questions. She said the estimated carbon footprint of Africa's first soccer World Cup is 896 661 t of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), with an additional 1 856 589 tCO2e contributed by international travel. - Creamer Media's Engineering News website
Keyphrase :
2010 FIFA World Cup

LRC submits expert evidence against mining in Xolobeni - 2 October
On 28 September 2009 the Grahamstown office of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) submitted two expert reports to the Minister of Minerals and Energy on behalf of the AmaDiba Crisis Committee (ACC). The reports were in support of the ACC’s appeal to the Minister to set aside the mining right granted to Transworld Energy Minerals(TEM) at Xolobeni in the Eastern Cape. - Wildcoast website

Waste firm to face the music in court - 17 October
Aesthetic Waste Services, the controversial Butterworth-based medical waste company whose warehouses were raided twice by the Green Scorpions following a Daily Dispatch investigation, will now be prosecuted. During the raids, which took place in 2008 and in January this year, officials of the national and provincial Environmental Management Inspectorate – commonly known as the Green Scorpions – and backed by members of the Butterworth police, found body parts and discarded medical items allegedly being stored illegally.  In July, after a two-year court battle, the Constitutional Court finally sank the chances of Aesthetic to have its contract with the Eastern Cape Health Department reinstated. The exposé by the Dispatch now forms part of a discussion document by the Democratic Alliance, which proposes the creation of a new Health Care Waste Management (HCWM) programme to address the inadequacies of the HCWM system as it currently stands in South Africa. - Dispatch Online website

The dark side of light - 19 October
Even in the comparatively small African city of Pietermaritzburg, the effects of light pollution are making it difficult to see the night sky. According to University of KwaZulu-Natal's Professor Michael Kidd, who specialises in environmental law, many developed countries are taking legal steps to protect the night sky. And South African legislation is following much the same pattern. "While there is no legislation relating directly to the environmental effects of light pollution, we do have the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act 21 of 2007", said Kidd. Msunduzi conservation manager Rodney Bartholomew said although there are no written regulations or by-laws specifically relating to light pollution, measures to curb excessive light are part of the city's broader plan to reduce the environmental impact of any new development. - The Witness website

Foreign Policy

Govt responds on Goldstone report - 11 October
Government has noted the reactions to and criticisms of the report compiled by South African Justice Richard Goldstone on the situation in Gaza. This followed his three-month long investigation, which ended in December 2008, into attacks by Israel on Palestine. Justice Goldstone was appointed to head the United Nations fact-finding mission into the Gaza conflict. Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Ebrahim Ebrahim said : "the South African government has studied this report in detail and without equivocation endorses the findings and recommendations therein. The South African government reiterates its full confidence in Justice Goldstone recalling the prominent role he played in South Africa's transition to democracy".  - BuaNews Online website

South Africa to protest race-based argument accepted by Dublin court - 15 October
The South African government is to lodge a protest with the Irish ambassador in Pretoria against a race-based argument that was accepted by a Dublin court leading to one of its citizens being granted temporary residency. The decision last week by the High Court to grant South African Dianne Jefferson Irish residency for five years, partially based on her fears that she would be targeted by black criminals if deported, has reignited a race row in her country of origin. - Irish Times website

The Times they aren't a-changin' - 8 October
Dianne Jefferson is 22 and left SA when she was 14 years old. She has no family in SA, her father is married to an Irish citizen and she has a half-sister who is Irish. Oh - and she is married to an Irishman. So exactly like Huntley in every regard except her age, sex, her family situation, her marriage and er . . . all the other circumstances mentioned, then. - 6000 Miles from Civilisation blog

Excerpt :
"Dianne Jefferson comments on this story :
I believe the media spun my case out of control. I did not even want it in the papers in the first place. I have very fond memories of growing up in South Africa. I am married to an Irish citizen and I was trying to get a 5 year visa, which I now have. If I was to be deported, which I have not been. it would have been very hard for me to survive on my own in a country I left at a very young age"

Health

Stern warning to doctors - 14 October
The Health Professions Council of South Africa has warned doctors who perform surgery outside their scope of practice could be fined or struck from the roll. In the past year, the council said it had investigated at least eight cases relating to general practitioners performing cosmetic procedures. The council said only specialised surgeons were allowed perform facelifts and breast enhancements. - Eye Witness News website

Home Affairs

Home affairs needs change to turn around, says Minister - 9 October
Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said her department plans to change a number of its processes to turn around service delivery and to increase security. There was no reason why foreign students, business people and people with scarce skills should not be able to get their work permits in their country of residence. She also said the department was looking at extending the working permits of people with scarce skills to five years. Dlamini-Zuma said the department of home affairs would address the issue of economic immigrants coming to South Africa for work, but applying for asylum. Dlamini-Zuma said the department is looking at changing the birth certificate to include more information as the current one is too easy to forge. The department was working with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to create a system of free movement for SADC members, as well as a single visa - or univisa. - Business Day website

Human Rights

World's first human rights moot court - 18 October
The adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 is being celebrated by the staging of the first World Human Rights Moot Court at the University of Pretoria in South Africa in December. The competition is open to students from all of the world's institutions of higher learning but is aimed at undergraduate law students. The Moot Court is being organised by the centre for human rights at the university, supported by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. - University World News website

Raped girl a zombie, says mother - 7 October
The six-year-old girl who was allegedly denied treatment by a district surgeon after being raped because he was busy has turned into a "zombie". The toddler girl, of Nondweni village in Nqutu, northern KwaZulu-Natal, was raped after her attacker lured her out of her home a fortnight ago. The girl allegedly spent some time without a bath while waiting to be examined. After allegedly being turned away by the district surgeon, the child was seen by doctors at Vryheid Hospital last Wednesday. - Sowetan website

Intellectual Property

Social media can be a powerful tool - 2 October
With the proliferation of social media comes questions of the distribution and control of intellectual property, says information and communication technology (ICT) specialist law firm Chetty Law senior attorney Pria Chetty. She notes that Internet revolutionaries say that a closed approach to subscription and distribution models is out of date and no longer applicable, while the idea of a creative commons licence is beginning to take root. Creative commons licences provide flexible protection and freedom for authors, artists and inventors. - Polity website
Keyphrase :
Creative Commons licence

Judicial Service Commission, and, Judiciary

Best JSC candidates overlooked, says legal fraternity - 6 October
The list of four judges chosen by President Jacob Zuma for the Constitutional Court has perplexed many in the legal fraternity, with some saying the strongest candidates on the Judicial Service Commission's (JSC's) short list of seven were overlooked. Several lawyers were also shocked that only one woman judge was included. Zuma's choices were Sisi Khampepe, Mogoeng Mogoeng, Chris Jafta and Johan Froneman. Zuma's spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said yesterday he was still consulting political parties on whom to appoint. It is therefore technically possible that his choices may change. - Business Day website

Zuma slams leak of judges' names - 5 October
President Jacob Zuma's office has slammed opposition parties for leaking the names of his preferred candidates for the four vacant posts at the Constitutional Court. - Times Live website

