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South Africa

2010 FIFA World Cup

18 August 2010
Address by President Jacob Zuma to the Joint Sitting of Parliament on the occasion of the Debate on the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup Tournament ; National Assembly
Presidency website

I foresaw major problems coming : Hoskins - 17 August
A failure by the Durban and Cape Town city councils to communicate with rugby bosses over the use of stadia for future matches has caused "major problems", SA Rugby Union president Oregan Hoskins told MPs on Tuesday. - IOL website

Mbalula's tender woes - 8 August
A fight over resources between comrades has thrust Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula into the centre of a multi-million-rand World Cup tender war. At the centre of the row is the cancellation of the contract for Nationwide Security, a company that was contracted to secure the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium during the World Cup. The cancellation came after initial accusations that Mbalula might have had financial interests in it because of the involvement of his ANC office manager. - IOL website

SAPS to claim for World Cup security - 2 September
South African Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa on Thursday said the 2010 World Cup Organising Committee (LOC) should reimburse the South African Police Service for extra security work conducted at tournament stadiums. Mthethwa said they would claim close to R90 million, which would cover the cost of deploying over 1000 additional officers to stadiums when security guards went on strike. - Eye Witness News website

Human trafficking during World Cup doubles, up to 24 - 6 August
Activists Networking Against the Exploitation of Children released the interim results of its research regarding human trafficking in Cape Town on Friday. At least two dozen cases of human trafficking were reported during the World Cup. This figure was far less than anticipated but it is still a significant increase. - Eye Witness News website

Fifa to probe treatment of N Korean WC players - 11 August
Fifa president Sepp Blatter on Wednesday demanded answers from North Korea after reports that its World Cup squad was publicly humiliated and coach Kim Jong-Hun sentenced to hard labour. World football's governing body this week opened an investigation and sent a letter to the North Korean football authorities. - IOL website

Fischer's fate unclear - 11 August
The Western Cape Directorate for Public Prosecutions has withdrawn a bomb-threat charge against German retired news photographer Berndt Jurgen Fischer. Fischer, 68, was scheduled to appear in the Cape Town Regional Court on Thursday. It is not clear on Wednesday night whether he would still appear. - IOL website

South Africa drops journo 'bomb joke' case - 13 August
A South African court overnight dropped charges against a German journalist who joked about a bomb at a security checkpoint during the final draw for the FIFA World Cup. Berndt Jurgen Fischer was arrested in December 2009 after he told security officials that his camera had a bomb. The 68-year-old was released on bail and allowed to cover the tournament, which ended July 11. His lawyer said he had to sell his Cape Town house to meet the legal bills, and was now planning to return to Germany as soon as possible. - Herald Sun website

See also : Football murdering family Makwena granted bail  [Magistrates Courts]

Accounting

Where to draw the line? - 10 August
It's an odd little irony. If the lawyer of a corrupt individual came to know about his tax dodging, client confidentiality would protect him from having to share his knowledge with authorities and he could continue business as normal, billing for his services. Not so for the professional accountant, who is compelled by various laws in South Africa to split on his client without his knowledge. - Moneyweb website

African National Congress (ANC)

African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL)

10 August 2010
ANC Youth League response to a component of the ANC Discussion Document on Economic Transformation
Politicsweb website
Keyphrase :
Nationalisation of Mines

August 2010
ANCYL National General Council Discussion Documents
Polity website
Keyphrases :
Organisational growth, development and renewal towards economic freedom in our lifetime : back to basics
Towards the transfer of mineral wealth to the ownership of the people as a whole
Response to a component of the ANC Discussion Document on economic transformation

Official not sorry for 'drunk' slur on judge - 9 August
ANC Youth League secretary-general Vuyiswa Tulelo has refused to apologise to a High Court judge for reportedly referring to a ruling by her as a "drunken decision". Advocates have blasted her statement as an attack on the judiciary and a "vulgar" attempt to intimidate judges. The Human Rights Commission has also expressed concern. - IOL website

See also :
ANCYL must apologise to Judge Bheshe : AFT - 2 August [2010]
Politicsweb website
[InfoUpdate 18 of 2010]

Don't do anything divisive, Malema tells ANCYL - 15 August
African National Congress Youth League delegates should refrain from singing songs that could divide the organisation, league president Julius Malema said on Saturday. Malema was speaking at the organisation's Gauteng provincial congress in Boksburg, where he opened the provincial executive committee elective meeting. - Mail & Guardian website

Juju declares war on SACP - 22 August
ANC Youth League president Julius Malema declared war on the SA Communist Party yesterday, saying the league "will beat the dog until the owner comes out". He was speaking at the league's provincial elective conference in Grahamstown. Malema was reacting to recent statements by Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande, who expressed concern at faction fighting within the youth body. - Times Live website

Defend a free and publicly accountable media : remember and honour the memory of Ruth First - 20 August
Ruth First, as a leader of the YCL, and a supporter in building a revolutionary youth league for the ANC in the 1940s, would have been deeply disappointed about the current narrow and factionalist struggles within the ANC Youth League. These factionalist and divisive struggles within the ANCYL do not serve the interests of the youth of our country today and into the future. A critical struggle today, in honour and in memory of Ruth First, is that of defeating tenderpreneurship within our youth structures, and to reposition the YCL to play a vanguard and leading role in the struggles of working class and poor youth of our country. - Blade Nzimande on the South African Communist Party website

Malema cleared, says ANCYL - 16 August
The African National Congress Youth League on Monday welcomed the outcome of a probe by the Public Protector which could find no irregularities in contracts awarded to SGL Engineering Projects, with which ANCYL chief Julius Malema was involved. - IOL website

Public Protector's Malema report 'flawed' - 17 August
The Public Protector's investigation into tenders won by a construction company owned by ANC Youth League head Julius Malema is flawed, says Paul Hoffman, director of the Institute for Accountability in South Africa. Hoffman said the claim of Malema not being "involved with SGL" at crucial times did not pass scrutiny. - The Citizen website

Arms and Ammunition

No 'dirty bomb' plot, South Africa say - 19 August
An "industrial nuclear device" seized in a dramatic Pretoria police bust last month was radioactive cesium destined for a mining company in the Congo, not a terrorist group, a South African police official told SpyTalk on Thursday. An extensive undercover investigation by South Africa’s elite "Hawks" police unit, assisted by Interpol, had culminated in a July 9 shootout at a gas station and the arrest of five men said to be part of a criminal gang that had spent months trying to sell stolen cesium worth $6 million to $7 million. - Washington Post website

See also :
4 arrested in South Africa trying to sell nuclear device - 10 July [2010]
Voice of America News website
[InfoUpdate 16 of 2010]

Arts and Culture

'Let all SA celebrate this Indian landmark' - 8 August
The 150th anniversary of the arrival of Indians in the country should be celebrated by all South Africans, not exclusively by Indians. This was the message of minister of finance Pravin Gordhan to businessmen and parliamentarians at a gala dinner in Pietermaritzburg this week. The dinner was hosted by the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business to celebrate the contribution of Indian businessmen. - Times Live website

Banking

10 August 2010
Banking Association on transformation of financial sector institutions : briefing
Parliamentaring Monitoring Group website

Black Economic Empowerment (BEE)

Fronting must be criminal act : dti - 19 August
Fronting - using token black people as directors of companies to mask white companies wanting to win tenders - should be criminalised and treated "as a punishable offence", Department of Trade and Industry's officials heard yesterday. - Business Report website

Business

Business titans strike out at their own and vow to fight corruption - 18 August
Big business yesterday took uncharacteristic aim at members of its own community involved in controversial deals. At a press briefing in Johannesburg, which followed a Business Leadership SA council meeting, chairman Bobby Godsell and chief executive Michael Spicer announced that the BLSA, which has 80 top corporates as members, would draw up an "anti-corruption" code to govern members' behaviour. The code will include a clear definition of corruption - Business Report website

Communications

President Zuma receives the reports of the Public Protector on Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda - 11 August
President Jacob Zuma received, on the 2nd and 10th August 2010 respectively, two Reports from the Public Protector on investigations into alleged breach of the Executive Members Ethics Act, 1998 and the Executive Ethics Code by the Minister of Communications, General Siphiwe Nyanda. The Public Protector, Advocate Thulisile Madonsela, conducted two investigations in terms of section 3 of the Executive Member Ethics Act, 1998 read with sections 6 and 7 of the Public Protector Act 1994. - BuaNews Online website

Protector recommends probe into Nyanda-linked security contract - 11 August
The Public Protector has recommended that President Jacob Zuma investigate the circumstances under which a now cancelled security contract was awarded to a company associated with Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda, the DA said on Wednesday. "According to the report, the award of the security contract to Abalozi by the Gauteng department of public transport, roads and works in October 2008 was irregular", DA spokesman Jack Bloom said. "This was because it was awarded without any competitive bidding process and did not comply with the constitutional requirement of cost-effectiveness, nor the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act". - Business Day website

Minister of Communications' statement on the Report of the Public Protector - 11 August
The Minister of Communications General Siphiwe Nyanda has noted the final report of the Public Protector following an investigation into an allegation of a breach of the Executive members' Ethics Act of 1998 and the Executive Ethics Code. The investigation was in relation to a contract awarded to Abalozi, a company which General Nyanda's children's trust, the Mphephethwa Trust, owns a 45 percent shareholding. - BuaNews Online website

Nyanda 'feels vindicated' by Public Protector's findings - 12 August
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has essentially exonerated Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda of wrongdoing in two reports presented to President Jacob Zuma. Madonsela probed whether Nyanda had breached the Executive Members' Ethics Act and the Executive Ethics Code at the request of Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Athol Trollip and Congress of the People MP Julie Killian. - Mail & Guardian website

COSATU congratulates Public Protector on Nyanda report - 12 August
The Congress of South African Trade Unions congratulates the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, on her report which has cleared Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda of misconduct. Her thorough investigation and prompt report - on complaints lodged by the Democratic Alliance and the Congress of the People (Cope) about tenders awarded to Abalozi, a company Nyanda is allegedly linked to - is exactly the approach to allegations of corruption which COSATU has been calling for. - Politicsweb website

It's not over for Nyanda - 12 August
The Democratic Alliance says the whole truth has not yet been told regarding the investigations into communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda. Jack Bloom's complaint related to the awarding of a contract to Abalozi Security Risk Advisory Services (formerly General Nyanda Risk Advisory Services) by the Gauteng Department of Public Transport and Works for security services. - ITWeb website

Questions over Nyanda firm's R20m Mpuma deal - 15 August
A company owned partly by communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda was given a R20m contract to investigate service delivery protests in Mpumalanga, City Press reported on Sunday. The contract was allegedly awarded to Abalozi Security Risk Advisory Services without following tender rules. A Nyanda family trust is alleged to have a 45% shareholding in Abalozi. The report implicates rivals of Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza as instigators and funders of the protests, that began in the province in February 2009. Mpumalanga co-operative governance department head David Mahlobo was quoted as saying the contract was awarded on an "emergency procurement" basis and met treasury rules allowing for departure from normal tender rules. - TechCentral website

I don't want taxpayers' money : axed DG - 18 August
Axed communications director-general Mamodupi Mohlala has been offered a settlement of R2.9m by government. Over and above that she has been offered an amount of R200 000 to cover her legal costs. She has rejected the offers. "I don't want to get a golden handshake I think it's important that I earn the money. This is taxpayers' money so I believe it should not just be wasted and handed out just to get rid of people. People must be given an opportunity to work, earn the money and to contribute", Mohlala said. - Moneyweb website

Mohlala reinstated as comms DG - 26 August
Mamodupi Mohlala is back as Department of Communication's director-general, after communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda agreed to withdraw her dismissal and seek alternative employment in the public sector for her. The agreement was made an order of the Labour Court, in Johannesburg, late this morning after Mohlala and state legal representatives hammered together an out of court settlement. - ITWeb website

Mohlala reinstated and minister must pay - 27 August
Minister of Communications Siphiwe Nyanda has lost his battle to fire director-general Mamodupi Mohlala from the public service and has been ordered by the Labour Court to pay all legal fees.  - Business Report website

Fired communications director general to withdraw charges against Nyanda - 27 August
Axed communications director general Mamodupi Mohlala will go on special leave until she is redeployed to another department. Minister Siphiwe Nyanda withdrew Mohlala's dismissal at the  Johannesburg Labour Court on Thursday after an out-of-court settlement was reached. In terms of the settlement, she will withdraw her court action against the minister. - Eye Witness News website

Nyanda denies Mohlala reappointment - 27 August
In an apparent contradiction to the agreement that was reached and made an order of the court yesterday, the statement says the Ministry of Communications welcomes the ruling and : "It is therefore important to note that the agreement does not imply the immediate reinstatement of the former DG to her old position but to allow for what she initially requested from the President to take effect". - ITWeb website

Key state department was 'a sinking ship' : acting DG - 11 August
Staff morale in the Department of Communication is so low and its delivery system so compromised that some of this year's strategic objectives might be unattainable, acting director-general Harold Wesso warned yesterday. - Business Day website

Mohlala hits back at 'sinking ship' allegations - 11 August
Axed communications department director-general Mamodupi Mohlala has hit back at remarks made by her replacement, Harold Wesso, who alleged in parliament on Tuesday that he had inherited a "sinking ship". Wesso, who has been installed as acting director-general until a permanent replacement can be found, reportedly told parliamentarians that staff morale at the department had collapsed. He said there was no collective sense of purpose among employees as a result of Mohlala's tenure as director-general. - TechCentral website

SABC briefing to Parliament held behind closed doors - 24 August
A briefing by the SABC board to Parliament on Tuesday will take place behind closed doors because the long-awaited discussion could lead to litigation, a spokeswoman for the legislature said. The portfolio committee on communication will be briefed on the "functionality" of the SABC board and its turnaround strategy, as well as the appointment of CEO Solly Mokoetle, Yoliswa Landu said. - Business Report website

PGA takes a stand in Parliament - 24 August
About 15 members of the parliamentary Press Gallery Association (PGA) staged a sit-in outside a committee room in Parliament on Tuesday morning. They were protesting against the communications portfolio committee's decision to hold a meeting with the embattled SABC board behind closed doors. - IOL website

Sanef obtains interim interdict blocking secret meeting between SABC board and MPs - 24 August
The Daily Maverick website

Lawyers welcome court ruling overturning SABC secrecy - 24 August
A new date must now be set where SANEF and Parliament lawyers can argue in full whether or not media should be allowed to monitor discussions around a public entity funded by tax money. Lawyers representing the SA Editors Forum and Parliaments' lawyers are to set a date in order to argue in full the right of the media to attend a public meeting of parliament's committee investigating the SABC. Earlier acting Judge Sven Olivier. the Western Cape High Court ordered Parliament's communications portfolio committee not to proceed with a closed meeting on the SABC board. - allAfrica website

Communications Committee postpones meeting with SABC - 24 August
South African Broadcasting Corporation CEO Solly Mokoetles’ future was hanging in the balance on Tuesday. The public broadcaster has moved to suspend him and has officially issued him a letter with the intention to do so. Meanwhile, Parliament's Communications Committee has indefinitely postponed its meeting with SABC board members, which was supposed to get to the bottom of the latest internal battles at the corporation. - Eye Witness News website

8 June 2010
Memorandum to the Minister of Communications
The purported appointment of the Group Executive : News and Current Affairs of the SABC related matters : SABC board's indictment of Chairperson Ben Ngubane
Politicsweb website

Cell C re-invented? Brand, social media and legal specialists are not so sure - 12 August
Cell C's new logo could be open to challenge, and the brand's silence on social media criticisms shows the company is not genuine in its efforts to become consumer-centric, say experts. But Cell C says it’s engaging people online, that customer feedback has been positive and that questions about its logo are "okay with us". - The Daily Maverick website

Cell C logo rejected - 18 August
Third mobile operator Cell C's new logo has been provisionally rejected by the Registrar of Trademarks and legal experts are pointing to the prevalence of the copyright symbol in the new logo as a possible cause. According to Cell C's trademark application form, on Cipro's Online IP services, the provisional refusal was made on 2 August. Despite this, the operator nonetheless rolled out its campaign on 4 August. - ITWeb website

'Cell ©' okay for now, says top lawyer - 19 August
Cell C can continue using its controversial new trademark, which includes a design that resembles the copyright symbol. There's even a "reasonable possibility" it will be successful in registering "Cell ©" as a trademark, despite the fact that various applications it made in December 2009 were "provisionally declined" this month by the Registrar of Trademarks. This is the view of Don MacRobert, one of the country's leading intellectual property and trademarks lawyers. - TechCentral website

Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO)

Cipro mess creates devastating consequences - 26 August
The clock is ticking towards the implementation of the new Companies Act, but it is highly unlikely that the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office will be ready in time, which could have devastating consequences for economic development in SA. - ITWeb website

Company Law

SA to amend exchange controls for companies - 25 August
South Africa plans to revise its exchange controls for companies and will delay tightening rules that govern cross-border interest taxation until 2013, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Tuesday. 
"The proposed amendments remove various tax hurdles that a multinational company would face if it based its regional headquarters in South Africa. We are also revising exchange controls to support such initiatives", he said in Parliament, without further explanation. - Mail & Guardian website

Congress of the People (COPE)

See also : Western Cape High Court

Conservation

Rhino poaching kingpin in the dock - 10 August
A rhino poaching kingpin and four of his foot soldiers have been arrested for killing a rhinoceros and wounding another in the Kruger National Park. The man is due to appear in court for the first time on Tuesday morning and stands accused of financing the poaching and planning to sell horns to syndicates. At least three rhinos were killed this weekend. - Eye Witness News website

Rhino poaching highest in 15 years - 10 August
The International Rhino Foundation on Monday said the levels of rhino poaching experienced in  South Africa are the highest seen in 15 years. - Eye Witness News website

Wounded 'poacher' to appear in court - 10 August
A 40-year-old suspected poacher is expected to appear in court soon after Saturday's poaching drama ona  private farm in Camperdown outside Pietermaritzburg. Four police officers investigating an allegedly illegal hunt and paramedics were held hostage by a crowd of more than 400 angry locals. A platoon of 36 public order officers and a police helicopter was used to disperse the crowd and free the officers. During the fracas a man was shot and wounded and two hunting dogs were killed. "It has been established that the poachers, numbering more than 60, were armed with handguns, spears, shields and hunting dogs", said police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Mdunge. - Sowetan website

Two more rhino poaching victims - 20 August
Poachers have killed two more rhino, with the total killed in South Africa this year already beyond 150. One was killed in Groblersdal in  Mpumalanga on Thursday morning, while a second has been found dead in KwaZulu Natal – both with their horns removed. - Eye Witness News website

14th rhino killed for horns in KZN - 20 August
The Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife Trust has called on the police and Interpol to investigate the poaching of yet another rhino. The dead adult bull was found on Wednesday morning, and officials believe it was shot and dehorned on Tuesday night. A bullet was pulled from the animals head during a post-mortem and will be sent for ballistic testing. - Eye Witness News website

Limpopo rhinos killed for horns - 24 August
Ten men killed two rhinos on a Limpopo farm before cutting off their horns on Monday afternoon, SABC News reported. They held up two workers on the farm. - IOL website

Farmers arrested for cutting off their rhino's horn - 6 August
A father and son from Musina, Limpopo, have been arrested for darting one of their own rhinos and cutting off its horn. Spokesperson Ronel Otto said the two accused appeared in court and were released on R5 000 bail each. "The crime is that they did not apply for the necessary permit to dart and sedate the rhino, to cut off the horn and to have the horn in their possession", she said. She said the pair is accused of contravening an Environmental Management Biodiversity Act. The farmers apparently told officers they had cut the horn to protect the rhino from poachers. - Eye Witness News website

Owners resort to dehorning rhino to protect them - 11 August
A game farm owner said on Tuesday his rhino have a better chance of surviving if they are dehorned. - Eye Witness News website

African conservationists 'shoot to kill poachers' - 16 August
Some conservation organisations in Africa are operating a shoot-to-kill policy against poachers, to protect endangered species, a study says. An academic from the University of Manchester told the BBC that private security firms and mercenaries were being used to train game rangers. Prof Rosaleen Duffy has researched the issue for 15 years for a book to be published this month. She said these military-style campaigns were occurring across the continent. - BBC News website

Key steps taken in fight against rhino poaching - 24 August
A new Rhino Poaching Committee, established during LeadSA's Rhino Poaching Summit in Sandton on Monday, said new methods are needed to tackle a technologically advanced crime. The summit brought together delegates from government, the wildlife conservation community, private security, the police and the business sector to discuss ways to tackle the increase in illegal rhino hunting. - Eye Witness News website

Correctional Services

Westville prison head suspension lifted - 12 August
The suspension of the Durban Westville prison's area commissioner has been lifted, the correctional services department said on Thursday. Zebulon Monama and another official in charge of the prison's women's section were cleared of wrongdoing following a probe to determine why an awaiting trial inmate fell pregnant, spokesman Manelisi Wolela said in a statement. "The unethical relationship and sexual contacts between the female awaiting trial detainee took place in police cells in Pietermaritzburg." - IOL website

Policeman faces trial for alleged rape of prisoner - 15 August
A police officer has been suspended and is facing charges for allegedly raping and making pregnant a prisoner awaiting trial in Pietermaritzburg. The police said that "an unethical relationship of a sexual nature" took place between the inmate and the officer. - Times Live website

Medical parole system 'overhaul' - 12 August
Prisoners could soon be released on medical parole without being terminally ill, but in future it could also be possible to return to jail those who recover from their illnesses. But this will not apply to convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik, as any changes to the law will not be retrospective, it emerged yesterday. - IOL website

Shaik's parole 'relaxed' - 11 August
Convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik, who was punished for violating his parole conditions last year, has had his "free time" reinstated and is in line for more. The medical parolee is now allowed to leave the confines of his Morningside, Durban, home for six hours every Saturday, according to Mnikelwa Nxele, the regional commissioner of Correctional Services. - IOL website

Parole violations wasn't Shaik's fault - 12 August
Schabir Shaik's breach of his parole conditions in May this year, was not his fault and could be blamed on traffic delays and Woolworths running out of stock. This is according to the Department of Correctional Services who on Wednesday relaxed Shaik's parole conditions. - IOL website

Presidency mum on Shaik issue - 12 August
As the Presidency maintains its silence about convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik's application for a presidential pardon, the chances of his medical parole being reversed are getting slimmer. - IOL website

See also :

Thabo Mbeki's Shaik-down - 15 August
A meeting between Thabo Mbeki and Schabir Shaik in the early '90s laid the foundation for the convicted fraudster's business empire - and the ANC's links to alleged corruption in the multibillion-rand arms deal. Today the Sunday Times can reveal how Mbeki, who was deputy president of South Africa at the time, advised Shaik to set up a business empire - specifically for the benefit of the cash-strapped ruling party. This, despite Mbeki's repeated denials that he played any such role in the rise to prominence of Nkobi Holdings. - Times Live website

'Closed' Nkobi still in business - 25 August
Nkobi Holdings, a company set up as an ANC front and once owned by convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik, is still operating in KwaZulu-Natal - three years after it announced that it was selling off its assets and "winding down" its affairs. - Times Live website

Courts

Principal to plead guilty to fraud - 9 August
An emotional former Salt Rock home school principal said she would plead guilty to the fraud charges against her and had even set aside money in a trust account to pay back the parents she had duped. But she did not know what happened to the money in this account. Chavron Lewis was the owner and principal of Crest Academy - a home school that had enrolled 18 pupils for their matric year. She did not register her pupils for their matric examination and allegedly led them to believe they had written legitimate exams. She faces several fraud charges involving more than R400 000. - IOL website

See also :
Principal accused of conning pupils - 25 November [2008]
IOL website
[InfoUpdate 33 of 2008]

Senwes listing hits a snag - 15 August
A looming court battle between agricultural services firm Senwes and one of its minority shareholders could delay the group's planned listing on the JSE. The Treacle private equity group, which holds a 15% stake in Senwes, has made serious allegations in court documents about management irregularities at Senwes, claiming that Senwes and Senwes Beleggings (Senwesbel) contravened the Companies Act. Senwes has disputed these allegations, saying the application is part of Treacle's strategy to unlock maximum value from its Senwes holding before selling its stake when Senwes lists. - Fin24 website

Empowerment partner sues Senwes, claiming breaches of laws - 16 August
Treacle, a 15% Senwes shareholder and part of the Royal Bafokeng Consortium, has taken Senwes and its holding company, Senwesbel, to court over allegations that Senwes provided financial assistance to Senwesbel between 2004 and 2005 to enable Senwesbel to buy Senwes shares. As a result of this funding, Senwesbel was able to acquire R8,3m worth of shares in Senwes. The court battle could frustrate Senwes's plans to list on the JSE next year and dissolve the once applauded Senwes black economic empowerment deal, in which Senwes sold a 27,14% stake to the Bafokeng consortium for R122,7m. Senwesbel holds 35% and the balance is traded on the over-the-counter market. - allAfrica website

Van Schoor gets 2 years - 18 August
On Wednesday Magistrate Amrith Chabilla jailed car salesman Mark Godfrey van Schoor for two years on multiple fraud charges after his financial woes prompted him to join a Nigerian credit card cloning syndicate. Van Schoor told the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court that the syndicate threatened him and his family "with harm" if he failed to carry out the criminal deeds. Here's where the problem arises : he pleaded guilty to 45 counts of fraud totalling R137 793. Many of them however relate to restaurant bills, guesthouse accommodation and car hire. - NewsTime website

Former attorney jailed for eight years - 25 August
Former Durbanville attorney Charles Miskey was jailed for an effective eight years on Wednesday, on multiple fraud and theft charges. He appeared in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court, where Magistrate Amrith Chabillal said Miskey had betrayed the trust of people who had regarded him as a close friend. Miskey's downfall stemmed from his unlawful use of bridging finance furnished to him for conveyancing clients. - IOL website

See also :

Strike hits South Gauteng High Court

Bar Council seeks reply on state of legal library [South Gauteng High Court : Johannesburg]

Crime

Girl in MXit rape ordeal receives SMS threat - 9 August
"Drop all charges . . . as it will have a serious impact on her future", said a threatening SMS sent to the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was allegedly abducted, raped and drugged by a man she met on MXit. The harrowing SMS was one of several that the man sent to the distressed family on Saturday - a week after the incident. Police have confirmed they want to interview David Coughlan in connection with the incident. He is believed to be on the run. - IOL website

MXit rape suspect threatens suicide - 12 August
The hunt for David Coughlan, the man accused of raping a 15-year-old Benoni schoolgirl he met over social networking platform MXit, continued on Thursday. - Eye Witness News website

MXit rape accused nabbed - 18 August
An alleged rapist's 18-day run from the law ended on Tuesday when he was arrested outside the house he was renting in Port Elizabeth. The man had been sought by police since August 1. The girl had apparently met the suspect on MXit and had picked her up outside her house on the night of Saturday, July 31 and taken her to his smallholding in Crystal Park, Benoni. There he allegedly drugged her, then raped her. - IOL website

Alleged MXit rapist to be brought to JHB - 18 August
A  Johannesburg  man wanted for allegedly raping a girl he met on MXit will be brought back to  Johannesburg on Wednesday after being arrested in Port Elizabeth. - Eye Witnes News website

MXit rape suspect in the dock - 25 August
The man accused of raping a 15-year-old girl after meeting her over MXit could face a life sentence for the crime.  The man, who appeared in the Benoni Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, faces two charges of rape of a minor. When he appeared at the court and the name of the teenager was read out, the man, who cannot be identified until he pleads to the charges, said : "I don't even know that name". After being addressed by magistrate Vincent Ratshibvumo, the man said he was unaware that his father had hired a lawyer to represent him. - IOL website

Cyberlaw

Email slams 'unschooled' leaders - 23 August
Eight Toyota employees have been fired for distributing an "offensive" email - with an opinion article published on Facebook, blogs and allegedly in a UK newspaper - by a South African emigrant. One of the eight - who are all white, with a combined service of more than 200 years - said he forwarded the email to people of all races. Toyota said last week 11 employees were undergoing disciplinary procedures regarding the distribution of the email.  Human resources manager Tapelo Molapo said no employees had been dismissed. There was an "elaborate legal process" under way, which he did not want to jeopardise by revealing details. However, after establishing that eight people were dismissed, Molapo was questioned again. He reiterated that the legal process could see the employees being reinstated. - IOL website

Defence

MPs might subpoena Sisulu over report - 12 August
A legal battle between Parliament and Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu over two interim reports on morale and service conditions in the South African National Defence Force will reach a decisive moment next week when a decision is made on whether to subpoena Ms Sisulu. - Business Day website

Adviser says Sisulu right to block MPs - 17 August
The legal battle between Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Parliament's defence committee deepened yesterday with chief state law adviser Enver Daniels saying that a summons from Parliament on documents not yet before the Cabinet would infringe the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers. The battle is set to culminate in a meeting today when the committee is expected to decide whether to summons Ms Sisulu and insist that she hand over to the committee two interim reports of the Interim National Defence Force Service Commission. - Business Day website

Cabinet backs Defence Minister - 20 August
Cabinet has expressed its full support to the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans following reports that the Minister had refused to table an interim report to the Portfolio Committee on Defence. In a statement, government spokesperson, Themba Maseko, said Minister Lindiwe Sisulu was not obliged to table the Defence Force Service Commission Interim Report to the Committee as it had to be seen by Cabinet first. "Firstly, she has not received the final report and secondly, in terms of the existing Cabinet convention, she is obliged to table the report to Cabinet first for consideration, before tabling it to Parliament. The Cabinet co-responsibility convention requires Members of the Executive to process reports and policy documents (including Bills) through Cabinet prior to publishing and or tabling them in Parliament", said Maseko.  - BuaNews Online website

Democratic Alliance (DA)

15 August 2010
Statement by Helen Zille, Democratic Alliance leader, on the realignment of South African politics
Polity website

15 August 2010
Statement by Patricia De Lille, Independent Democratats president, on the realignment of South African politics
Polity website

Education

SASCO shocked by hiking of university admission requirements - 5 August
The South African Students Congress is shocked and saddened by the hiking of entrance requirement by various universities as reported by various Sunday newspapers. These plans fly in the face of making university education accessible to the children of the working class and the poor. The hiking of entrance requirements is a class onslaught waged by neoliberal universities aimed at excluding the working class from universities. - Politicsweb website

South Africa : universities raise admission standards - 8 August
Several universities in South Africa, worried that continuing high failure rates among students will erode their global competitiveness, have raised admission requirements for 2011. Not surprisingly, students are unhappy. According to a snap survey of 12 universities conducted by the national weekly newspaper The Sunday Times, eight are considering tighter admission requirements next year, believing that poor student pass rates are partly attributable to lax selection criteria. - University World News website