Closed hearings are a travesty of justice : judges' interviews should be open to all media - 10 October
Article by Mac Maharaj. - Times Live website

Concourt's heavy burden - 10 October
The appointments to the Constitutional Court will assume office confronted by, arguably, greater challenges than those the original court faced. - Mail & Guardian website

Zuma appoints Con Court judges - 12 October
President Jacob Zuma officially appointed four judges to the Constitutional Court on Sunday. The four new Constitutional Court judges, who are expected to take up their posts today, are Sisi Khampepe, Chris Jafta, Johan Froneman and Moegeng Moegeng. The four are among seven judges short-listed by the Judicial Service Commission last month. They will replace Albie Sachs, Kate O'Regan and Yvonne Mokgoro who are retiring. - BuaNews Online website

New Constitutional Court judges start work - 12 October
Judge Sandile Ngcobo starts his first day as Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court today, alongside four new judges appointed by President Jacob Zuma at the weekend. - Times Live website

New ConCourt judge slams opposition party criticism - 13 October
New Constitutional Court Judge Moegeng Moegeng has hit out at criticism of his appointment from opposition parties. - Eye Witness News website

EC judge moves to highest court - 13 October
Eastern Cape High Court Judge Johan Froneman said he was honoured to be chosen to serve South Africa as a Constitutional Court (CC) judge. Froneman,  who was born and raised in Cathcart, is one of four judges appointed at the weekend by President Jacob Zuma to the CC, the highest court in the country. Although reserved, the softly spoken Froneman is widely regarded as a judicial activist whose passion for the Constitution is etched in the lines of his judgments, lectures and public pronouncements. - Dispatch Online website

Professor looks back over 30 years - 19 October
At the age of 75 and after almost three decades of moulding some of the country’s finest legal minds, founding member of the then University of Transkei (Unitra) Law School Professor Digby Koyana is about to retire. Koyana practised as an attorney between 1969 and 1974 before joining Unitra – now Walter Sisulu University – where he founded the law school in 1980. He lectured at the institution until 2006. Speaking to the Dispatch last week, Koyana said he was proud to have taught some of the best judges, magistrates, attorneys and prosecutors produced by Unitra. - Dispatch Online website

Kriegler set to file papers challenging JSC decision - 14 October
Former Constitutional Court judge Johann Kriegler's organisation, Freedom Under Law, is expected to file papers in the High Court in Pretoria today to challenge a decision by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). Freedom Under Law, chaired by Kriegler, wants the court to set aside its decision not to take action against Cape Judge President John Hlophe. Kriegler has said the JSC did not pursue the matter fully before making its decision. - Times Live website

Chief Justice Ngcobo

Ngcobo under scrutiny - 11 October
Durban-born Judge Sandile Ngcobo will have a bulging in-box on his first day on the job as the country's chief justice in Constitution Hill, Braamfontein, on Monday. With the controversial Judge John Hlophe matter consigned to his "Out" tray, Ngcobo, a father of three, will have a heavy but manageable list of immediate priorities, according to several legal experts. - BBC News website

Ngcobo demands opportunities for black jurists - 19 October
New Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo said black and female lawyers and judges must be given the opportunity to gain the necessary experience to allow them to take up senior positions. "The fact is that people have not been given the opportunity to get that experience. What we should be looking at is the potential", he said. - Citizen website

Interviews : Gauteng High Courts

Aspiring judges Ismail, Kolbe knock heads with JSC over transformation - 21 October
Two aspiring judges seeking appointment to the bench of the Gauteng High Court ran into trouble with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) over transformation-related issues during their interviews yesterday. The JSC was interviewing 10 candidates for the six judicial vacancies on the Gauteng High Court. - Business Day website
Keyphrases :
Mahomed Ismail, Advocate
Sita Kolbe SC, Advocate

Judiciary : 'Transformation only when blacks represent blacks' - 21 October
Kolbe said the problem was underlined by former police commissioner Jackie Selebi’s decision to employ seasoned white advocate Jaap Cilliers to represent him in his corruption trial under way in Johannesburg. - The Witness website

Advocate questions Zuma's choice of white counsel - 20 October
Kolbe was reprimanded by Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo who described her remark about President Jacob Zuma as unfortunate because "it amounts to being disrespectful to the president". Kolbe replied : "No, not at all". Without naming any, Kolbe said good black lawyers often attracted so much government work that they did not move on to more challenging cases. - Times Live website

Was white right for Zuma? - 20 October
Among those to challenge her was new commissioner Ishmael Semenya, a prominent colleague at the Johannesburg bar, who said the constitutional requirement for racial representation in the judiciary could not wait until "all black lawyers are specialists". - iafrica website

Why did Zuma brief white counsel? : Aspirant judge - 20 October
Advocate Sita Kolbe SC was one of 10 candidates interviewed for six positions of the North and South Gauteng benches. Others included lawyer and former lecturer Professor Kobus van Rooyen, who served on the Publications Appeal Board from 1980 to 1990 and is currently an ICASA councillor. He was grilled about his past membership of the Broederbond. - Politicsweb website

Interviews : Supreme Court of Appeal

Transformation tops JSC agenda - 20 October
Transformation, race and gender were the dominant considerations on the first day of the interviewing of candidates for judgeships by the Judicial Service Commission in Cape Town yesterday. Seven judges, including two women, were interviewed for two vacancies at the Supreme Court of Appeal. - Times Live website

Plaudits for new chief justice at JSC - 20 October
There were bouquets for newly appointed Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo yesterday as he chaired his first session at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). After a controversial nomination to the job before President Jacob Zuma had consulted with opposition parties in Parliament, Ngcobo yesterday eased into the hot seat in a gentle but determined manner as the commission started its proceedings with interviews for vacancies in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). - Business Day website
Keyphrases :
Bennie Griesel, Judge
Eric Leach, Judge
Jerry Shongwe, Judge
Lusindiso Pakade, Judge
Malcolm Wallis, Judge
Sharmin Ebrahim, Judge
Zukiswa Tshiqi, Judge

KwaZulu-Natal

R80m Ithala loans unlikely to be recovered - 14 October
Nearly R80 million in loans and advances from the publicly funded Ithala Development Bank seem irrecoverable, in respect of results prepared for its 2008/09 financial year. Moreover, several projects funded by Ithala's subsidiary, the KZN Growth Fund, have been spectacular failures, having guzzled well over R88m. These were among disclosures to the provincial standing committee on public accounts made in Pietermaritzburg yesterday by Ithala CEO Sipho Shabalala. - IOL website

Labour Issues

Cosatu on nationwide strike from tomorrow against labour brokers - 6 October
The Congress of SA Trade Unions will take to the streets in a bid to see labour brokers outlawed, it said on Tuesday. - The Richmark Sentinel website

Brokers, workers state their case - 9 October
Members of unions affiliated to Cosatu in the pro­vince re-iterated the call for labour brokers to be banned during the public hearing on labour brokering, hosted by Parliament's portfolio committee on labour at the Winston Churchill Theatre in Pietermaritzburg yesterday. However, labour brokers who testified to the committee called for regulations and legislation, saying that not all labour brokers are exploitative and "enslaving". - Witness website