UCT pays out Ngobeni - 18 August
UCT has paid out R2,5-million to its former deputy registrar Paul Ngobeni, the outspoken promoter of Cape Judge President John Hlophe and key strategist in the successful attempt to have corruption charges against President Jacob Zuma dropped. But the university has refused to explain why it paid Ngobeni a "settlement package" when it was said at the time he had chosen to leave UCT to "pursue other interests" after disciplinary charges against him were dropped. Ngobeni was in September appointed as Special Adviser in the Ministry of Defence and Military Veterans. - IOL website

Jansen a lapdog of Afrikaner clique at UFS : YCLSA - 12 August
The Young Communist League of South Africa (uFasimba) is concerned by the apartheid tactics which the Vice chancellor has opted to resort to in order to shut down student voices on campus. It's ironic and disappointing that the first black Vice chancellor appointed in the UFS is responsible for the victimisation of the first black SRC president, democratically elected on this lily white campus. - Politicsweb website

Bill to allow school inspections in Cape - 13 August
New draft legislation that will give the Western Cape education department the right to inspect schools, has been referred to the provincial legislature for processing, education MEC Donald Grant said yesterday. Mr Grant said the legislation was aimed at improving the province’s education results - Business Day website

Bheki Cele allegedly frees Matrics on assault rap - 16 August
A group of Waterkloof High matrics who were up on an assault charge, were freed on Saturday allegedly after the intervention of General Bheki Cele. The four boys had been arrested in Moreleta Park on Friday night after having allegedly assaulted another man. Their families spent all of Saturday battling to get them bailed out. A family friend of one of the boys has accused the police of racism against the four. The boys were granted R1 000 bail each after a family friend a Hennie de Beer, who has ties to the Zuma family, managed to contact Bheki Cele and explain the situation to him. Cele then sent a senior policeman to the police station to arrange the boys release. - NewsTime website

Engineering Profession

Engineers in bitter racism row - 8 August
A court application to dissolve the Engineering Council of South Africa (Ecsa) arises, according to the organisation, from one man's bitterness. If the application succeeds, Ecsa's documents read, this could undo all the work of the statutory body since 2001 – including the promulgation of lift and hoisting machinery inspectors, regulations for professional development, the accreditation of training courses and institutions, and the registration of various categories of professional people in the engineering industry. The National Society of Black Engineers and one of its members, Siyabonga Kheswa, submitted the application citing the Minister of Public Works (who appointed Ecsa), Ecsa itself, the Council for the Built Environment – an umbrella body that includes Ecsa – and the 15 council members themselves. No court date has yet been determined. - Fin24 website

Racism row engulfs Engineering Council - 8 August
The Engineering Council of South Africa could be dissolved if a court application against it succeeds. The application was brought by the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) against the Ecsa, its members individually, the Council for the Built Environment and the Minister of Public Works. All are opposing the application, with the exception of the individual council members. The applications argues that there were severe technical deficiencies in the nomination of council members thus invalidating the very existence of the council in its present form. The chief executive of the Ecsa has filed a statement rebutting this and accuses NSBE president Sipho Madonsela as being behind the application for personal reasons. - NewsTime website

The Engineering Council of South Africa (Ecsa) has removed its president, Sipho Madonsela, the body announced on Tuesday - 11 September [2007]
Ecsa vice-president Bob Pullen said in a statement that the council decided to rescind Madonsela's appointment after an "unfortunate set of circumstances" that led to a loss of confidence in the former president. - Professional Engineers website

Environment

Environmental courts to be established - 11 August
Environmental courts are to be established to address water crimes that threaten an already water-stressed nation, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica announced on Wednesday. "We are working closely with the South African Police Service and the directorate of public prosecutions to address water crimes that threaten the security of supply to lawful water users," she told the Agri SA water conference in Johannesburg. - Mail & Guardian website

Fears over Karoo gas hunt - 9 August
The CEO of Petroleum Agency SA, Mthozami Xiphu, said yesterday that the agency had granted three 12-month technical co-operation permits to multinational Falcon Oil (head-quartered in the US and Hungary), Dutch giant Shell and a partnership of Statoil (Norway), Chesapeake (US) and South Africa's Sasol. The permits apply to several provinces and include a swathe of the Eastern Cape Karoo. The news has stirred fear among Karoo conservationists, coming after a long battle last year between Samara Private Game Reserve and Bundu Gas & Oil. - Times Live website

Manuel appeals for 'rational' discussion on acid mine water - 10 August
Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel on Tuesday warned MPs there were "private sector interests" driving debate on the environmental threat to Johannesburg posed by rising acid mine water. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Interim acid mine water solution to cost R218m : Minister - 11 August
An interim solution for the toxic tide of acid mine water rising beneath the surface of South Africa's Witwatersrand area will cost government an estimated R145-million, Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on Wednesday. Speaking at the Agri SA water conference in Johannesburg, Sonjica highlighted that current initiatives to tackle the problem revolved around a public private partnership, which would see government and the mines contributing to the capital costs for the infrastructure needed to pump and treat the water. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Task team to look at acid mine drainage - 19 August
Cabinet has mandated the Minister of Water Affairs, Bulelwa Sonjica to urgently establish a special task team to investigate how government can best deal with reports of acid water drainage in some provinces. Acid mine water, or water contaminated with heavy metals as a result of mining activities, is affecting the Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and the Free State provinces. - BuaNews Online website

Miners to work with govt acid-drainage response team - 19 August
A special Ministerial-level task team has been assembled by the South African government to develop a coordinated strategy to deal "urgently" with the issue of acid-water drainage, which some believe poses a serious threat to South Africa's water resources, the country's environment, human health and to local economies. The team would also comprise experts from the water sector, institutions of higher learning, the mining sector and independent scientists. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Water Affairs to stem acid tide in Joburg - 25 August
The Department of Water Affairs has promised to erect a new pump station to stop acid mine water decanting in central Johannesburg, at a cost of about R180m. It is also considering a pipeline to transport water for treatment from the Western Basin - the geographical area which roughly corresponds to the West Rand - at a cost of R40m. This is the area where water from ownerless mines first started decanting in 2002. - allAfrica website

See also : Judges halt sand dune mining [Western Cape High Court]

Farmers will soon have to apply for water licences : Sonjica - 11 August
Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on Wednesday that the agricultural sector, as the country's biggest water consumer, had a responsibility in conserving the resource and would soon be required to apply for water licences in a number of catchment areas. Speaking at the Agri SA water conference, Sonjica said that farmers might well have to cut back on the use of surplus water, but would not be denied essential water required for efficient food production. - Polity website

See also : Legislation

SA sitting on water time bomb : Fedusa - 25 August
Trade union federation Fedusa on Wednesday warned South Africa was sitting on a water crisis "time bomb". Citing "inadequate management and monitoring" by water service authorities, Fedusa said it had filed notice with the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) of possible protest action. Section 77 of the Labour Relations Act gives workers the right to take part in protest action to promote or defend their socio-economic interests. - IOL website

Coastal properties could be submerged - 9 August
Several multimillion-rand holiday homes on the Kwa-Zulu-Natal coast are likely to be severely damaged or washed away in the coming decades unless expensive ocean defences are built to protect them from rising sea levels. This is the warning from coastal planning expert Andrew Mather, who has drawn up dramatic visual illustrations of projected sea level rise on the North Coast. The simulations of sea levels rising between 300mm and 1m by the turn of the century (2100) clearly show the vulnerability of numerous holiday flats in the Ballito area, and other large property blocks next to Willard Beach. - The Mercury website

Law could place strain on municipal waste-management services - 20 August
A significant challenge for waste management in South Africa is the failure of municipalities to carry out effective waste management practices because of a lack of resources, and new legislation is expected to further complicate the issue, reports Institute of Waste Management Southern Africa president Stan Jewaskiewitz. The new National Environmental Management Waste Act59 of 2008, came into effect in March 2009, with chapter two of the Act, the National Waste Management Strategy, scheduled for implementation in November 2010. - Creamer Media's Engineering News website

Freedom of Information

'Censorship' of PSC Report draws flak from Institute, DA - 25 August
The Freedom of Expression Institute has described a Public Service Commission decision to black out part of its report on its investigation into East London Hospital Complex CEO Vuyo Mosana's competence as tantamount to censorship. It said the PSC's refusal to make public Mr Mosana's qualifications, and those of other candidates short-listed for the job in 2005, signaled the state's reluctance to give citizens information about public officials. - allAfrica website
Keyphrase :
Promotion of Access to Information Act

See also : Protection of Information Bill [Legislation]

Gender Issues

9 August 2010
Zuma pays tribute to female struggle icons. Full text. - Times Live website

Zuma : recognition of women's rights not enough - 10 August
The mere recognition of women's rights was not enough, President Jacob Zuma said on Monday. "The laws in our statute books are not enough. They will become truly meaningful when they create a tangible improvement in the lives of women", he told a Women's Day event in East London. Zuma said government's primary focus was to improve access to socioeconomic rights as enshrined in the country's Constitution. - Mail & Guardian website

Government

12 August 2010
President Zuma orders several anti-corruption investigations
The Presidency website

Presidency announces major corruption probes - 12 August
Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, whose name was mentioned in the Brett Kebble murder trial this week, warned ANC members against corruption on Thursday, while the Presidency has announced corruption probes into several government departments. According to a statement on the Presidency's website published on Thursday, Zuma has directed the SIU to "investigate supply chain related concerns" in seven government departments. - Mail & Guardian website

JZ orders probe into SITA-SAPS link - 13 August
A new probe into the procurement division of the South African Police Service and its dealings with the State IT Agency is linked to a controversial risk assessment report that was conducted on SITA's procurement practices. The report, compiled by risk management firm Henderson Solutions, was handed to public service and administration minister Richard Baloyi in April last year and sparked a Hawks investigation in October. - ITWeb website

Gijima in last-ditch talks over home affairs contract - 10 August
JSE-listed technology services group Gijima is still in talks with government to resolve a dispute over the validity of the R2,5bn "Who Am I Online" contract. However, the company may head to court if discussions remain deadlocked. - TechCentral website

Scopa : 'no more hiding behind sub judice rule' - 17 August
KZN provincial departments won't be able to hide behind the sub judice rule to avoid reporting on forensic investigations conducted within their departments. The province's standing committee on public accounts has taken legal opinion on the matter. The committee was advised during a sitting yesterday that the rule does not apply to forensic investigations and that the matter becomes sub judice only when a court case is in progress. - Witness newspaper (17 August 2010. Page 4)
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Manuel bunking question time : DA - 19 August
Minister Trevor Manuel's seat will be empty during today's oral question session. The National Planning Commission, of which he is Head, is in dire need of oversight. Despite this, Minister Manuel seems to be trying to evade being held accountable for its slow progress. Instead, it appears he has resolved to adopt the increasingly evasive- and disdainful- approach of his fellow ANC Cabinet members to the work of Parliament. - Politicsweb website

Crime busters 'six feet under' - 6 August
Cosatu chief Zwelinzima Vavi says corruption-busters have been assassinated but nothing has been done about it. He blasted two provincial governments for not acting against the killers of whistle-blowers and singled out Mpumalanga and the North West as dangerous provinces for people who had disclosed sensitive information. Members of the labour federation in Mpumalanga who asked questions on corruption "are now six feet under", he told a seminar on South Africa after the World Cup in Joburg on Thursday. - IOL website

See also : Housing whistleblowers murdered : DG below

The ANC is not the state - 22 August
Living in a constitutional democracy can be unsettling and complicated – especially if one has not embraced the values underlying a functioning constitutional democracy. In such a democracy all role players must accept that there are competing views of what constitutes the public good. They also have to accept that it is legitimate for members of different political parties to advance alternative versions of what would constitute the public good or how to achieve it. - Pierre de Vos on the Constitutionally Speaking blog

See also : Dawn raid on shady government bigwigs below

Government Tenders

Zweli Mkhize threatens to sue Sunday Tribune - 17 August
KZN Premier Zweli Mkhize has threatened to take KZN weekly newspaper the Sunday Tribune to court for an apology due to him. The paper had written an article alleging that Mkhize's wife and daughter had benefitted from tenders issued in the province. Mkhize complained to the Press Ombudsman about the article and the Ombudsman found in his favour. - NewsTime website

Juju and premier linked to waste deal - 27 August
Businessmen closely linked to Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale and ANC Youth League president Julius Malema have emerged as beneficiaries of the multimillion-rand medical waste management industry. A company belonging to Mathale's business partner, Selbie Manthata, and Malema's close friend and ally, Ali Boshielo, have been cut into a lucrative Limpopo medical waste tender. - Mail & Guardian website

See also : Malema cleared, says ANCYL above

Health

Boys hoping to gain their manhood lose it : forever - 23 August
In Eastern Cape, South Africa, circumcisions performed to make youths into men are often botched. Medical research has shown that circumcision sharply reduces the spread of HIV and other diseases. Hospital circumcisions are reviled in the Eastern Cape, however, leading young men to undergo dangerous bush procedures, often at the hands of con men, who pretend they know the traditional ways, or inexperienced teenagers. The problem is that, in taking over a procedure traditionally done by elders, the young ones aren't doing it right. Alien new practices have crept in to the "initiation" : severe beatings, harassment and a dangerous ritual of tightening the dressings on boys' wounds. - Los Angeles Times website

See also : Dawn raid on shady government bigwigs below

Home Affairs

Home Affairs walloped - 11 August
Home Affairs' continued inability to meet its statutory obligation to process work permit and other temporary residence applications within 30 days has prompted several immigration practitioners from around the country to petition the Minister on behalf of more than 1 000 affected companies and individual applicants. - Moneyweb website

Home Affairs 'illegally cancelling marriages' - 15 August
South Africans married to foreigners stand a good chance of being able to divorce their spouses without serving them with official divorce papers, and without their foreign partner's knowledge. While the Home Affairs Department battles the scourge of illegal marriages and marriages of convenience by some unscrupulous foreigners desperate to gain legal residency status in South Africa, some permanent residents who say they have legally married their partners are fighting to have their marital status restored. - IOL website
Keyphrase :
North Gauteng High Court : Pretoria

Harsher penalties proposed for fraudulent marriage - 11 August
South Africans willingly entering into fraudulent marriages with foreigners could soon face jail time. Home Affairs briefed MP's on proposed changes to the law on Tuesday, including criminalising marriages of convenience. - Eye Witness News website

The civil servant from hell - 8 August
He signs emails with the phrase "arrest first, ask questions later", followed by a smiley face. But several people who have dealt with Shaun Fortuin, Home Affairs' acting assistant director of the Cape Town Immigration Inspectorate, are not smiling. They have levelled allegations of misconduct, maladministration and abuse of power against Fortuin. The Sunday Independent has learned that at least two complaints have been lodged against him with his superiors and at the office of the Minister of Home Affairs. - IOL website

Lefatshe, Home Affairs execs jailed - 12 August
The Department of Home Affairs' disastrous relationship with ICT and its suppliers is finally delivering high-profile arrests, as the long arm of the law looks to eradicate corruption. Yesterday, Home Affairs' chief director of infrastructure management, Nkosana Hilida; his subordinate, Rakele Khuzwayo, director of networks and security, and newly-appointed Lefatshe CEO Coltrane Nyathi appeared in the dock of the Commercial Crimes Court. The appearance followed their arrests on Wednesday by government's Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations, colloquially known as the Hawks. Last night, Hawks spokesperson Musa Zondi confirmed the arrests, revealing the three are to face charges of bribery and corruption. The charge sheet was not available during yesterday's appearance and the three men were remanded into custody as they await a bail hearing next Monday. - ITWeb website

Corrupt execs caught red-handed - 13 August
The South African Police Services' Hawks unit and the Department of Home Affairs caught Lefatshe CEO Coltrane Nyathi and Home Affairs' chief director of infrastructuremanagement Nkosana Hilita in the act of "corrupt activities", the organisations claim. This revelation follows news yesterday that Nyathi and Hilita are incarcerated on a charge of corruption, pending a bail hearing due to take place on Monday. - ITWeb website

DHA fingers SITA in tender scandal - 18 August
Questions surrounding discrepancies in the tender published by the State IT Agency to fulfill the Department of Home Affairs' intruder prevention and detection system (IPS/IDS) requirements have yet to be answered, the department alleges. The same tender is believed by Home Affairs and the police's specialised Hawks unit to be the catalyst that ultimately resulted in last week's arrest of Lefatshe CEO Coltrane Nyathi and the DHA's chief director of infrastructure management, Hilita Nkosana. The two executives are facing charges of corruption in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. - ITWeb website

Corruption pair out on bail - 23 August
Lefatshe CEO Coltrane Nyathi and Home Affairs chief director of infrastructure management Hilita Nkosana have been granted bail by the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. Nyathi and Nkosana are facing charges of corruption, following their arrest in a successful sting operation conducted two weeks ago by the SAPS specialised crime-busting unit, the Hawks, and the Department of Home Affairs. - ITWeb website

Independent Democrats (ID)

See also : Democratic Alliance (DA) above

International Relations and Co-operation

SA welcomes UK decision on visa system - 12 August
Tourism Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk has welcomed announcements by UK Prime Minister David Cameron regarding that country's intention to review aspects of their visa system.  Although Cameron, in his first major speech on the topic to further mainstream tourism in the United Kingdom, Government's policy and planning framework, on Thursday, did not commit to removing visa requirements for key source markets, he did indicate that "obstacles" to travel to the UK would be reviewed and that new technology would be deployed to streamline visa application processes. - BuaNews Online website

Father’s final days filled with deportation fears - 22 August
A North Side family, fighting for years to remain in the United States, now faces a larger battle. Abraham Jaars, who left South Africa 24 years ago with his young family amid a fractious apartheid regime, has cancer and precious time left. Yet efforts to deport him, his wife, and their son and daughter persist, despite a judge's recommendation five years ago that the matter be settled. The family members have said they inadvertently overstayed their visas by two years but sought asylum based on persecution under apartheid. Mr and Mrs Jaars are multiracial. - The Columbus Dispatch website

See also :
Family fighting deportation - 14 September [2005]
10TV website
[InfoUpdate 28 of 2005]

Intrigue swirls around Bout extradition - 23 August
Viktor Bout, the suspected arms dealer facing extradition from Thailand to the US on terrorism charges. His clients are alleged to have ranged from African dictators to Pentagon contractors. Over the years, Bout has managed to upset people in various countries, from Belgium to South Africa. - The Moscow News website

See also :
Thailand rejects Bout extradition - 11 August
BBC News website
[InfoUpdate 18 of 2009]

South African prisoner dies in Mauritian jail - 13 August
The family of a South African man imprisoned in Mauritius is reeling after learning of his death. Jan Venter passed away on Thursday night in a hospital on the Indian Ocean island. He was serving a 34-year prison term for a drug-related offence. - Eye Witness News website
Keyphrase :
Drug smuggling

International relations denies negligence - 14 August
The International Relations and Cooperation Ministry has denied claims that embassy officials behave negligently in cases involving South African citizens imprisoned abroad. South African Jan Venter died this week in Mauritius . - Eye Witness News website

Police swoop on German fraudster - 24 August
A German fraudster wanted for tax evasion of more than R350-million in Germany and international diamond and gold fraud has finally been nabbed in South Africa. Michael Schreiber, who is being linked to fraudulent diamond and gold dealing in Liberia and Dubai, had been hiding out in Somerset West when the Hawks swooped on him. The elite investigations unit received a briefing from Interpol about the 65-year-old's whereabouts, along with a request to arrest him. - IOL website

12 August 2010
Zuma : Address by the President of South Africa, to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Lesotho, Maseru 
Polity website

Zim to pay farmers' court costs - 11 August
AfriForum is pleased that the Zimbabwean government will have to pay the costs of an erroneous court application to prevent an auction of some of its properties in South Africa, spokesman Willie Spies said on Wednesday. - News24 website

Mugabe wins big at SADC Summit - 22 August
Sadc leaders opted for the easiest way out to deal with Zimbabwe's refusal to recognise the regional court that ruled that Zanu PF's land grab was not only racist but illegal. Mugabe says the tribunal that ruled against his government in a number of cases brought before it by white commercial farmers who lost their farms during the land grab had been hijacked by Western countries. The summit succumbed to pressure by Mugabe to review the operations of the tribunal. - allAfrica website

Zimbabwe's hitting the arbitration headlines - 24 August
Following the controversial land reform programme first introduced by President Robert Mugabe in July 2000, Zimbabwe has found itself in hot water of late, with a number of international disputes being brought by dispossessed farmers against the State. - The Zimbabwe Teleraph website

SA diplomat charged - 19 August
A senior South African diplomat who allegedly seriously assaulted a woman staffer at the SA Embassy in Harare, has been charged with misconduct. In written reply to a parliamentary question, International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said disciplinary action against Mlulami Singapi, political counsellor and second in charge at the Embassy, had been initiated. The investigation found there was an altercation between Lyn de Jong, head of corporate services at the Embassy, and Singapi, and that De Jong was "injured in the process". - IOL website

See also :
State probes diplomat's alleged assault - 17 May [2010]
IOL website
[InfoUpdate 11 of 2010]

Swaziland minister quits over alleged affair - 7 August
A government minister in Swaziland has resigned amid rumours that he had an affair with one of the 14 wives of King Mswati III. Ndumiso Mamba, the justice minister and childhood friend of Mswati, stepped down as the sex scandal rocked the tiny African kingdom. A pro-democracy group, Swaziland Solidarity Network, alleged last week that Mamba had been having an affair with 23-year-old Inkhosikati LaDube, the 12th wife of the king. Newspapers are tightly censored and the Times of Swaziland reported only : "Mamba resigned following certain allegations circulating in the country and internationally". But the story has been seized on by the press in neighbouring South Africa. - Mail & Guardian website 

SANEF warns Swazi Prince over death threats against journalists - 29 July
The South African National Editors' Forum on Thursday threatened to report an alleged death threat against journalists made by a Swazi prince to international bodies. It was shocked by the "death threat" issued by a Swazi prince who reportedly threatened that journalists who "write bad things about the country will die". - NewsTime website

City Press banned in Swaziland : SSN - 11 August
City Press, the South African newspaper which ran a series of reports on the sex scandal involving the king's twelfth wife and king Mswati's minister of Justice and constitutional affairs, has been banned from circulation in Swaziland. A 31 year old man from Manzini by the name of Sibusiso Mhlanga, who was later found to be a SWAYOCO member, was also arrested for making photocopies of the story on a copy of City Press believed to have been sourced from South Africa. - Politicsweb website

Hawks probing Naomi Campbell's dirty diamond gift - 6 August
South Africa's elite Hawks police unit is probing the matter of supermodel Naomi Campbell receiving "dirty stones" from men believed to be former Liberian warlord Charles Taylor's bodyguards. - NewsTime website

Hawks may want to interview Naomi Campbell after diamonds authenticated - 7 August
The South African Police on Saturday confirmed that the uncut gems that supermodel Naomi Campbell received after meeting Liberian strongman Charles Taylor at a 1997 charity dinner are real. - NewsTime website

Ractliffe [sic] facing investigation over blood diamonds - 7 August
The former chief executive of the Nelson Mandela children's fund will face a criminal investigation after he admitted to hiding "dirty diamonds" given to him by supermodel Naomi Campbell in 1997. Jeremy Ractliffe claims that the reason he has kept the diamonds a secret for 13 years was to protect the reputations of Cambell and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela. - NewsTime website

Mandela fund looks into diamonds saga - 13 August
The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund will call its former chief executive, Jeremy Ractliffe, to a meeting next week to explain why he did not disclose that British supermodel Naomi Campbell had handed him three uncut diamonds. - Mail & Guardian website

Mandela charity trustee resigns over Campbell diamonds - 18 August
The former head of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, Jeremy Ractliffe, has resigned from the charity's board after admitting he secretly kept diamonds received from the model Naomi Campbell. - BBC News website

Mandela fund accepts former CEO's apology - 19 August
The board of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund has accepted its former CEO, Jeremy Ractcliffe's apology, and his decision to resign as a trustee of the fund. - East Coast Radio website

Hemispherx wins $188M judgment against South African investment firm - 18 August
Hemispherx Biopharma Inc said Wednesday that it won a $188 million judgment in a US court against JCI Ltd, a South African investment conglomerate. But collecting the judgment, officials at the Philadelphia biotechnology company said, may prove difficult. Hemispherx sued JCI for fraud in 2004, alleging that the publicly traded investment group engaged in making misrepresentations to manipulate the company’s stock in a hostile takeover attempt. Hemispherx alleged that JCI officer R B Kebble was the mastermind of an international scheme that saw dozens of small companies taken over and looted. A criminal indictment for the actions was issued by the South African government against both Kebble and another JCI officer, H C Buitendag. Kebble was later shot to death gangland-style in Johannesburg ; Buitendag was convicted in South Africa for securities fraud. - Philadelphia Business Journal website

See also :

In a landmark decision with far-reaching constitutional implications businessmen BRETT AND ROGER KEBBLE AND HENNIE BUITENDAG HAVE BEEN GRANTED LEAVE TO APPEAL against an earlier High Court decision saying they had to stand trial on charges relating to a hostile takeover bid of one of their companies (M&G 2004-02-11).
[Weblog. 11 February 2004]

Supreme Court of Appeal
31 March 2005
Western Areas Ltd and Others v The State
Media statement
SAFLII website

Plea bargain, R1,5m fine for former JCI director - 17 October [2006]
Business Day website
[InfoUpdate 38 of 2006]

Gold and guns ; how a South African murder led to Perth - 2 June [2008]
The Age website
[InfoUpdate 18 of 2008]

South Gauteng High Court : Johannesburg
5 July 2010
25/09 [2010] ZAGPJHC 53
S v Selebi
SAFLII website

Au pair hell for KZN woman - 10  August
A Durban woman left her home for a job as an au pair in the US. But her "host family" tried to turn her into a prostitute. The woman is due to return home this week after the intervention of local and US police, and Interpol. The woman was lured by the promise of a job as a nanny and the opportunity to study at the same time. Her host family had promised her R10 000 a month and a place of her own. Instead, she was refused food, given pills and told to drive prostitutes between US states. She was also told she would join the prostitutes in their work. - IOL website

Judicial Service Commission, and, Judiciary

Tholakele (Tholie) Madala, 1937-2010 - http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/user/5378 Retired ConCourt Madala judge dies - 26 August A moment's silence was held at the Constitutional Court on Thursday in remembrance of retired judge Tholakele Madala who died on Wednesday. "Yesterday, at 1am one of our own, Justice Madala passed away and I think it is fitting that we all stand up for a moment of silence", said Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo ahead of Thursday's Waterkloof defamation hearing. The packed court stood up solemnly for the judge who retired in October 2008. - The Citizen website 27 August 2010 : For immediate release Law Society Pays Tribute to the Late Justice Tholie Madala The Law Society of South Africa (LSSA) pays tribute to the late Justice Tholie Madala, who died earlier this week. 'Justice Madala, one of the first four Constitutional Court justices appointed directly by former President Mandela in 1994, was an exemplary lawyer. He cut his teeth in the legal profession first as a human rights attorney – having been on the practising roll of attorneys at the Natal Law Society from 1977 to 1982. He was later admitted as an advocate and was then among the first black lawyers to be appointed a judge', say LSSA Co-Chairpersons Max Boqwana and Peter Horn. Justice Madala retained close ties with the legal profession and was always available to engage with lawyers, reminding them of the crucial importance of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and of the legal profession in a constitutional democracy. He also often stressed the duty of attorneys to assist indigent persons to access housing, employment, healthcare and protection from abuse. His prominent role in the training and development particularly of black lawyers through his long-term service as a trustee of the Black Lawyers Association Legal Education Centre cannot be underestimated. 'We lower our flag in his honour and extend our heartfelt condolences on behalf of the attorneys' profession to Justice Madala's family, children and grandchildren', say Mr Boqwana and Mr Horn. Issued on behalf of the Co-Chairpersons of the Law Society of South Africa, Max Boqwana and Peter Horn Barbara Whittle Communication Manager, Law Society of South Africa Telephone : 012-366 8800 or 083-380 1307 E-mail : barbara@lssa.org.za Website: www.lssa.org.za SA's top judges at Mthatha funeral - 31 August The country's top legal luminaries descended on Mthatha over the weekend to pay their last respects to retired Constitutional Court Judge Tholakele Madala at his funeral on Saturday. - Dispatch Online website

SA needs to appoint more judges : Radebe - 24 August
Justice Minister Jeff Radebe said the country would need to appoint new judges as the criminal justice system is improved and cases are speeded up. He was talking at an ANC briefing on Tuesday ahead of the party’s National General Council next month. - Eye Witness News website

Reopening Hlophe case not in public interest, says JSC - 16 August
The reopening the dispute between Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe and the justices of the Constitutional Court would not be in the public interest, the Judicial Service Commission said in legal argument on Friday. It also disputed the legal standing of nongovernmental organisation Freedom Under Law to litigate on the public's behalf. While Freedom Under Law said reopening the dispute was essential for the rule of law and the judiciary in the long term, the JSC said no one directly involved wanted to "rake up the ashes of the past" and that there was no evidence of a breakdown of the judiciary. - Business Day website

Judge President's case 'required proper inquiry' - 16 August
Central to the court case between nongovernmental organisation Freedom Under Law, the Judicial Service Commission and Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe, is whether a proper decision by the JSC required a formal inquiry with cross-examination. The JSC heard evidence from the players on both sides of the dispute but no one was cross-examined. - allAfrica website

Call for judge inquiry to restore trust - 20 August
The Judicial Service Commission's decision not to go ahead with an inquiry into Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe's conduct undermined the public's trust in the Judiciary, the High Court in Pretoria heard yesterday. - The Star website

JSC 'changed tack on Hlophe' - 23 August
The Judicial Service Commission "changed tack" on controversial Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe after President Jacob Zuma appointed four new members to it last year, the North Gauteng High Court heard this week. - Mail & Guardian website

'No about-turn by JSC' in Hlophe case - 23 August
The Judicial Service Commission had not irrationally done an about-turn in its investigation into the gross misconduct allegations between Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe and the justices of the Constitutional Court, the JSC's counsel said in court on Friday. Following Judge Peter Mabuse's remark in court that his job was to evaluate the JSC's procedure, it is likely that the nature of the JSC's initial decision will be one of the decisive issues in Freedom Under Law's case. - allAfrica website

Call to reopen JSC's Hlophe investigation - 20 August
The Judicial Service Commission has not done its duty to investigate the allegations of misconduct against Cape Judge President John Hlophe as well as his counter accusations against several Constitutional Court judges, says Wim Trengove SC. Trengove is asking the Pretoria High Court to set aside the earlier decision by the JSC not to hold a formal investigation into the complaints levelled against Judge Hlophe and his counter-complaint against the justices of the Constitutional Court. - IOL website