Treasury paid labour brokers R30m - 12 October
While MPs will on Tuesday assess the outcome of recent parliamentary public hearings on labour broking, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has revealed that his department paid out almost R30-million to labour brokers over the past three years.  - IOL website

DA warns against banning nursing agencies - 12 October
Health care will be severely compromised if the government banned labour broking for nurses because many public hospitals cannot afford to employ permanent staff, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. The party urged Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi to tell provinces not to stop using nursing agencies until "it has conducted a study into the effects on quality of health care and provincial finances". - IOL website

Labour brokers will not be banned - 16 October
Labour brokers will not be banned in South Africa, labour law consultant Andrew Levy said on Friday. "The immediate short-term consequence would be an upsurge in unemployment should labour brokers disappear," he told the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry's annual conference in Johannesburg. Labour brokers made over 500 000 placements daily, employed about four percent of the total workforce and contributed around R23 billion a year to the country's economy. He said the issue had to be "approached on a delicate basis". - The Richmark Sentinel website

Clothing industry wants laws enforced  - 16 October
Employers and workers in the clothing industry have combined forces to lobby the government to recriminalise noncompliance with labour legislation. This is because of the widespread flouting of the law in non-metropolitan areas, where employers pay less than the minimum wage and do not contribute to health scheme funds and provident funds. - Business Day website

Land Affairs and Property

Nasty surprise for sectional title property investors - 20 October
Are you a sectional title owner? Rates ignorance will get your fingers burned. And not getting an account is no excuse. Have you been paying your sectional title rates and taxes, or will you be in for a nasty surprise when you receive an accrued municipality bill? Enquiries among sectional title holders suggest a great many property owners are still confused or ignorant about the sectional rates and taxes provisions which took effect in July 2008. - Moneyweb website

Few black people want land : top South African editor - 20 October
Mondli Makhanya, editor of the Sunday Times, South Africa's biggest Sunday newspaper, has had a thought rattling around in his head along these lines for some years now, he revealed in his column at the weekend. "At the risk of being lynched, tarred and feathered by ideologues, I will posit that South Africans have very little interest in land", he said bravely. "Year in, year out government functionaries and land activists talk about the backlog in our land reform process and spell out plans to speed up the pace if we are to 'avoid another Zimbabwe'," said Makhanya. The question we should be asking, he said, is : "Should we be spending so much energy and effort on land redistribution when the instinct of rural South Africans is to head for the city to seek employment and upward mobility there?" - Moneyweb website

Seven illegal Kwa-Zulu Natal wetland resorts bust - 6 October
Conservation authorities have exposed at least six more illegal tourist resorts being built in the heart of the country's first World Heritage Site - the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in KwaZulu-Natal. All are in ecologically sensitive forest areas adjacent to turtle nesting beaches - the last significant breeding ground for giant leatherback and loggerhead turtles. The parks authority and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife fear that the illegal developments could endanger the park's status as a World Heritage Site. They are intent on launching further court applications to stop the unique park from being destroyed. The two bodies were granted an interdict last week against the first illegal developer, Inkwazi Resort, Mjozi Ngubane and Cecil Henry Berkhout, to stop threats of violence and prevent any construction work or damage to vegetation. They have until October 9 to respond. - IOL website

Land Claims and Expropriation

Almost 30 land claim farms degazetted - 7 October
Almost 30 farms that were the subject of land claims have had the claims either degazetted or amended, according to the Land Reform Commission. Spokeswoman Pulane Molefe explained that four claims were de-gazetted completely for further research, and the remaining 25 of the 29 degazetted were amended to include properties that were erroneously excluded. There was also the opting of a financial settlement in one case. However, she explained that degazetting - the withdrawal of a public notice of the fact that there is a claim on land - does not mean the land is no longer the subject of a claim. - Business Day website

South Africa dusts off land expropriation laws. Not good. - 11 October
The government planned to revive a bill to make it easier to seize land from white farmers who refused to sell their properties for redistribution to blacks, a senior land reform official said at an agricultural congress in Johannesburg yesterday. The controversial expropriation bill was shelved a year ago after critics warned it was unconstitutional as it would give officials rather than the courts the power to decide on compensation. While the move is an attempt by the government to speed up land reform, for which it ran out of money this year, it might not achieve this as cases could drag on in court for years. - Times Live website

Expropriation bill revived as land reform drive stalls - 9 October
The government planned to revive a bill to make it easier to seize land from white farmers who refused to sell their properties for redistribution to blacks, a senior land reform official said at an agricultural congress in Johannesburg yesterday. The controversial expropriation bill was shelved a year ago after critics warned it was unconstitutional as it would give officials rather than the courts the power to decide on compensation. - Business Day website

SA to debate land reform law - 10 October
The South African government last week said it was planning to resubmit to Parliament a law that would allow it to seize land from farmers if negotiations to buy the land from them failed. Land Affairs director general Thozi Gwanya told the media : "The minister of public works and the minister of rural development are in the process of reviving the discussions of the bill so that they can go and reopen the debate and the hearings (in Parliament). We don't have a timeline yet for when it will return to Parliament". - The Zimbabwean website

Final repatriation for Riemvasmakers - 14 October
Over 120 Riemvasmaak families will be repatriated to the area formerly occupied by the community northwest of Upington in the Northern Cape as the South African government wraps up what was started in 1995. Already more than 500 families and their livestock have returned from Namibia to their Northern Cape ancestral home. - allAfrica website

Maritime Law

Ndebele calls for cabotage rules to grow African maritime sector - 16 October
Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele has called on African states to implement cabotage, a maritime transport regulatory rulebook, which he said was one of the quickest ways to develop the maritime sector on the continent. Ndebele was speaking at the 2nd African Union conference of ministers responsible for maritime transport yesterday. Countries use cabotage laws to dictate the terms that carriers must follow when transporting people or cargo within their borders. - Business Report website

Minerals and Energy

Eskom to publish controversial tariff application next week - 9 October
Cash-strapped power utility Eskom would publish its much-anticipated tariff application, covering the period from 2010 to 2013, next week, following recent leaks of its contents to the media, chairperson Bobby Godsell confirmed on Friday. The utility's CEO, Jacob Maroga, would host a media conference on Tuesday to outline the reasons behind what will no doubt be a highly controversial request for tariff increases of 45%-a-year for the three-year period ending on March 31, 2013. - Creamer Media's Engineering News website

IPP tariff applications up to three times more expensive : Godsell - 9 October
Eskom chairperson Bobby Godsell revealed on Friday that most independent power producer (IPP) applications that had been submitted to Eskom and the regulator in recent times had generation costs of between 75 c/kWh and 120 c/kWh, which was well in excess of the prevailing average tariff of 33 c/kWh received by the utility. He added that the total cost of such IPP production would be even higher once transmission and distribution costs were included. - Creamer Media's Engineering News website