JSC denied public the truth in Hlophe matter, court told - 20 August
South Africans were denied the truth when the Judicial Service Commission decided not to hold a formal hearing into the misconduct allegations involving Judge President John Hlophe and the Constitutional Court justices, Freedom Under Law argued yesterday in a challenge to the JSC's decision. - allAfrica website

Advocacy body paternalistic : Hlophe - 21 August
Counsel for Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe accused legal advocacy body Freedom Under Law on Friday of being "paternalistic". Advocate John Newdigate SC argued that there were clear indications of FUL's "perception of its own importance".  - Times Live website

Judge Hlophe's round two - 22 August
The matter treated as "finalised" on July 29 last year by the Judicial Service Commission on Western Cape Judge John Hlophe could still go ahead. Kader Asmal and the counsel for the legal advocacy body Freedom Under Law has argued that the public's trust could be restored only when a full public inquiry is pursued. The JSC had found Hlophe not guilty of misconduct. - Sunday World website

See also :
Western Cape High Court
31 March 2010
25467/2009
Premier of the Western Cape Province v the Acting Chairperson : Judicial Service Commission and Others
Politicsweb website
[InfoUpdate 8 of 2010]

Labour Issues

10 August 2010
Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) Commissioners on their challenges : briefing
Parliamentary Monitoring Group website

Whistle-blower accuses the CCMA - 10 August
A former Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration employee has made startling allegations of gross financial mismanagement and unfair labour practices at the body responsible for resolving labour disputes. Mothibedi Mokoena, formerly of the CCMA audit unit, told Parliament's labour portfolio committee yesterday that he and two colleagues were fired after alerting labour director-general Jimmy Manyi to alleged rot at the CCMA. - Times Live website

Mdladlana under fire for 'hiding' allegations - 11 August
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana came under fire yesterday in labour portfolio committee discussions for allegedly failing to make public an auditor-general's report on alleged financial mismanagement in the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). This follows a report to Parliament by two axed CCMA officials - claiming to be whistleblowers - of a list of alleged management transgressions and tender irregularities worth millions of rands. - Business Report website

Anonymous report repeats CCMA attacks - 12 August
An anonymous document making serious allegations against the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration was on Tuesday withdrawn from papers delivered to Parliament's labour committee on the instruction of chairwoman Lumka Yengeni. The document - accusing the CCMA of financial mismanagement, sloppy tender procedures and misuse of travel perks by senior staff - bears a remarkable resemblance to evidence given at a disciplinary hearing against two axed CCMA officials. - Business Report website

Auditor-general confirms CCMA irregularities - 13 August
Auditor-general Terence Nombembe has found allegations of irregularities in the way the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration procured goods and appointed key staff members were valid - and resulted in irregular expenditure of R23,6m. A report tabled in Parliament yesterday blamed the CCMA leadership for "inadequate monitoring and oversight in the area of supply chain management". - Business Day website

AG questions CCMA's R22m IT spend - 16 August
The Auditor-General has cleared the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration of fraud and corruption, but found the organisation spent millions on ICT procurement irregularly. The irregular expenditure was revealed by the AG's report to Parliament late last week, after it conducted an investigation into the CCMA at the Department of Labour's request. - ITWeb website

CCMA deliberately manipulated tenders : AG - 17 August
Managers at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration seemed to have deliberately split tenders to circumvent procurement rules, the auditor general's office said on Tuesday. A report by the AG tabled in Parliament last week, found the CCMA appointed a service provider to do work worth R612 760, but split the contract to avoid inviting competitive bids, as the rules require for any contract worth more than R200 000. - Business Report website

'I never hired her' - 25 August
First Lady Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma denies employing a woman who says she was the first lady's domestic worker and claims to be owed R16 000 for being unfairly dismissed. Finally breaking her silence surrounding an arbitration judgment that ordered her to pay Doris Ngobese for unfair dismissal, MaNtuli on Tuesday said : "I deny that Ngobese was ever employed by me and hence was not dismissed by me".  In an application to the CCMA, MaNtuli has requested that the matter be set aside and the award withdrawn. - IOL website

See also :
CCMA finds Zuma's wife guilty - 22 July [2010]
IOL website
[InfoUpdate 17 of 2010]

Grilling for transexual's former boss - 22 July
The chairman of the grievance procedure for a company that dismissed a transsexual employee, Christine Ehlers, has been grilled about how he had handled the matter. Dirk van de Wall, who came under cross-examination from Ehlers' lawyers at the Johannesburg Labour Court, said he felt he had handled the matter in a "free and fair" way. - Times Live website

'Sex-change played role in dismissal' - 24 July
The chairman of a company grievance hearing for a transsexual employee, Christine Ehlers, admitted yesterday that her sex change played a role in them deciding to fire her. Dirk van de Wall, an independent labour consultant who handled the grievance procedure at Bohler Uddeholm in Isando, where Ehlers worked as a steel sales executive, testified in the Johannesburg Labour Court that the changes she underwent caused conflict with other sales staff. - Dispatch Online website

Christine wins right to work - 15 August
Today Christine Ehlers will ride to work on her pink motorbike, dressed in a power suit and wearing her good luck charm. Equipped with only a huge smile and a Marylin Monroe cigarette box in her pocket, the tall blonde is ready to face the employees who got her fired more than a year ago for having a sex-change operation. - Times Live website

Steel men play hardball - 16 August
Christine Ehlers was left feeling humiliated yesterday morning when her bosses at multinational steel retailer Bohler Uddeholm Africa ignored a court ruling that she be given her old job back. Ehlers arrived at work to be told she could not start as the board had not seen the judgment. Her lawyer, Andre Schmidt, said he was shocked by the company's claim that it had not seen the judgment because he had been with Bohler Uddeholm Africa's lawyer on Friday, when he copied the judgment. "We are now instructing council to proceed with an urgent application for contempt of court", Schmidt said. - Times Live website

Court ruling shows change in country's attitude towards transsexuals - 14 August
Gender Dynamix said on Friday a labour court ruling in favour of a transgender woman who was unfairly dismissed shows the country's attitude towards transsexuals is changing. - Eye Witness News website

Sex change case settled out of court - 1 September
Christine Ehlers, a transgender woman who claimed she was unfairly dismissed, has reached an out of court settlement with the company, its lawyers said on Wednesday. "There is a settlement. The terms of the settlement are confidential," said Bohler Udderholm's lawyer Yusuf Nagdee, without elaborating. - News24 website

See :
Labour Court : Johannesburg
13 August 2010
JS296/09 [2010] ZALC 117
Ehlers v Bohler Uddeholm Africa (Pty) Ltd

Too sexy to be an engineer? - 10 August
Good looks can kill a woman's chances of snaring jobs considered "masculine," according to a study by the University of Colorado Denver Business School. Attractive women faced discrimination when they applied for jobs where appearance was not seen as important. These positions included job titles like manager of research and development, director of finance, mechanical engineer and construction supervisor. - Moneyweb website

Telkom pushing whites out : Solidarity - 17 August
If Telkom continues to use race and gender as criteria for awarding voluntary severance packages, Solidarity will obtain an interdict against the company from the Labour Court, the trade union Solidarity said today. This comes after Telkom indicated that it intends to offer severance packages to employees soon and that affirmative action will be a major consideration in awarding the packages. In 2009 an agreement was reached between various trade unions and Telkom in terms of which employees' job security was guaranteed up to and including 2011. However, employees are now being pressured into taking severance packages. Apart from this, Telkom indicated to trade unions in a statement that race and gender will be the main considerations in awarding the severance packages. - Politicsweb website

'Violent strikes must lose status' - 13 August
Strikes that turn nasty should lose their protective status because industrial action in South Africa is becoming increasingly violent, said John Brand, one of the country’s most respected labour practitioners. At a labour law conference in Sandton on Thursday he suggested that legislation be amended so that strikes lose their protected legal status when they become exceptionally violent. This would mean that employers could take disciplinary steps against the strikers. - Fin24 website

Limit the right to bad-faith bargaining and violent strikes - 25 August
The freedom to strike is one of the basic freedoms enshrined in section 27 of the constitution. The problem in SA is not the existence of the freedom to strike but the negotiation that precedes strikes and the violence that often accompanies them. In conventional employment law in free-market democracies, the right to strike is conditional on the strike being preceded by good-faith bargaining ; on disputes procedures being exhausted ; on democratic decisions being taken to strike ; and on the strike action being nonviolent. - John Brand of Bowman Gilfillan on the Business Day website

Motor industry scraps labour broking - 23 August
Labour brokers will no longer be used by the automotive industry in terms of a wage deal struck with unions on Friday, making it the first sector to accede to this demand. The Automobile Manufacturers Employers Organisation said on Friday that it was agreed that the use of labour brokers would be discontinued from January, except for pre-existing contracts, which would be allowed to run their course. This was part of a wage settlement that ended an eight-day strike. - Business Report website

'Make the circle bigger', say public servants - 10 August
A smattering of striking public service employees began to march from Schubart Park to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday morning to deliver a memorandum of demands. About six or seven pockets of about 60 people each began the march shortly before 11am, with the numbers far lower than the tens of thousands predicted by organisers. - Mail & Guardian website

Cosatu willing to 'die' for better wages - 11 August
Cosatu President S’dumo Dlamini has given the government two days to meet their demands, saying they are willing to die for their cause. He was addressing public servants at the Union Buildings in  Pretoria  on Tuesday afternoon. - Eye Witness News website

Public-sector unions, govt set for more talks - 12 August
Public-sector unions and the government were scheduled to meet for another round of wage talks in Pretoria on Thursday evening, an official said. - Mail & Guardian website

New offer on the table for public servants - 13 August
Government on Thursday upped its housing allowance offer to public servants but refused to budge on its seven percent salary offer. "As government we have tabled a revised offer of seven percent salary increment and R700 housing allowance", the Public Ministry’s Dumisani Nkwamba confirmed. - Eye Witness News website

Public servants put off strike to mull new offer - 13 August
Public workers on Friday put off a threatened national strike, saying they would consult on a new wage offer from the government. - Mail & Guardian website

Decision on government wage offer by Tuesday : Cosatu - 13 August
The Congress of South African Trade Unions said on Friday that a decision on government’s latest public sector wage offer will be made by Tuesday. The South African government increased its offer to more than a million state workers in an effort to head off a mass strike, sources in the talks said on Thursday. - Business Day website

SA state workers reject offer, plan strike - 17 August
South African public sector unions on Tuesday rejected a revised government wage offer and said that they planned a mass strike from Wednesday that will bring public services to a halt in Africa's largest economy. Analysts, however, expect a deal to be reached before a coalition of unions, representing 1,3-million civil servants including police, customs officials, teachers and health workers, stages a prolonged stoppage that could deal a blow to commerce and trade. - Polity website

Sadtu announces indefinite teachers strike - 17 August
The South African Democratic Teachers' Union  announced on Tuesday that it will embark on an indefinite strike over wages from Wednesday. - Eye Witness News website

Protracted strike will make investors think twice - 17 August
An economist has told Business Day that a protracted strike in the public sector will have far reaching negative effects for the South African economy. - Business Day website

Striking public servants warned against intimidation - 18 August
As one million public servants embark on an indefinite strike following labour's rejection of government's revised wage offer of 7 percent, striking employees have been warned against intimidating non-striking employees. Government has called on trade union leaders to ensure that their members act in a disciplined and peaceful manner. - BuaNews Online website

Minister : no cash for public servant raises - 18 August
The government's capacity to afford salary and housing increases for striking public servants was "exhausted", Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi said in Cape Town on Wednesday. Baloyi said at a press briefing that the government had to find an extra R5-billion to deliver on what it had already offered. "As government, we have demonstrated for all to see that our capacity to afford is exhausted", Baloyi said. - Mail & Guardian website

Govt to implement wage offer - 19 August
The government will unilaterally implement its 7% wage offer to public servants, the Ministry of Public Service and Administration announced on Thursday. "We urge the unions to change their position . . . otherwise government will be left with no choice but to implement the offer", said spokesperson Dumisani Nkwamba. The department issued a statement to say that the wage offer had been signed. - Polity website

Strike will have negative impact abroad : SACCI - 19 August
As workers in the public service intensify their strike action, the South African Chamber of Commerce is concerned that the move will have a negative impact on the country's image abroad. "Such behaviour will impact negatively on global perceptions of the business environment in South Africa. The strike also adds to the pressures relating to service delivery backlogs", it said. The failure to reach an agreement has an impact on the economy that stretches beyond the Public Service Commission. - BuaNews Online website

Strike hits South Gauteng High Court - 19 August
It remains unclear if Glenn Agliotti's trial and several other matters running in the South Gauteng High Court will continue on Thursday morning. The court was brought to a standstill on Wednesday as a result of the public servants' wage strike. - Eye Witness News website

Striking court officials hamper legal proceedings - 24 August
The Justice Department on Monday said courts across the country were still affected by the ongoing public servants strike. Contingency plans have been put in place to ensure urgent matters are hear and suspects appear within 48 hours of having been arrested, as per the law. Several high profile trials have been disrupted because of the industrial action. - Eye Witness News website

Violence erupts during South Africa strike - 20 August
Police fired rubber bullets on protesting teachers throwing bricks and stones and nurses tore down a gate at a hospital as a nationwide civil servants' strike for higher wages took hold in South Africa on Thursday. On the second day of the strike for higher wages, teachers in the red T-shirts of their union scattered as police fired to stop them from blocking a stretch of highway during a protest in Johannesburg. At least one officer was seen being taken from the scene bleeding from the head. - Associated Press on a Google server

Military health services to assist in KZN hospitals - 19 August
KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, has requested the South African Military Health Services to render assistance at hospitals during the public service strike. - BuaNews Online website

Working in fear : nurses and doctors - 20 August
There is chaos and widespread intimidation in KwaZulu-Natal hospitals as working nurses and doctors are coerced to join the strike by public servants. At Edendale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg yesterday morning (Thursday) a senior member of the hospital's security staff went through the hospital sjambokking anyone at work including women, according to eyewitnesses. The gates were blocked by strikers and even doctors were prevented from entering the premises for a few hours. - allAfrica website

Nurse tweets out of state hospital - 22 August
A nurse who works in a Johannesburg state hospital was tweeting about her experiences during a nation-wide public service strike, saying she was nervous to go to work today. - East Coast Radio website

'23 babies were only looked after by guards' - 19 August
Six people, including two infants died as militant strikers blockaded the Natalspruit Hospital in Ekurhuleni and striking public servants vowed to shut down government institutions on Thursday. Early on Thursday, the second day of the indefinite strike, 11 nurses and two doctors were left to attend to more than 500 patients with security guards left to look after more than 20 babies who had not been fed for nearly the entire day. The army were this morning preparing to intervene, bringing in doctors and nurses from their ranks. - IOL website

Hospitals turn away man with chopped hand - 20 August
A 21-year-old man, who needed emergency surgery after his hand had been chopped off, was turned away by two state hospitals due to a public service strike, paramedics said on Friday. The man was turned away by both Charlotte Maxeke and Chris Hani Baragwanath hospitals, where striking health workers severely disrupted services. ER24 has been turned away from Charlotte Maxeke, Chris Hani Baragwanath, Helen Joseph, Tambo Memorial and Ernest Oppenheimer hospitals. - Business Report website

'Negotiate', union tells patients - 20 August
Patients facing life and death situations must "negotiate" with strikers about crossing hospital picket lines, a union declared on Friday. - East Coast Radio website

51 hospital workers in KZN court - 20 August
51 people believed to work at Murchison Hospital appeared in the Port Shepstone Magistrate's Court on charges of public violence, KwaZulu-Natal police said today. - East Coast Radio website

Doctor defies raging strikers - 20 August
Dr Zoltan Risko was about to begin an emergency operation on 80-year-old Mario Moore, who was already anaesthetised, when a mob of about 50 strikers stormed his operating theatre at the OR Tambo Memorial Hospital in Ekurhuleni. - IOL website

'Go and dump her in Zuma's office' - 21 August
"Go and dump her in Zuma's office." That's how maternity nurses at the Alexandra Clinic reportedly responded to the desperate pleas of a Joburg ambulance driver to admit his ill, heavily pregnant patient who was in labour. They turned him away. - IOL website

Zuma : you tarnish SA's image - 21 August
President Jacob Zuma on Saturday criticised violent striking public servants, saying that ugly scenes seen during the strike would tarnish South Africa's image. "Even during the campaigns against the apartheid government we did not prevent nurses from going to work," said Zuma. - IOL website

'I find myself deeply ashamed of my countrymen'  - 21 August
IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi is "deeply ashamed" of the striking public servants prepared to endanger lives and punish schoolchildren, he said on Friday. - Business Report website

South Africa warning of strike 'murder tactics' - 20 August
South Africa's health minister has told striking public sector workers that those who interrupted vital medical care were guilty of murder. Aaron Motsoaledi, a doctor by training, said he was shocked by the intimidation tactics used by some of the protesters. - BBC News website

Health minister on duty at strike-hit Soweto hospital : summary - 20 August
South Africa's Health Minister Aaron Motosaledi swapped his ministerial suit for a doctor's white coat Friday on the third day of a public sector strike that is being blamed for the deaths of two premature babies. Motosaledi, a medical doctor by profession, pitched in to help a skeleton staff of doctors trying to care for patients at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto township outside Johannesburg. - EarthTimes website

Public servants warned of an own goal if action drags on - 20 August
As demonstrating public sector workers caused chaos around the country yesterday, labour analyst Andrew Levy predicted the strike would last for four to six weeks and could become increasingly violent. Levy said it was impossible to quantify the impact on the economy of a protracted work stoppage and the disruption during the period. Levy said he was surprised the unions had gone ahead with the strike in the face of the improved offer and suggested it could be due to pressure from employees. "Any intelligent negotiator must realise there cannot be very much more leeway, which makes it more difficult to achieve the demands", he said. - Business Report website

Govt acts to deal with strike violence, intimidation - 20 August
The government will take special security measures against striking public-sector workers who seek to disrupt basic service delivery, State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele said on Friday. "Ministers agreed on a range of measures to be taken to ensure the safety of citizens and employees who are not part of the industrial action, as well as the growing number of volunteers who are stepping forward to deliver services", Cwele said at a press briefing in Pretoria. - Mail & Guardian website

Special courts set up to deal with strike hooligans - 21 August
Government announced on Friday it is setting up special courts throughout the country to deal with hooliganism during the public servants strike. Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele made the announcement. - Eye Witness News website

Govt welcomes interdict against striking workers - 22 August
The Labour Court granted government an interdict on Saturday prohibiting those employed in essential services from participating in the public servants strike. The interdict also aims to prevent workers from participating in unlawful acts such as intimidation, assault, victimization of non-striking workers and members of the public including patients at hospitals and scholars and teachers at school. It also aims to prevent damage to property belonging to the state and the erection of obstructions or barricades to any state property. The interdict comes after an interdict granted to the Gauteng provincial government on Friday. Dedicated courts have already been set up to deal with cases of transgressions related to the strike. - BuaNews Online website

South Africa unions condemn strike injunction - 22 August
South Africa's trade unions have condemned a court injunction obtained by the government prohibiting public sector workers from continuing a national strike. A spokesman for the Cosatu trade union federation told the BBC the move was designed to "intimidate" strikers. - BBC News website

Hospersa not affected by labour court ruling - 22 August
Hospersa on Sunday said it was not affected by the Labour Court's ruling which prohibits essential services workers from participating in the Public Servants' strike. The ruling also prevents protesters from intimidating and victimising non-striking workers. - Times Live website

Health workers to respect interdict : union - 22 August
Striking health workers will on Monday return to work, but hold lunchtime pickets after the government obtained an order forcing them to end the strike, a union said on Sunday. The Health Services Personel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa) said its non-essential services workers will, however, continue to strike. - News24 website

Where is our humanity now? - 22 August
The health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, made a point yesterday and it bears repeating here : Just a month ago, South Africa was lauded as a fantastic country after hosting a successful World Cup. This country's motif in hosting the games was that we and our guests, and celebrants across the globe, were celebrating "Africa's humanity". Where was this humanity when infants died and patients needing chronic medication were turned away from hospitals? Where was this humanity when pupils at a school in KwaZulu-Natal were beaten by teachers with sjamboks and knobkieries - because they were studying? The truth is that our sense of ubuntu is at a low ebb. - Justice Malala on the Times Live website

ANC mobilises volunteers - 22 August
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal was mobilising volunteers to help in schools and health institutions which have been abandoned by striking public servants. - IOL website

Govt to get tough on unruly teachers - 19 August
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has warned that government will act harshly against striking teachers found guilty of criminal actions. Motshekga said she was concerned by recent reports of intimidation, damage to public property and the forceful disruption of normal schooling by striking teachers, especially in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. "I have spoken to the Ministers of Police and Justice, and as government we will act harshly against anyone making themselves guilty of such criminal actions". - BuaNews Online website

20 August 2010
Statement on national teachers' strike
A major blow to education. Press release on the Education Department website

20 August 2010
Monies to be deducted with immediate effect. Press release on the Education Department website

Toll free number to report unsupervised learners - 19 August
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has urged community members to inform the department through a toll free number when learners are at school without supervision. A toll free number, 0800 202 933, has been established by the department for the public to use to report unsupervised learners at school during the public service strike. The number can also be used to report all other strike related incidents. - BuaNews Online website

Strike just another blow to education in SA - 20 August
The timing of the current public sector union strike in South Africa is highly unfortunate as it leaves scholars little time to catch up after stoppages for the World Cup already delayed their studies. But the current generation of scholars is used to the hard knocks, poor quality and poor standards is leaving 70% languishing without the critical education seen as a first step to enter the working world. "One of the indirect impacts of the strike could be in kids' results. It could have a very, very real impact over time", says chief economist from Nedbank, Dr Dennis Dykes. - Business Report website

Sadtu strikers come down on private schools - 20 August
South African Democratic Teachers' Union members said on Thursday they would continue forcing private schools to shut down, since the consequences of the strike should not only affect poor pupils. - Eye Witness News website

Pity teachers are not so dedicated - 22 August
When I helped a matric study group as a volunteer on Friday, one thought crossed my mind : I wished the striking teachers could see the thirst to learn of these pupils. One said : "I applied for a bursary and need to submit these results to them while I wait for the final results. So I have to pass with flying colours". - Zandie Mbabela on the Times Live website

Mob attacks matric pupils - 19 August
Scottburgh High School had closed last Thursday because of the intimidation accompanying the nationwide public servants' strike. On Wednesday, 107 pupils and four teachers were studying at the local country club when a gang invaded the property, demanding to know what the pupils were doing. - IOL website

Strikers defy court order at Durban hospital - 23 August
A group of striking workers defied a court order when they prevented non-striking workers and patients from entering King Edward Hospital in Durban on Monday morning.A striking woman at the hospital said she was not aware of the court order. "We are still doing what we were doing last week", she said. Nurses camping outside the hospital said they were still waiting for union leaders to tell them whether to work. - Mail & Guardian website

Strikers shot with rubber bullets - 23 August
Police fired rubber bullets at striking healthcare workers at the staff gate of Addington Hospital, hitting several. A protestor, Craig Handele, who was shot, said police accused the protestors of defying a court order by the Labour Court prohibiting essential services workers from participating in the public servants' strike and from intimidating and victimising non-striking workers. The KwaZulu-Natal government has also obtained an interdict preventing striking workers from barricading public institutions. - Times Live website

Hospital deaths under spotlight during strike - 23 August
Several hospital deaths have been reported since a nationwide public service strike started last week, but the government was cautious about linking them directly to the mass action. However, Dr George Mukhari hospitals executive head Trevor Fisher told Beeld on Monday that at least 10 deaths at the hospital "could be directly linked to the strike". - Mail & Guardian website

Police arrest strikers outside hospitals - 23 August
Police arrested a number of demonstrators on Monday outside the  Helen   Joseph   Hospital  in Johannesburg  shortly after a visit by Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane. - Eye Witness News website

Burly nurse wrestles cops - 23 August
A striking nurse wrestled two police officers to the ground before they threw her into their van as a protest turned violent at the Helen Joseph Hospital yesterday. Gauteng police spokesman Colonel Eugene Opperman said police held 23 protesters at the Edenvale Hospital. In Kimberley, 38 SA Democratic Teachers' Union members were arrested for smashing cement rubbish bins and blocking traffic. In KwaZulu-Natal, 64 strikers were arrested outside hospitals. Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane said 1770 military medics had been sent to hospitals across the province. - Times Live website

Strikers demand 'sense' from leaders - 23 August
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will press ahead with demonstrations outside hospitals and other workplaces on Monday as a nationwide - and at times violent - public servants' strike enters its sixth day. "We have told our members, there must be no obstruction of entrances and no intimidation. They are allowed to demonstrate outside the hospital, they will just have to keep their distance", Cosatu spokesperson Mugwena Maluleke told reporters. - IOL website

Sisulu takes tough line on strikers - 24 August
An angry Defence and Military Veterans Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Monday vowed to deal with striking public service workers like she dealt with striking soldiers. "This goes so far and no further. People have a right to life and a right to work and we will protect those rights no matter what", the minister said. Sisulu on Monday visited Dr George Mukhari and Chris Hani Baragwanath hospitals where hundreds of heavily armed soldiers and military medics have been deployed. The deployment is part of a larger scale military deployment of thousands of troops and military medics to 73 hospitals in all the country's provinces, except the Western Cape and Northern Cape. - IOL website

Military veterans call strike 'a crime against humanity' - 24 August
The SA Military Veterans Association said on Tuesday striking workers who pull nurses out of hospitals were committing a crime against humanity. The association has called on its members to volunteer at various hospitals. - Eye Witness News website

Cabinet to meet over strike - 24 August
KZN Premier Zweli Mkhize asked the Speaker for the sitting to discuss the ongoing strike. While the Provincial Government's obtained a court interdict which prevents strike-related intimidation, additional measures to safe guard schools and hospitals will be discussed at this morning's meeting. - East Coast Radio website

Mkhize slams strike mayhem - 24 August
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize yesterday slammed the "total anarchy" caused by the seven-day-old public servants' strike. Hospital staff sjambokked colleagues, slashed car tyres, stole medical instruments, flooded wards with water and padlocked hospital gates, he said. - Times Live website

Govt recasts public-sector wage offer - 23 August
There is only one-tenth of a percent difference between what striking public servants are demanding and what the state is offering, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Monday. In a move that appears designed to bring unions back to the negotiating table, he told a media briefing in Pretoria that in "real terms" the government was offering an 8,5% increase to public servants. Unions are demanding, among other things, an 8,6% pay increase. Explaining the government's new arithmetic on Monday, Maseko said the figure of 8,5% was the sum of the 7% settlement offer and the so-called pay progression of 1,5%. - Mail & Guardian website

Unions say govt 'misleading the public' on wage offer - 24 August
Trade unions reacted angrily on Tuesday to the government's claim that it had made a new wage offer to public servants as they entered the seventh day of a national strike. "That is not a new offer from the government. Its offer is still 7%. The government is just misleading the public", said SA Democratic Teachers Union deputy general secretary Nkosana Dolopi. - Mail & Guardian website

Cosatu tells SA citizens to stop scabbing and support strike - 25 August
Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has accused volunteers at hospitals of weakening the public servants strike. - Eye Witness News website

Cosatu threatens to halt SA economy if demands are not met - 25 August
Trade union federation Cosatu has threatened to bring the entire country to a standstill next week if government does not meet public service unions’ demands. - Eye Witness News website

Analysis : Vavi's 'scorched earth' threat will come back to haunt him - 25 August
As South Africa sinks deeper into the chaos caused by the public servants' strike and pays a terrible price because of the fight between alliance partners, Cosatu's leadership has chosen to turn up the heat a great deal. This time, however, they themselves are most likely to be the greatest casualties. On Tuesday, Cosatu's Zwelinzima Vavi issued a call for the entire trade union federation's membership to support the public servants’ strike, thus threatening to bring South Africa to a standstill. - The Daily Maverick website

'No wage dispute justifies the death of people' - 25 August
Plans by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) to stage a solidarity strike triggered a chorus of warnings from politicians on Wednesday. - Mail & Guardian website

Police and prison warders to join strike - 25 August
About 145 000 police and traffic officers as well as prison warders will join the public sector wage strike on Saturday, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) said on Wednesday. "Hereby today, we wish to categorically state [our] intention to join the current national public service strike action as a revolutionary duty to ensure that our working class power and a demand for a living wage is asserted", Popcru spokesperson Norman Mampane said in a statement. - Mail & Guardian website

Court blocks police from joining strike - 26 August
An interim interdict that prohibits all members of the South African Police Service from embarking on a strike was granted by the Labour Court in the early hours of Thursday morning, a national police spokesperson said. The interdict further prohibits the police and the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) from promoting, encouraging or supporting participation in a strike by all members of the SAPS, Brigadier Sally de Beer said. - Mail & Guardian website

Police face dismissal if they strike - 26 August
Brigadier Sally de Beer said employees of the SAPS render essential services to the community and as a result they were prohibited from striking in terms of Section 65(1)(d) of the Labour Act, 1995. "Any contravention of this prohibition will lead to disciplinary action being taken, which may include summary dismissal from the police service", de Beer said. - IOL website

Correctional services may join strike - 26 August
The Department of Correctional Services has provisionally withdrawn an application for an urgent interdict at the  Labour Court  in Braamfontein which was aimed at preventing correctional services officers from participating in the ongoing public servants strike. - Eye Witness News website

Taxis decide against strike - 25 August
It will be business as usual for minibus taxis in KZN tomorrow. The KZN Taxi Alliance's Bafana Mhlongo says while they support the workers' demands for an increase, taxis will still be operating as normal. - East Coast Radio website

COSATU gives notice of sympathy strike - 26 August
The Congress of South African Trade Unions said on Thursday all its affiliated unions had served seven-day notices for a secondary strike, which threatens to bring the country's economy to a halt. Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has warned that the secondary strike will totally shut down the economy. - Business Day website

Samwu joins strike - 25 August
The South African Municipal Workers' Union will embark on a strike in Gauteng on Friday in solidarity with striking public servants, a spokesperson said. "The 52 000 members of Samwu in Gauteng would be going on the solidarity strike on Friday", said spokesperson Tahir Sema. "Samwu's membership in other provinces are in the process of discussing pledging solidarity". - IOL website

JHB gets court interdict against Samwu's intended strike - 26 August
The City of  Johannesburg  has interdicted the South African Municipal Workers Union from embarking on a secondary strike on Friday. - Eye Witness News website