Govt supports Eskom tariff bid 'in principle' - 12 October
The South African government in principle supports Eskom's latest proposal for an increase in tariffs, but will leave discussion on the figures to the regulator, a senior official said on Sunday. David Mahuma, head of clean energy at the Ministry of Energy, said the government agreed that the tariffs needed to rise to help the utility raise funds for its expansion programme, but would leave the decision on the amounts to the energy regulator. - Mail & Guardian website

Eskom wants 45% price hike each year, over three years : Andrew Etzinger, GM, investment strategy, Eskom - 13 October
Interview with Alec Hogg on the Moneyweb website

Eskom to face R30bn funding gap even after hikes of 45% yearly for three years - 13 October
Despite these proposed hikes, the utility was still forecasting a cumulative cash shortfall of R30-billion by the end of the period and various options would have to be interrogated to deal with the deficit, including further borrowings and equity or loan injections. Eskom's funding plan over the three-year period was also premised on average yearly borrowings of R40-billion a year. Further, it will source borrowings from development finance institutions and export credit agencies. - Creamer Media's Engineering News website

Poor S Africans could see increase of free electricity - 13 October
Poor South Africans could receive 70 kilowatts worth of free electricity if Eskom is granted a 45 percent "smoothed" tariff increase, says it's Chief Executive Jacob Maroga. "We recommend that it be increased to 70 kilowatts and that the cost be carried by industry," Maroga told reporters as the parastatal unveiled details of its Multi-Year Price Determination 2 (MYPD 2) for the three-year period, beginning in 2010 to 2013. This, he said, would limit the impact of the increase on poor households that currently received 50 kilowatts free basic electricity from government. - BuaNews Online website

Cosatu : Eskom's tariff hike request outrageous - 13 October
Eskom's tariff hike request was "outrageous and insensitive", the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Tuesday. - Business Report website

Eskom's plan a disaster - 14 October
Eskom's latest proposal to increase electricity prices by 45 percent annually for the next three years will have an inflationary effect on the economy and lead to a series of interest rate hikes that could cripple many households and businesses financially. This was the reaction of economists and consumer groups to an application made by Eskom to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) yesterday in which it proposed to increase electricity tariffs. - Business Report website

'SA must have plan as mining declines' - 13 October
Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni has called for greater diversification in South Africa's economy as one day, mineral resources will be depleted and the country will have to depend on other economic activities. Speaking at the 12th Kgosi Edward Patrick Lebone Molotlegi Annual Memorial Lecture, Phokeng, at the weekend, he said that South Africa was once a global leader in gold mining and gold constituted well over fifty percent of South African exports, but had since given up this mantle. - Business Report website

SA's Mboweni knocks nationalisation talk - 12 October
South African mines will not be nationalised despite "noises" from some politicians, South Africa's central bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Saturday. However, he warned in a memorial lecture that authorities in emerging countries must guard against excessive foreign ownership of banks. Some politicians, including those from influential trade unions and the ruling ANC party's youth, have repeatedly called for government to take over ownership of the country's mines, a move that could scare off investors. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Mboweni is nothing in the ANC : Malema - 12 October
Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni would not get a good ANC position if he continued to say that South African mines would not be nationalised, ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema said on Monday. "We don't want Tito's statement that the mines will not be nationalised. Tito is nothing in the ANC. If he continues, he will not get a nice deployment", said Malema, addressing University of Zululand students at the Empangeni campus. - IOL website

Nationalisation of SA mines is fait accompli : Malema - 20 October
ANCYL leader Julius Malema envisages a South Africa where the state owns 60% of all mines to "generate extra income" for the government. "The nationalisation of mines will happen, the Freedom Charter says that", Malema told reporters in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The ruling African National Congress must have its mind made up about it in time for its next conference in 2012, said Malema. An internal paper was already being drafted within the party for discussion, he said. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Now Mandela/Zuma's Aurora buys Pamodzi Gold East Rand - 12 October
New gold-miner Aurora Empowerment Systems has bought the liquidated Pamodzi Gold East Rand assets, Mining Weekly Online can today report. The hedged East Rand assets, the last of the stricken Pamodzi Gold assets to be bought out liquidation, are the second set of Pamodzi Gold assets that Aurora has taken up, following the company's acquisition of Pamodzi Gold Orkney for R215-million. Mining Weekly Online understands that personnel at Pamodzi Gold East Rand's Grootvlei gold mine were informed on October 9 that Aurora, with funding from Malaysian and Middle Eastern investors, would be taking over. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Municipal Management and Procedure

City has worst metro services - 21 October
Residents of the City of Tshwane get the worst municipal services of all metro authorities in the country and these services have also improved least since 2001, an independent survey has found. This is according to economic and empowerment rating agency Empowerdex project developer Suhail Mohamed. When its population growth was taken into consideration, Tshwane came third from the top in the study by the agency. According to Empowerdex, Cape Town was the best municipality for services such as housing, sewage, waste removal, water and sanitation, with an overall score of 73.4 out of 100, taking into account the 18.8 percent increase in households, while Johannesburg, which grew by 15.7 percent, was second with a score of 70.8. Ethekwini came bottom of the list with a score of only 59.4, and was the least improved municipality after Tshwane. According to the Empowerdex report Ethekwini is especially struggling to provide services to the large rural area which was added to the metro in 2005 and which increased its size by 68 percent and its population by 9 percent. Gauteng was found to be the second-best province for service delivery after the Western Cape, while KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo were at the bottom of the list. - IOL website
See response from eThekwini Municipality below

Joburg to help other metros - 22 October
Johannesburg is being asked to lend its service delivery expertise to other municipalities at a two-day indaba now under way in Boksburg. The City is South Africa's second-best managed metro and it will be asked to discuss its successful strategies for viable and effective delivery of essential services - as it has done in areas like Soweto. - Joburg website

The good and the bad of municipalities - 21 October
Index measures delivery of basic services. Msinga, in KwaZulu-Natal, is the worst-performing local municipality in South Africa, with just 18.6 percent of households receiving basic services. On the other hand Camdeboo, formerly Graaff-Reinet, in the Eastern Cape is the best local municipality in which to live. It provides formal housing, water, sanitation, electricity and waste removal to 96.4 percent of households. This is according to a report released yesterday by Empowerdex, a leading black empowerment rating agency. - Business Report website

64 municipalities on distress list - 21 October
The Northern Cape had the highest vacancy rates and Gauteng was the only province that had all chief financial officer (CFO) posts filled. At least 64 municipalities were on the financial distress list, a report on the state of local government in South Africa revealed today. "From evidence to date, it is clear that much of local government is indeed in distress, and that this state of affairs has become deeply rooted within our system of governance," the document said. - Times Live website

Cities face ruin, warns government - 18 October
South Africans are losing faith in local government, says a hard-hitting government report that describes how political meddling and infighting have brought many municipalities to the brink of collapse, unable to render services and squandering funds while backlogs continue to mount. The report also highlights "a major gap" between policy and reality - municipalities are at the coalface of delivery but many are unable to meet the demands on them, resulting in paralysis. - IOL website