Samwu to go on strike despite court interdict - 27 August
The South African Municipal Workers Union has defied a court interdict and will be on strike on Friday. Samwu said on Friday its legal department is studying the document and plans to challenge it. - Eye Witness News website

Health professions 'horrified' by deaths as a result of strike - 26 August
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has denounced the public service strike because it had resulted in patient deaths, it said in a statement on Thursday. - Business Report website

Lack of care blamed for patient's death - 27 August
A psychiatric patient died on Wednesday due to a lack of medical care, bringing the death total in the Eastern Cape to five, the provincial health department said. Eastern Cape health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said three infants and two adults had so far died from a lack of medical care caused by the public sector strike. - IOL website

No strike by soldiers, says dept - 27 August
Members of the South African National Defence (SANDF) will not be joining the public service strike as this would be against the prescripts of the Constitution and the Defence Act, says the Department of Defence and Military Veterans. - BuaNews Online website

Minister meets labour in bid to calm strike tempers - 27 August
Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi held a private meeting with trade union leaders last night, in a last-ditch effort to resolve the strike crippling the public services, and to tone down the increasingly strident political rhetoric which has been used to articulate labour’s demands. The urgent meeting was prompted by a recognition by the government and labour that they will each have to compromise to deal with the crisis. - Business Day website

Not enough data to dock pay - 27 August
As the government prepares to dock the salaries of striking teachers within two weeks, an M&G investigation suggests the data necessary to do so equitably and accurately could be seriously flawed. - Mail & Guardian website

Land Affairs and Property

Changes in foreign ownership of SA land - 17 August
The department of rural development and land reform said on Monday that foreigners will in future not be able to own land without the consent of local communities, the SABC reported. The department was in a process of developing a new land tenure system, spokesperson Mtobeli Mxotwa told the broadcaster.  He said the policy was also aimed to address problems facing the land distribution programme. Mxotwa said a green paper to change the land tenure system had already been drafted and that it was on its way to Cabinet for approval. - Mail & Guardian website

Land Bank has turned the corner : Gordhan - 19 August
The Land Bank's legacy where millions were lost due to looting by its former administrators has robbed South Africans the opportunity to reduce poverty through the empowerment of beneficiaries of land reform programme, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said this morning. Addressing stakeholder at the release of the first state of Land Bank and results since taken over by the treasury in September 2008, Mr Gordhan said the R3-4bn that the government had give to the bank has brought stability to the bank. - allAfrica website

19 August 2010
Gordhan : Speech by the Minister of Finance, at the launch of the Land Bank’s annual report, Midrand 
Polity website

Agri SA makes progress in debate - 16 August
Agri SA identified the issue of land caps as a major problem after a meeting by the union's leadership to discuss contentious aspects of the forthcoming Green Paper on land reform."We've explored the land cap suggestion from every angle and there's no way we can make it work", said Agri SA deputy president Dr Theo de Jager. Government had earlier suggested to Agri SA that landownership restrictions would be based on the needs of specific commodities, but Dr De Jager said this was impractical because most South African farmers run mixed-use operations, the nature of which change from year to year. - Meat Trade News Daily website

'Deeds office strike could be disastrous' - 16 August
The news that civil servants in the Cape Town deeds office are joining the countrywide strike is disturbing to the Cape's property sector, says Anton du Plessis, chief executive of Vineyard Estates. In view of the disruption that would follow a hold-up of transfers, he says the property sector would welcome the government declaring deeds office work an essential service. The government itself will lose out heavily from hold-ups at the deeds office. - IOL website

Deeds office strike: more bad news for property - 20 August
Current turnaround time for deeds is 13 - 14 working days, going to get worse. The nationwide civil servants' strike has hit the property market with workers at deeds registry offices around the country joining the strike. - Moneyweb website

Deeds office scam raises fears about home title security - 10 August
Skulduggery in the Deeds Office that has seen more than 70 municipal and corporate properties fraudulently transferred to shady private companies since December last year raises the strong possibility of property owners now having to take out title deed insurance, as is the case in the US and other countries. - Moneyweb website

Joburg recovers 4 "lost" properties - 27 July
Down south where whales frolic and retirees watch, sits Hermanus, that quaint little village famous for its whales and art galleries. Now Hermanus often seems to be in the news, particularly with the Noseweek crew, with regards to shady property deals, its latest is par for the course with the less than stellar work been done by the Overstrand municipality.This time the alleged sale of more than a kilometre of municipal-owned prime Hermanus beachfront property to developers for 20% of its estimated municipal value is getting the villagers' goat. - Realestateweb website
Keyphrase :
Schulphoek

See :
Hermanus forges ahead - May 2010
Maravi blog
Keyphrase :
Noseweek

Top Pretoria lawyer held - 17 August
A controversial city attorney arrested for his alleged involvement in the fraudulent sale of prime Johannesburg municipal land is set to apply for bail in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court today. Peet Viljoen, who handled the transfer of millions of rands worth of council property - including a section of the Norscot Koppies and Kingfisher Nature Reserve - was arrested by the Hawks with four others last Thursday night on charges of racketeering and fraud. He is being held at Pretoria Central police cells. National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga confirmed that Viljoen and another attorney, Edwin Maringa, were arrested with three other women. Two of the women, Ronel van Vuuren and Anele van der Berg, work in Viljoen's office. The other woman, Dorah Madisa, works for the Johannesburg Property Company responsible for the transfer of council land. Madisa is named as an assistant property portfolio manager relating to schools on the municipal website. The women were released last week on R5 000 bail. Viljoen and Maringa's bail applications were postponed because of the State's concerns that they would intimidate witnesses. - IOL website
Keyphrase :
Law Society of the Northern Provinces

The life of Zunaid Moti - 16 August
Fast cars, quick property deals and now an early morning house robbery that appears to have been executed with military accuracy and speed. That is the life of Zunaid Moti, a car-loving businessman with links to several property deals, including the controversial transfer of 33 tracts of prime land owned by the City of Johannesburg.  - IOL website

Bail hearing over 'fraudulent' Joburg land deals - 17 August
The Pretoria attorney arrested for his involvement in the alleged fraudulent sale of prime Joburg municipal land was due to apply for bail today in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court. - IOL website

State requests no bail for alleged fraudster attorneys - 18 August
The State has asked the Pretoria Magistrate's Court not to release attorney Peet Viljoen and his co-accused Edwin Maringa on Tuesday. The pair and three female lawyers are accused of fraudulently selling  Johannesburg municipal property worth R100 million. - Eye Witness News website

Lawyers in massive Johannesburg property fraud granted bail - 19 August
The Pretoria-based lawyer Peet Viljoen, his co-accused Johannesburg lawyer Edwin Risimate Maringa, and three women were granted bail of R50,000 each in the Pretoria Regional Court on Wednesday. The group are facing two charges of racketeering and 29 counts of fraud, involving an estimated R39 million, from allegedly defrauding the Johannesburg City Council. - NewsTime website

Any unsigned amendment to a property transaction deal can invalidate it - 18 August
A recent court case in which an owner who changed his mind about wanting to sell his property was able to get the whole deal declared invalid on the grounds that a single amendment, added later to the deed of sale, had not been signed by both parties, has shown once again the importance of having all property transactions in writing. - IOL website

Debts ruling could lift levies - 17 August
Tenants and property owners will have to wait and see whether rents and levies will rise or fall after a ruling that estate agents, property managers and sectional title managing agents must register as debt collectors. The ruling by the Council for Debt Collectors followed a case in Cape Town where a sectional title managing agent was charged with contravening the Debt Collectors' Act by demanding more than the act prescribed for phone calls and letters written to a sectional title owner who was in arrears with his levies. - IOL website

Execution sale rules 'unfair' - 20 August
South Africa's sale-of-execution regulations are unfair, resulting in properties being sold for far less than their commercial value, says a law firm. "In this era of consumer protection, it is ironical that South African law continues to allow residential and commercial property to be sold at rock-bottom prices if there is a civil judgment against the owner", Werksmans Attorneys said. - IOL website

Councillors halt plans of Bantry Bay mansion owner - 26 August
City councillors have refused to give after-the-fact approval of unauthorised building work done on a recently completed seafront mansion in Bantry Bay. At a recent meeting of the Good Hope subcouncil, Robertson asked that departures be granted to permit a double dwelling house with five storeys instead of the approved three storeys. According to his application, the city had approved building plans for a double dwelling house in July 2007, but after the developer started with construction, certain deviations occurred which necessitated an application for a block of flats. - IOL website

Govt cracks down on dodgy housing contractors - 16 August
The Department of Human Settlements is intensifying its crackdown on dodgy housing contractors and has drawn up a shortlist of 20 "problematic" projects worth R2-billion currently under investigation, Director General Chabane Zulu said on Monday. Presenting an anti-corruption update in Pretoria, Zulu said 10 246 housing projects had been assessed by the special investigating unit headed by Willie Hofmeyr. He said the top 10 dodgy contracts in each province were identified, and narrowed down to 20. - Mail & Guardian website

Mystery of the R600m housing money - 17 August
Former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki promised them they would one day own their properties, but about 1 200 families are still waiting for the council-owned flats to be fixed and transferred into their names as part of the Enhanced Extended Discount Benefits Scheme. In February last year, former housing MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu said the project would cost R572 million and that renovations would start before the end of the year. Human Settlements MEC Maggie Govender said the work had been delayed because of "legal reasons". "Austerville flats matter is subject to court action, at present it is with the state attorney. As it is a legal matter, we are not in a position to comment", she said. Community leader Desmond D'Sa questioned what had happened to the money set aside for the refurbishment of the flats.  - IOL website

Housing whistleblowers murdered : DG - 18 August
Whistleblowers on corrupt housing deals are being threatened and murdered while they are in witness protection programmes, human settlements director general Thabane Zulu told MPs on Wednesday. Zulu told the human settlements portfolio committee that investigations into corrupt housing deals were extremely dangerous, and witnesses were refusing to give evidence out of fear for their lives. - IOL website

Land Claims and Expropriation

'High time for SA land policy overhaul' - 8 August
The graceful farm is like any other in South Africa's wine country, with a cosy restaurant and tasting room circled by mountains and rows of trellised grape vines. But Thandi Wines is one of the few black-owned operations in a high-end business that like most commercial agriculture is still predominantly white-owned 16 years after the end of apartheid minority rule. "It's the first truly broad-based black empowerment wine company in the history of South Africa," said chief executive officer Vernon Henn. - Mail & Guardian website

Hotel to appeal land 'restoration' - 23 August
Tourism giants Sun International and Emfuleni Resorts, which built the Fish River Sun hotel complex, have applied for leave to appeal an order naming a rural Eastern Cape community as the lawful owners of the land. The Mazizini community from Peddie were granted full ownership of the Fish River Sun Resort – comprising a hotel and golf resort along the eastern banks of the Fish River – and 56 adjacent farmlands in March. At the time, Sun International proposed to pay the community out, or give it alternative land. Last week in the East London Land Claims Court, Sun International and Emfuleni Resorts argued that the Mazizini community were not in a position to develop the property in an economically viable manner. - Dispatch Online website

Decision on Bishopscourt land flawed, court told - 11 August
Former minister of land affairs and agriculture Thoko Didiza's decision to hand over a green public space in Bishopscourt as part of a settlement to a group of land claimants in the suburb was flawed, the Land Claims Court heard yesterday. Yesterday, the Land Claims Court in Cape Town heard final arguments in prominent attorney and Bishopscourt resident William Booth's suit to have the decision overturned. Booth, the trustees of the Tatenda Trust and the company Electprops 4 took on the former minister of land affairs, the regional land claims commissioner, the City of Cape Town, the National Botanical Institute, the Protea Village Action Committee and the Department of Public Works. - IOL website

Court urged to restore land in Bishopscourt - 16 August
People living next door to state-owned land in Bishopscourt cannot interdict the government to prevent the land being restored to people dispossessed under apartheid - and if they did succeed it would amount to a perpetuation of apartheid's discriminatory spatial planning laws. This was argued in the Land Claims Court last week on behalf of claimants from the old Protea Village. - IOL website

See also :

CT restitution deal challenged - 16 November [2009]
News24 website
[InfoUpdate 25 of 2009]

Land Claims Courts
[InfoUpdate 6 of 2010]

Media

Protection of Information Bill and Media Appeals Tribunal

Local Response

Concern over media freedom - 6 August
The protection of information bill is "constitutionally suspect", the Law Society of SA (LSSA) said on Friday. - News24 website

Law Society concerned at threat to media freedom -7 August
The Law Society of South Africa on Friday expressed concern about the draft Protection of Information Bill and the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal, saying they were "constitutionally suspect". The two measures threatened to undermine press freedom, which was a fundamental pillar of democracy, LSSA co-chairs Max Boqwana and Peter Horn said in a joint statement. - Mail & Guardian website

See :
LSSA statement
[InfoUpdate 18 of 2010]

Malema : 'The media think they are untouchable' - 8 August
There would be no debate over establishing a Media Appeals Tribunal, said ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema on Saturday. "We have already decided. We want Parliament to appoint a tribunal, make it law". Malema said the media must be regulated because "they think they are untouchable".  - Mail & Guardian website

Boiled chickens pretending to be plumed peacocks - 10 August
Suddenly there is a lot of (artificially whipped-up) hysteria about the media doing the rounds amongst certain politicians. They want to muzzle the media by introducing a Media Tribunal "with teeth" and is also hell bent on passing the Protection of Information Bill which will criminalize much of what goes for investigative journalism in this country . . . If proof were necessary, this is proof enough that this absurd talk about how evil the media is and how it needs to be regulated for the sake of our democracy has absolutely nothing to do with any principle and everything to do with the most blatant and dangerous forms of self-interest on the part of some politicians. It is a bit like saying we need to stop people eating because they are starving. - Pierre de Vos on the Constitutionally Speaking blog

SA censorship likened to Zimbabwe's - 10 August
As calls for the withdrawal of the controversial Protection of Information Bill mount, parallels between the bill and Zimbabwe's draconian media laws are being drawn. In 2002, the Zimbabwean government passed the Access to Information and Privacy Act, effectively gagging the independent media. It contained two notorious sections limiting the content of what might be published, namely section 64, entitled "Abuse of freedom of expression", and section 80, entitled "Abuse of journalistic privilege". The act also provided for up to two years in prison for the publication of "falsehoods". - Business Day website

Press freedom - 10 August
Fiona Forde on the Business Day website

ANC : editors need help from media tribunal, which ordinary people support - 10 August
On Tuesday journalists were told the ANC's proposed Media Appeals Tribunal wouldn't limit freedom of speech (because it is impossible for the ANC or Parliament to do so), and would, in fact, be a great help to editors who are powerless to control their journalists. And seeing as everyone, except newspapers, think it's a good idea, it's time for the media to get with the programme. - The Daily Maverick website

ANC unimpressed by print media commitment to transformation - 10 August
The ruling ANC on Tuesday questioned the print media's commitment to transformation, calling for statutory regulation and a complete overhaul in ownership and control. The ANC proposed that the Competition Commission "investigate the anti-competitive dynamics in the print media value chain, that is paper, printing, publishing, distribution and advertising", African National Congress national spokesman Jackson Mthembu told editors and journalists in Johannesburg. He also tried to explain why the ANC believed a Media Appeals Tribunal was necessary to regulate the media, saying it would be very similar to how broadcast media was regulated. - NewsTime website

Kasrils sounds warning over information Bill - 10 August
Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils has called on the government to rethink the controversial Protection of Information Bill and the ruling party's proposal for a media tribunal that reports to Parliament. Kasrils, in an interview with Talk Radio 702, said the government must fight a tendency among ministers to clamp down on transparency and "improve" the Bill that is seen as an attack on media freedom and a return to apartheid-era repression. - Mail & Guardian website