Zuma to meet mayors on state of local govt - 19 October
President Jacob Zuma will this week meet with more than 283 executive mayors and mayors to discuss the state of local government and service delivery improvement. All nine premiers and municipal managers will also attend the meeting, to be held in Khayelitsha, Cape Town on Tuesday. - allAfrica website

Zuma calls for major rethink on role and functions of municipalities - 20 October
President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday condemned the violence of recent  service delivery protests, but also called for a major rethink on the role and functions of municipalities. "It is clear that we need to do more, and that we need to do things differently", he told some 280 mayors and municipal managers  from across the country in Cape Town. - The Richmark Sentinel website

Government won't tolerate violent protests : Zuma - 20 October
The government would not tolerate the destruction of property and violence that often accompanied service delivery protests, President Jacob Zuma said. "There is no cause in a democratic and free society, however legitimate, that justifies the wanton destruction of property and violence that we have witnessed", he said. Zuma was addressing some 280 mayors and municipal managers from across the country at a meeting in Cape Town. - Weekend Post website

SA mayors told to end corruption - 20 October
South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has told local officials to stop corruption and power squabbles to end protests over the lack of basic services. He told some 280 mayors that most of their offices were "dysfunctional" due to corruption and mismanagement. There has been a recent spate of violent protests, with many people angry that they are still without housing, water and electricity. - BBC News website

National effort needed to help local government - 20 October
A national effort was needed to improve the capacity of local government, says Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency Collins Chabane. This was the agreement reached today between premiers, cabinet members, mayors, directors-general and municipal managers and MECs responsible for local government. This followed a meeting in Khayelitsha between President Jacob Zuma and the mayors and municipal managers of the 283 municipalities. - BuaNews Online website

Political interference in municipalities a problem : Collins Chabane - 20 October
Transcript of minister's briefing following Zuma's address to mayors and municipal managers. - Politicsweb website

Cape Town

City's new billboard rules - 12 October
In 1999, the Cape High Court ordered the municipality to amend its outdoor advertising by-law to allow third party advertising, but also restrict such advertisers to protect Cape Town's rich environment. Accordingly, a by-law was put in place in Cape Town in 2000, and extended metro wide in 2001, and this has now been reworked and updated. - Cape Business News website

eThekwini

Legal battle brews around Durban's waterfront development - 5 October
On Thursday the Durban Paddle Ski Club will vote on going ahead with joint legal action against the development of a small crafts harbour at Durban's popular Point Waterfront. Should legal action be instituted, it could be a spanner in the works for the extension of the multi-billion rand development. - Realestateweb website

Press Release : Our Worst Municipalities This press release was emailed out at : 21 October, 2009 18:15 This is in response to an article in The Mercury dated 21 October 2009 titled "Our Worst Municipalities" The eThekwini Municipality is very disappointed with the above article which conveys the incorrect impression that the eThekwini Municipality is the worst performing Metro in terms of a municipal service delivery index (MUNIDEX) arrived at through a study undertaken by Empowerdex. Firstly, to calculate the overall index, municipalities that experienced an increase in households greater than the national average of 11.56% received bonus points, whilst those that experienced lower increases were penalized. The increase or decrease was up to 20 points. In this regard, the percentage increase in households in eThekwini was the lowest amongst Metros with 5.99%. Accordingly, in terms of the calculation of the overall index, the eThekwini Municipality was  penalized for being below the national average. We consider this to be unfair and cannot fully appreciate why an arbitrary factor such as the increase in households was used to influence and weight scores in the calculation of this index. Basically, half the overall score is dependent on the improvement index. Accordingly, the index has a bias for improvement. Hence, as the eThekwini base is already high due to excellent work done in the recent past, we believe we have been prejudiced. Municipalities with a lower base would have had more room for improvement. MUNIDEX compares the 2001 Census with the 2007 Community Survey, which are out of date.  The 2007 Community Survey has a lower level of statistical reliability than the 2001 Census, which besides being out of date, calls into question the degree of accuracy in comparing the two sets of data. The MUNIDEX report does not take into account the scale of basic service delivery but reports on percentage change within each Municipality. This type of reporting could result in one Municipality delivering more basic services between 2001 and 2007 than another but getting a lower percentage improvement score than a second municipality which has in fact delivered fewer basic service units. MUNIDEX is a composite index comprising a status index, an improvement index and an overall score adjustment based on household increases. The improvement index is problematic as it compares the increase in service delivery of a municipality against the national average, rather than comparing the service delivery levels in each municipality between 2001 and 2007. Being able to reach the same results is a basic tenant of scientific work and unfortunately the calculation of the overall final score is not replicable, given the information provided in the report. Accordingly, more current and reliable information would certainly have been from documentation from National Treasury and the Office of the Auditor-General on the performance of municipalities. As you would undoubtedly appreciate, both are independent and reliable sources. In this regard, the eThekwini Municipality has always received a clean, unqualified audit report from the Auditor-General. Further, National Treasury as part of the assessment of the Municipality's budget commended the Municipality on its "impressive and significant growth in the capital budget, 50 percent, between 2007/08 and 2008/09 and annual growth at an average of 4.7% over the MTREF (Medium Term Revenue & Expenditure Framework), reflects an attempt by the municipality to accelerate service delivery and address backlogs". In addition, amongst several awards won by the Municipality in recent years is the Govan Mbeki Award for the best housing delivery in the country where we are producing 16 000 new houses per annum on fully serviced sites. The study must also be read within the context of the huge rural challenge in the eThekwini Municipality. In this regard, throughout the world there are different levels of services for urban and rural areas which has been accepted politically. However, services in rural areas do meet basic health standards. In addition, neither the report on the study nor the newspaper article have been contextualized in terms of the following key issues that emanate in the main from the credit rating report of the Municipality which is another independent and reliable source that the study omitted to refer to :- The eThekwini Municipality has the highest capital spend in the country due the rollout of the biggest infrastructural programme. Lastly, the Municipality has the highest maintenance spend in the country. The eThekwini municipal region recorded a GDP of R137.6bn in 2008, or 6.7% of national GDP, and has witnessed an average GDP growth rate of 5.2% over the period 2004 to 2008, above the national average of 4.6%. In addition, an expectation of continued above average growth is favourably viewed. It must also be stated that at no stage did Empowerdex liaise with us regarding their study to validate any information or conclusions they had reached. Accordingly, we question the objectivity and validity of this study. Further, it is also disappointing to note that the reporters in question, namely Wendy Jasson Da Costa and Gugu Mbonambi, made no attempt to elicit a response from the eThekwini Municipality regarding this study which would have ensured a far more balanced view in their article. In view of the above, we certainly do not believe that the study undertaken by Empowerdex is reflective of the level of service delivery by the eThekwini Municipality. Issued by eThekwini Municipality, Communications Unit, Contact Themba Nyathikazi on 031-311 2286 or e-mail nyathikazit@durban.gov.za

 

Press Release : Comments on the Spatial Development Plan Due This press release was emailed out at : 16 October, 2009 17:12 The eThekwini Municipality is urging the public to send in their comments on the Draft Spatial Development Plans (SDP) that will guide and manage future spatial development and investment in the eThekwini region over a 20-year time frame. The opportunity to comment closes on 20 October 2009. The Spatial Development Plans will also indicate transport, environmental and infrastructural implications, identify the City's development priorities and guide the preparation of more detailed local area plans, precinct plans and land use schemes. A Spatial Development Plan is the next level of translation of the Integrated Development Plan's (IDP's) Spatial Development Framework (SDF). Although it has a more detailed geographic focus, it is not site or street specific but indicates the role of each planning region and directs, at a broad level, where and at what density, future residential, industrial, agricultural, commercial and mixed-use development should occur throughout the municipal area. The SDP, will also indicate opportunities for new nodes, corridors, road linkages and development opportunities and will direct the type of land uses and densities relative to the role of the node and corridor. For example, the SDP will promote higher density residential and mixed-use development along major public transport corridors or within an urban node, to permit easier and more cost effective access to houses, work, shops and community facilities. In a similar way, rural nodes have been identified to enable more people access to social and community facilities in rural areas. New metropolitan level road linkages have also been identified (for example Main Road 577 and 579 linking INK to Clermont KwaDabeka / Pinetown to Umlazi) that will give residents in the municipal area greater access to facilities and ease of movement at a city-wide scale. These are some of the spatial tools being used to redress the social, spatial and economic inequities in our city and at the same time promote development that is more cost effective, equitable and sustainable. Public meetings have already been held in various areas to give the public a chance to get informed about this plan. Relevant documents are available for inspection at all Municipal libraries, regional offices, Area Based Management offices (ABM's) & Regional Centers. Plans can also be accessed on the municipal website : http://www.durban.gov.za/durban/government/planning/planning-news/sdp/view. Public comments are due no later than 20 October 2009 and must be submitted to the Manager: Framework Planning, Room 200, 2nd Floor, City Engineer's Building, 166 K E Masinga Road (Old Fort Road) or P O Box 680, Durban, 4000.

Msunduzi

MEC asks for rethink of metro status for Pietermaritzburg - 19 October
The champagne was opened too soon on Msunduzi Municipality’s metro status. The Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) has, at the eleventh hour, re-opened discussion on the status of the municipality, publishing a notice to this effect in Friday’s Witness. The board said it was asked by KwaZulu-Natal Local Government MEC Nomsa Dube to reconsider its decision about granting Msunduzi metro status. Opposition parties accuse the board of caving in to political demands and blame factionalism and infighting in the ANC for costing Msunduzi its metro status by 2011. - The Witness website

Municipal demarcation board : chairman answers questions on rethink - 19 October
Municipal Demarcation Board chairman Landiwe Mahlangu answers the Witness's questions on the rethink over Msunduzi's metro status. - The Witness website

Name Changes

Name changes spark outcry - 21 October
Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana's announcement in the Government Gazette that she approved the changing of 42 place names caused an outcry from opposition parties and organisations on Wednesday. Xingwana's announcement that 28 names in Mpumalanga, one in Gauteng, five in the North West and 11 in KwaZulu-Natal would change, was published in the Government Gazette on Friday. Thirty-seven of these were approved on July 28, the rest on 18 September. - IOL website

National Planning Commission

Planning Commission won't be gatekeeper : Manuel - 6 October
The National Planning Commission will not be "the gatekeeper of policy", nor will it take over setting budgets, Minister Trevor Manuel told Parliament on Tuesday. Manuel, who is reported to be at the centre of a bitter fight between Cabinet members and trade unions over control of the country's economy, said his ministry's task was to create "a coherent vision" on the outcomes of policies. - Creamer Media's Engineering News website

National Prosecuting Authority

Justice DG demoted - 11 October
Justice director-general Menzi Simelane has been demoted to deputy national director of public prosecutions afer his murky involvement in the Vusi Pikoli inquiry. The Sunday Tribune was authoritatively told on Friday that Simelane would report to the National Prosecuting Authority tomorrow, filling the position left vacant by former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy, who is now at the World Bank. But since the elite police unit has been disbanded and a new one formed in the police, Simelane will not have the powerful and influential role of commanding a crack squad. - The Sunday Independent website

Cloud hangs over Simelane's head in new post - 12 October
As former Justice Department director-general Menzi Simelane was due to start his new job today as one of the deputy national directors of public prosecutions, the report of a probe into his conduct remains under wraps. Justice Minister Jeff Radebe's spokesperson, Tlali Tlali, said on Sunday the report into Simelane's conduct had been referred back to the Public Service Commission (PSC). Tlali said Radebe had sent the report to Simelane for his response on the issues raised in the report. - IOL website

Parliament

Parliament to relocate? - 22 October
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe says government is investigating whether it is financially viable to keep Parliament in  Cape Town . He was addressing MPs in the National Assembly on government’s expenditure patterns on Wednesday. Motlanthe defended his colleagues in cabinet, saying their luxury vehicle purchases were not illegal or unethical. However, he added that a cabinet task team probing government expenses was investigating the issue. - Eye Witness News website

Parliament's future debated - 22 October
The future of parliament is back on the table as the government studies ways to cut costs, cabinet spokesman Themba Maseko told reporters. Briefing reporters on the outcome of yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Maseko said the cost of moving ministers, MPs and officials up and down the country was being analysed. - Times Live website

Govt 'has made no decision to move Parliament' - 22 October
No decision has been made to move Parliament to Gauteng and the institution remains in Cape Town, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Thursday. "Parliament is and remains in Cape Town. So there's no decision to move Parliament to Pretoria," he told a media briefing following Wednesday's regular Cabinet meeting. - Mail & Guardian website

'Bling cars a boost for economy' - 22 October
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has made the startling claim that government bought expensive "bling cars" for ministers in a bid to revive the economy. The "bling cars" have so far cost more than R43million. Motlanthe made the claim in a snap debate with DA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip in Parliament yesterday after Trollip said the "bling cars" must be returned to save the government money during the recession. But Motlanthe retorted : "We must not elevate poverty to a virtue". - Sowetan website

Public Protector

Government 'ignored public protector' - 13 October
Outgoing Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana has warned that government departments dented the image of the country's democratic institutions by not even bothering to acknowledge receipt of his office's reports on them, much less act on them. Mushwana, who steps down this week after his seven-year, non-renewable term in office, is tipped to head the SA Human Rights Commission. He said if the government ignored the recommendations of the institutions established in terms of chapter nine of the constitution, such as the public protector and the human rights commission, the public's trust in these institutions would be damaged. - IOL website

Meet the new Public Protector - 18 October
President Jacob Zuma has appointed Advocate Thulisile Madonsela as the new Public Protector, the presidency said. The decision was made after a recommendation of the National Assembly, spokesman Vincent Magwenya said in a statement on Sunday. Madonsela replaces advocate Lawrence Mushwana, whose non-renewable seven-year term expires this month. - IOL website

Secret Service

I Spy . . . a man born to be in intelligence - 10 October
New secret service head Moe Shaik appears to have been born for a life in intelligence, writes Paddy Harper. There's something strangely fitting about the secrecy and intrigue in the lead up to Shaik's appointment : almost his entire political life has played out this way. - Times Live website

Moe Shaik : a reply to Jeremy Gordin - 9 October
Article by Paul Trewhela. - Politicsweb website

Spooks' business tentacles - 12 October
If the new head of South Africa's intelligence services gets post for some of his businesses, he will have to pick it up at the Iraqi embassy. New State Security Agency (SSA) Director-General (DG) Mzuvukile Jeff Maqetuka retains interests in at least 14 businesses. His colleague, newly appointed DG of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Lizo Gibson Njenje, is an even busier man, with links to at least 30 businesses. Maqetuka was deputy DG of the NIA from 1995 to 1997, and Njenje was deputy DG of the SA Secret Service (SASS) and deputy DG of the NIA during 2003 and 2005. The NIA deals with intelligence within South Africa and the SASS with external issues. - IOL website

Who's in - 11 October
IOL website

Who's out - 11 October
IOL website

'Shoot to Kill'

'Cops must not shoot schoolkids' - 21 October
Police boss Bheki Cele has told MPs he is prepared to take the heat if his officers shoot to kill - as long as their targets are armed criminals.  The national police commissioner yesterday said police officers were dealing with heavily armed gangs that did not hesitate to open fire, and police should not think twice about shooting if they were caught in that situation. Cele was briefing the National Assembly's police committee on his department's annual report for the 2008/2009 financial year. - IOL website

Numbers speak for themselves : Govender - 21 October
Allowing the police to shoot to kill did nothing to address the weaknesses in the criminal justice system, South African Human Rights Commission chairperson Pregs Govender said on Wednesday. She was addressing an Africa Human Rights Day event in Cape Town. Nor would it do anything about the problem of police firearms being used in the killing of innocent civilians and in domestic violence. - IOL website

Judge slams 'shoot to kill' proposal - 22 October
Talk of police being allowed to "shoot to kill" was extremely dangerous and ignorant, according to Freedom Under Law (FUL) chairperson and retired Constitutional Court judge Johann Kriegler. Addressing Rhodes University law students at a function in Grahamstown at the weekend, Kriegler said calls by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and police chief Bheki Cele for the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) to be rewritten giving police more firepower were "ill informed". He said those advising the minister and his chief in this regard should be "ashamed of themselves". - Dispatch Online website

Social Welfare

2-million more children will get cash from Government - 22 October
The state child support grant of R240 a month will be extended to children older than 14 years with effect from January 1 next year. Government spokesman Themba Maseko said Cabinet approved the extension of the grant to eligible children up to their 18th birthday. Currently, children turning 15 are removed from the system. - Sowetan website

South African Police Service

Police slammed for poor presentation - 8 October
A top-level police delegation was sent packing from Parliament yesterday after being blasted for trying to "bamboozle" MPs with a "haphazard" and wholly inadequate presentation on how the SAPS intended implementing a crucial draft crime-fighting bill that would cost billions. Committee chairperson Cindy Chikunga will now be writing a letter of complaint to Police Commissioner Bheki Cele and copying it to Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa. Divisional Commissioner Piet du Toit of the SAPS criminal records and forensic science division said the SAPS had been informed about the meeting only two days earlier. This claim was disputed by the committee's secretary, Jeremy Michaels, who told Chikunga the SAPS had been informed on September 29.  - IOL website
Keyphrase :
Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill

Police DNA Bill 'hasty' - 13 October
The South African Police Services (SAPS) has come under fire for trying to rush through the implementation of its DNA Bill, despite not having the funding and capacity to implement or maintain the database. Patricia Whittle, researcher with the Parliamentary Research Unit, says as resources are not readily available, the processes to implement the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill should not be rushed. She adds that creating a database riddled with errors will only cause the criminal justice system more harm and "lay more problems at government's door". - ITWeb website

Cele : Move to change police from a "service" to a "force" - 8 October
National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele will soon be referred to as "general", he said in Johannesburg on Thursday. "It will not be a distant future when you will be speaking to 'general' rather than 'commissioner'," Cele said at a press briefing following the launch of a television programme to be used in the fight against crime. Moves to change the ranks within the police force were underway after President Jacob Zuma made the call earlier this year. - The Richmark Sentinel website

Paramilitary police plan crazy, says Asmal - 20 October
Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula's idea of militarising the police service is "craziness" and smacks of "low-level political decision-making", former minister Kader Asmal said at the Cape Town Press Club yesterday. - IOL website

Mbalula hits back at 'raving lunatic' Asmal - 21 October
The diatribe Kader Asmal metes out at the leadership of the ANC is nothing more than hot air from a disgruntled individual who refuses to come to terms with reality. Heaping insults at our leaders and desperately trying to project the ANC as a conglomeration of imbeciles will not catapult Asmal back to centre stage of public life, as he seems to hope with his ramblings. - IOL website

Kader Asmal's very good point is lost in the sound and fury - 21 October
A political storm has erupted over remarks made by former government minister, Kader Asmal. On Monday, Asmal was highly critical of the idea of militarising the police service. The point he was making was that it was the re-militarisation of a service which the ANC had spent years demilitarising. - Times Live website

Asmal defends right to freedom of speech - 21 October
Asmal responded : "Since I believe very strongly that freedom of the press is vital to the maintenance of democracy, I shall continue to exercise this right, which is protected by our Constitution". - Mail & Guardian website

Metro cops, Saps to integrate - 10 October
South Africa's metro police service is to be integrated into the SA Police Service to form "one super police force", a police department spokesperson said on Saturday. The project, spearheaded by Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, would see the SAPS transformed into a paramilitary force, with military ranks and discipline, spokesman Paena Galane told Sapa. "We need to have one single strong police force, with all police resources being utilised towards the same goals". - News24 website

Confusion about merger of police services - 13 October
It would be "impossible" to merge the city's Metro Police service with the Saps, because the two policing bodies have different mandates, says Cape Town's Metro Police chief, Robert Young. Young said he doubted that the police themselves were proposing a merger of the two bodies, as was reported at the weekend, and said proposed amendments to the Police Act would rather be geared to ensuring closer co-operation between the services. - IOL website

KwaZulu-Natal

'I hate crime' : MEC calls for suspects database - 12 October
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for community safety and liaison Willies Mchunu has called on residents to compile a database of all alleged criminals in their areas and to submit it to the police for investigation. Mchunu was addressing top cops and community crime fighters in Imbali township, Pietermaritzburg’ on Saturday. This was his first interaction with all SAPS station commissioners, community policing forum chairpersons and coordinators from 183 police stations in the province. - Sowetan website

Police stations probed for fudging crime stats - 15 October
Minister Nathi Mthethwa told Parliament the Mountain Rise police station in Pietermaritzburg allegedly failed to include 147 crimes in its crime statistics report, Beeld newspaper reports. Another 253 dossiers are also suspected to not have been registered on the police's central data basis. Mthethwa, who was replying to a question in Parliament, said provincial police authorities were investigating the matter. - Times Live website

Sport and Recreation

Oliphant slated over Santana - 21 October
The fall out of the Joel Santana affair has kicked off with SAFA hitting out at former President Molefi Oliphant. According to vice-president Mandla Mazibuko, Oliphant made the decision to hire the sacked Bafana boss without the approval of his executive committee. It is widely reported that Carlos Alberto Parreira recommended Santana to SAFA as his replacement - which is contrary to reports that Parreira handed the South African governing body a list of candidates that included Luis Felipe Scolari and had Santana at number five. - Football365 website

'Doctor shouldn't be treating Zuma' - 21 October
The chairman of Parliament's sports portfolio committee, Butana Komphela, has vowed to ensure that Dr Harold Adams, the doctor for the South African team at the world athletics championships in Berlin, is removed as one of President Jacob Zuma's doctors. Komphela made the threat after Athletics South Africa (ASA) appeared before the portfolio committee to explain its handling of the Caster Semenya sex-testing controversy. Meanwhile ANC members of the sports and recreation portfolio committee have demanded that the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) leadership, which is planning to visit South Africa next month, apologise to Semenya before they set foot on South African soil. Komphela warned that "things will not be nice" for IAAF president Lamine Diack if he came to South Africa without first apologising. - IOL website

Caster saga 'because of Zola Budd' - 21 October
A high-powered ASA delegation, including Chuene, briefed Parliament's sports and recreation committee on Tuesday on the controversy around the world 800m gold medallist. Chuene left it to ASA board member Chris Britz to read a statement which said the athletics body had not lied about knowing about the sex tests, but had taken a decision to keep this information confidential in order to protect Semenya. Britz said ASA's continuous denial of the tests was further justified because they were conducted by only one doctor and not a gender verification panel as demanded by the IAAF. Dr Simon Dlamini, chairman of the board's finance committee, said the "whole issue is (because) the girl broke the record (of) Zola Budd". - IOL website

Taxation Law

SARS wides tax window - 9 October
The introduction of a two-year property 'tax window' by SARS (the South African Revenue Service) has been brought forward from 1 January 2010 and will now apply retrospectively to disposals from 11 February 2009.  The window period will last for transfers up until 31 December 2011.  During this "tax window" period people who hold their primary residences in CCs or private companies can transfer their properties into an individual's name without incurring any liability for capital gains tax (CGT). - Cape Business News website

Recent court ruling : no such thing as a free holiday - 9 October
In a judgement handed down in the High Court in the Western Cape (Vacation Exchanges International (Pty) Ltd v Commissioner for the South African Revenue Services - judgement given on August 7 2009), the Court provided clarity on who must pay the tax when the taxable value of a fringe benefit is adjusted by Sars on the basis that it has been incorrectly calculated by an employer. - Moneyweb website

How to avoid dividend tax - 22 October
The impending implementation of a dividends tax will mean that the current exemption regarding pre-2001 embedded value will fall away. If your company or close corporation holds an asset with pre-2001 embedded value it would be wise to take note of the fact that the existing exemption from STC on deregistration will fall away with the introduction of the dividends tax. - Moneyweb website

What is good for the goose . . . - 16 October
As a provisional tax payer I recently paid a not insignificant lump sum to Sars, so it really irks me that there are people not paying tax and they certainly should be fined. But at the same time, Sars needs to be held to a similar standard. Delays in refunds from Sars have a material impact on small businesses and households. A small business owner was venting his frustration this week about the fact that Sars owes his business a refund based on their last tax assessment. - Moneyweb website

Trade and Industry

Address by President Jacob Zuma at the World Trade Centre Business Club - 8 October
Thank you for this opportunity to say a few words on the occasion of this South Africa - Brazil Roundtable Business Forum. We have brought with us from South Africa a delegation representing 45 companies interested in expanding both trade and investment relations in Brazil. The areas of interest include sectors such as energy, information technology, mining, finance, infrastructure and pharmaceuticals. - BuaNews Online website

State aid sought in new China trade row - 22 October
SA's ferrochrome producers are calling for government support against their Chinese counterparts in what has emerged as another trade skirmish between the two countries. The battle to retain leadership of the global ferrochrome market and remain a key supplier to the Chinese stainless steel industry amplifies the struggle of clothing and textile makers against a cheap Chinese goods onslaught. The seven producers in the lobby group - including Xstrata Alloys, Samancor Chrome and International Ferrometals - represent about 90% of SA's ferrochrome production and about 44% of global production. SA has about 65% of the world's chrome reserves. - allAfrica website

Miscellaneous

Mandela notes show 'grave error' - 14 October
Unseen writings of Nelson Mandela which are being sold this week show the anti-apartheid leader at his most candid. The Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF) is selling the rights to the 100 000-word archive of notes, diaries and letters at the Frankfurt Book Fair. - BBC News website

A bit foreword! Nelson Mandela plans legal action over 'fake endorsement' - 21 October
In the crowded field of political biography, it can be hard for a novice author to stand out. But not Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the president of Congo-Brazzaville, who has certainly managed to make a splash. In his new tome he boasts, in large type on the cover, that it contains a foreword written by Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president. The foreword praises Sassou-Nguesso as "one of our great African leaders" which, as endorsements go, beats the Booker and Nobel prizes rolled into one. But the biography, Straight Speaking for Africa, appears to fall short of its title. Mandela has issued a statement saying he did not write the foreword. Nor has he read the book. He plans to take legal action. - Guardian website

Experts don’t buy Mpshe's argument - 20 October
Legal experts are "unconvinced" by acting prosecutions head Mokotedi Mpshe's argument that his decision to drop corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma cannot be reviewed by a court. Mpshe filed papers in the North Gauteng High Court on Friday in response to the Democratic Alliance's (DA's) bid to have his decision - made in April - not to prosecute Zuma reviewed.His affidavit focuses mainly on two preliminary questions in the case : firstly, whether the DA has legal standing to bring the case ; and secondly, whether a court may consider and decide the case. - Business Day website

Why I don't want to defend my Zuma decision in court : Mpshe - 16 October
Acting NDPP's answering affidavit to DA's review application in the North Gauteng High Court. - Politicsweb website

Officials' spouses bagged deals worth R46m - 19 October
Spouses of senior government officials had bagged more than R46-million through government contracts awarded by the national and provincial departments where their partners worked, but the officials were under no obligation to disclose their wives' or husbands' business interests. - IOL website

Cops criticise Montgomerys - 12 October
The KwaZulu-Natal police expressed concern on Monday about domestic violence cases that are reported and withdrawn. "It's about time something was done about crimes that are reported and withdrawn. People [should] reimburse the state for the time and resources spent when the charge is laid", said Captain Vincent Mdunge. - News24 website

Drug mule mom finally home - 15 October
'I've paid my dues, I am stronger and I have changed my ways for the better". These were the words of Joeleene Phillips, 24, a Durban woman who arrived at OR Tambo International airport on Wednesday morning after serving almost three years in a Brazilian prison. - IOL website
Keyphrase :
Drug Smuggling

Officials' spouses bagged deals worth R46m - 19 October

InfoUpdate : an Information Service supplied by the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society