Op-Ed : Defend democracy – don't gag it! - 21 August
Ronnie Kasrils, former intelligence services minister, is the man who first put forward the Protection of Information Bill in Parliament early in 2008. Here he gives the motivations behind it then, what has been changed to unleash the current controversy, why he cannot support the Bill in its present form and how this stalemate should be resolved. - The Daily Maverick website

Sexwale 'unequivocally' supports media freedom - 11 August
African National Congress heavyweight Tokyo Sexwale came out in strong support of media freedom at a leadership summit in Johannesburg on Wednesday. "[Nelson] Mandela's style of leadership . . . speaks about the freedom of expression, but, most importantly, also the freedom of the media", Sexwale said at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit, where he praised the anti-apartheid icon's style of leadership. - Polity website

Analysis : Sexwale vs BMF on media - 13 August
The Daily Maverick website

Tokyo praises media for exposing corruption - 16 August
The media is the conscience of society and is here to stay, said Human Settlements Minister and senior ANC politician Tokyo Sexwale yesterday. He patted the media on the back for playing a huge role in exposing corruption in the delivery of state housing across the country. "I can't defend the media, the Constitution defends the media. The media is the conscience of society. The media is ever so helpful". - Times Live website

Media gets another ally in Ramphele - 11 August
The media found another ally in businesswoman Mamphela Ramphele today, who warned that statutory control of the media would not solve the government's problems. "Where are the business leaders to join Tokyo [Sexwale] in defending freedom of the press?", asked Ramphele at the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg. - East Coast Radio website

AfriForum joins resistence to media tribunal - 11 August
Lobby group AfriForum has joined media organisations and civil society groups which have sounded the alarm over the ruling ANC's planned media appeals tribunal and the Protection of Information Bill. "The civil rights initiative AfriForum has undertaken to fight in court for media freedom, even if it were to mean that this fight has to be taken to the level of the Constitutional Court", said chief executive officer Kallie Kriel in a statement on Wednesday. - Business Report website

Proposed law 'harks back to apartheid' - 11 August
The South African government would have authority to classify any official document as being in the "national interest" and jail anyone possessing it without authorisation for as long as 25 years under proposed legislation. "We actually think it's unconstitutional", said Ayesha Kajee, a director of the Freedom of Expression Institute. South Africa ranked 55th out of ' countries in Transparency International's 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index. - Business Report website

Zuma : media 'go overboard' at times - 12 August
Media houses need to be regulated as they tend to go overboard at times, President Jacob Zuma told the South African Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday in defending the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal. - Mail & Guardian website

The Zuma ANC's one redeeming feature - 12 August
There can be little doubt after the statements and events of the past two weeks that the ANC is planning to curtail the independence of the press in South Africa. As the Sunday Times editor Ray Hartley has noted "There is a systematic move on several fronts to strangle independent critical journalism". In the thuggish detention of Mzilikazi wa Afrika we came face to face with the future - should state secrecy and media tribunal laws make their way onto the statute book. - James Myburgh on the Politicsweb website

BMF supports media tribunal - 12 August
The Black Management Forum on Thursday voiced its support for the ANC's proposed government-appointed media appeals tribunal. The BMF had "noted with concern the behaviour by some media houses and practitioners, who report inaccurately and with impunity on various individuals and organisations", BMF MD Gaba Tabane said in a statement. - Business Report website

Drop media tribunal idea : ProJourn - 12 August
The Professional Journalists' Association of South Africa supports calls made by City Press editor Ferial Haffajee and Wits University's Prof Anton Harber last night at the Critical Thinking Forum, hosted by M&G and Amandla, for the ANC to take the proposed media appeals tribunal off the table. - Politicsweb website

Threat to press freedom is already here - 12 August
In recent weeks, commentators in the media and commerce and industry have warned of the negative reputation the government will earn by clamping down on people's access to information and freedom to publish. They warned that foreign investors will be scared off. The debate has focused on the draft Protection of Information Bill and the African National Congress mooting the establishment of a punitive statutory media appeals tribunal, both of which will restrict the media’s ability to access information. The threat is perceived to be on the horizon - but it is already here and has been for months. - Raymond Louw on the Business Day website

Media appeals tribunal should be abandoned, panel says - 12 August
The proposed media appeals tribunal - as put forward in the African National Congress National General Council discussion document on media diversity and ownership - should be abandoned, a panel of experts said on Wednesday. "The MAT is an affront to democracy, and we are giving it too much of our time", said Alternative Information Development Centre representative Mark Weinberg, who added that because of this, less emphasis was being put on the issue of transformation in the media. - Polity website

SA business, a silent witness to the slaughter of media freedom - 13 August
South African business needs to break its silence on government plans to gag the media and muzzle freedom of expression, say editors and a prominent political analyst. And not only because the issue needs to be championed by all South Africans, but because freedom of information is the lifeblood of the markets. - The Daily Maverick website

PAC rejects ANC's proposed media appeals tribunal  - 13 August
The Pan Africanist Congress on Friday joined the many unequivocally rejecting the ANC's proposed media appeals tribunal. - Business Report website

It’s 'a political game' - 13 August
Mmanaledi Mataboge talks to press ombudsman Joe Thloloe about the proposed media tribunal. - Mail & Guardian website

SA's Press Ombudsman speaks : Stop the madness - 17 August
The Daily Maverick website

14 August 2010
Let the real media debate begin : letter from the President. - ANC Today website
Keyphrases :
African National Conference. 52nd National Conference Resolution
Chapter 9 Institutions
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 108 of 1996

It's not personal, says Zuma - 14 August
The ANC is not trying to control the media through the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal and reports of it doing so are misleading, President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday. "This is not personal, it is aimed at advancing the freedoms that are enshrined in our Constitution," he said in a statement. Zuma said that the ANC as South Africa's leader had to protect and defend the rights of its citizens. - IOL website

Zuma says he wants debate on ownership, diversity of South African media - 14 August
South African President Jacob Zuma rejected media criticism of a proposed tribunal to oversee print and broadcast operators and called for "real debate" on ownership, content and diversity in the industry. Arguments that the ruling African National Congress wants to suppress media freedom are based on a "falsehood that the ruling party has no ethics, morals and values", Zuma said in an e-mailed statement today. Zuma was "astounded" by criticism of his party's proposal to establish a government-controlled Media Appeals Tribunal that would probe complaints against reporters, according to the statement. - Bloomberg website

Deconstructing Zuma and his letter on the media tribunal - 15 August
It's not personal, the President tells the media. So stop being such cry-babies, and let's talk about all the things that are wrong with the media in South Africa. Which would have been not at all concerning, except that the President apparently (a) has no idea of the deep introspection already happening within the media, (b) believes it's as simple as "ANC good, media bad" fight, and (c) thinks government performance should only be judged by those who are in tune with ANC objectives. - The Daily Maverick website

No one may take ANC to court : Mbalula - 14 August
An independent media tribunal was needed so that South African media could be held accountable for what it published, deputy police minister Fikile Mbalula said in Durban on Saturday. "The African National Congress is unambiguous about the media tribunal. The media cannot be a player and a referee", he told the Kwazulu-Natal ANC Youth League provincial general council. He said the media could not "abuse people and get away with it", adding that no one was allowed to take the ANC to court. "The media must be held accountable for its actions . . . We cannot have leaders elected by the court". - News24 website

Analysis : The ANC's anti-media campaign and its unexpected brilliance - 16 August
Over the past couple of months, many editors, journalists and analysts have been surprised, indeed taken aback by the effectiveness of the ANC's march towards what would effectively be criminalising the free media. Here's how they're doing it. - The Daily Maverick website

Fighting graft, muzzling media contradictory : Azapo - 16 August
Placing tight controls on media freedom is incompatible with government's stated quest to fight corruption, Azapo said on Monday. "Those in authority have stated their determination to fight corruption with all the power at their disposal", Azapo president Jake Dikobo said in a statement. "Recently, the President announced a probe by the Special Investigation Unit into the dodgy affairs of several government departments. We whole-heartedly support these measures", said Dikobo. "That is why we fail to understand the introduction of the Protection of Information Bill and the suggestion of the creation of the so-called media tribunal at this time". - The Citizen website

The media will lose this battle - 17 August
There are a thousand good reasons why the Protection of Information Bill and the Media Appeals Tribunal are insidious, dangerous, and damaging to our democracy. - Ivo Vegter on The Daily Maverick website

Briefing note : Protection of Information Bill - 17 August
Amandla website

Vavi questions proposed media bill - 17 August
Zwelinzima Vavi, the secretary general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, on Tuesday criticised the proposed Protection of Information Bill during the Ruth First memorial lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand. If Ruth First were alive, she would read the proposed bill and ask where all the democrats had gone, he said, adding that it made a mockery of her work as a journalist. First was an investigative journalist between 1947 and 1982. - IOL website

Vavi says media bill 'will not pass' - 18 August
The proposed Protection of Information Bill was a "mockery", Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said yesterday. - Business Day website

Control of media 'unwise' - 17 August
Statutory control of South Africa's media would be unwise, Business Leadership SA (BLSA) warned on Tuesday. "We believe the free passage of ideas is the lifeblood of both democracy and the economy", BLSA chairperson Bobby Godsell told a media briefing in Johannesburg. - News24 website

17 August 2010
BLSA : Statement by Business Leadership South Africa, on the Media Appeals Tribunal and the Protection of Information Bill
Polity website

Former Star editor Harvey Tyson on the media tribunal - 17 August
T he former editor of The Star, Harvey Tyson, who faced the wrath of the apartheid government's anti-press crusade, has spoken out strongly against the ANC'sproposed media appeals tribunal. In an email to friends and former colleagues yesterday, Monday, 16 August 2010, he wrote that "we may be approaching a tipping point in the short history of SA democracy". - Bizcommunity website

Why business should oppose media restrictions : Gareth Ackerman - 18 August
South African business should take seriously President Zuma's invitation to an open debate about the role of the media and its alignment with the Constitution. Pick n Pay recognizes that there is a close link between economic and political freedom. The economic freedom on which business depends flourishes best when citizens are able to rely on an unfettered flow of information that is free from excessive government control and regulation. - Politicsweb website

Would Media Appeals Tribunal be constitutional? - 18 August
Many people have asked me whether the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal would pass constitutional muster. We already know that the proposal for a MAP is wrongheaded, self-serving, deeply reactionary and unnecessary. But if Parliament passed a law that further limited the freedom of the printed media to publish what it deems important by subjecting the printed media to the dictates of such a MAP, would this limitation be justifiable in terms of our Bill of Rights? The short and somewhat unsatisfactory answer is that it is far too early to answer this question. - Pierre de Vos on the Constitutionally Speaking blog

Mantashe defends media tribunal proposals - 19 August
African National Congress secretary general Gwede Mantashe defended the party's proposal towards a media tribunal on Thursday. "Freedom of the press and freedom of expression must not be elevated above other rights, the right to privacy and the right to dignity", said Mantashe at the African Participatory Democracy Conference in Johannesburg. - Polity website

Business headlines and the proposed Media Bill - 20 August
Interview with Alec Hogg (Moneyweb) and Russell Loubser (JSE) on the Moneyweb website

Info bill unconstitutional : GCB - 20 August
The draft Protection of Information Bill does not pass constitutional muster, the General Council of the Bar of South Africa said on Friday. As is customary, the bill was provided to the GCB for its comment, and the council has submitted its report to the relevant Parliamentary committee. - Polity website

SA's top writers against info bill and media tribunal - 21 August
Several of the country's most renowned authors have come out against proposed controls over the media saying jeopardising the freedom of writers will endanger the freedom of every reader in  South Africa. Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer and Man Booker Prize winner Andre Brink are leading the protest opposing government's draft Protection of Information Bill and the ANC's proposed media tribunal. It is being supported by fellow writers Zakes Mda, Breyten Breytenbach, Mandla Langa and many others. - Eye Witness News website

Thloloe joins media freedom debate - 24 August
The media should review their own work, rather than have the ANC "put a gun to our temple" and force the industry to co-operate in its own "rape", Press Ombudsman Joe Thloloe said on Monday night. Thloloe was part of a panel at Wits University debating media freedom. - IOL website

Amid strikes and chaos, Cosatu enters media tribunal debate with a home run - 23 August
Any suggestion that actually looks like a worthwhile solution needs to be studied carefully. Cosatu has one. Leaked, perhaps, to City Press over the weekend, a proposal that will be discussed by the federation's central executive committee on Monday. In its nuts and bolts it says yes, set up a media appeals tribunal. Include on it representatives from government, the media (we are talking about the print media here, but only newspapers) and civil society organisations. So far so good. Here's the brilliant bit. When a story concerning government is brought to the tribunal, the government representatives have to recuse themselves. It's political genius. - The Daily Maverick website

Go ahead : pass the Protection of Information Bill - 23 August
Daryl Ilbury on the BizCommunity website

Press Council to review its Constitution - 23 August
The Press Council of SA (PCSA) is to undertake a complete review of its constitution in the wake of criticisms which have emerged in debate over the ANC's planned Media Appeals Tribunal. - Times Live website

'Overwhelming support' for MAT : ANC - 24 August
The proposed media appeals tribunal is receiving "overwhelming support" from South Africans, African National Congress spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said during a debate on the matter in Johannesburg on Monday. - Polity website

ANC 'won't change constitution' for tribunal - 24 August
The ANC has promised to "never ever" change the constitution to institute a tribunal to regulate the media. "Rest assured, we will not do anything of the sort", ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu told a debate on media freedom at Wits University in Joburg last night. - IOL website

A media tribunal : the Nat model (I) - 13 August
September 1979 : Schlebusch says measures needed to curb abuse of press freedom, McClurg responds [Source: Rand Daily Mail, September 24 1979]. - Politicsweb website

Total onslaught on the pillars of democracy - 25 August 2010
In 1981 Judge MT Steyn completed a report on the media. He found that the country was the subject of a total onslaught led by an ANC/South African Communist Party alliance and the media had played an important role, whether directly or indirectly, in the promotion of this campaign against the "legitimate institutions" of state. In the result Steyn recommended major legislation to curb the media and thus defend the "legitimate interests of the state". By the early 1980s the media had already been subjected to a plethora of restrictive legislation. - Mail & Guardian website

Protection of Information Bill and Media Appeals Tribunal

International Response

South Africa seeks to curb 'anti-ANC' media as critics cry foul - 9 August
The South African government would have authority to classify any official document as being in the "national interest" and jail anyone possessing it without authorization for as long as 25 years under proposed legislation. - Bloomberg website

International media sound the alarm bells - 13 August
When the Wall Street Journal speaks, the global economic community listens. And that's exactly where the pain of even muttering about a media tribunal could really hurt the ANC - and the country's image as a pillar of democracy on the continent. The newspaper reported earlier this week on the recent increased pressure on local media, including the proposed media tribunal and the Protection of Information Act, noting that "the party of former president Nelson Mandela . . . remain[s] resolute in finding new ways to police the press". - Mail & Guardian website

A "risky" move, says WEF on intended media tribunal - 13 August
World Editor's Forum (WEF) Director Bertrand Pecquerie on Thursday described as "risky" a media tribunal that the South African government intends implementing amid growing disapproval from journalists and some political parties. "It's risky and counter-productive . . . Government needs to protect the fourth estate instead of threatening it", Pecquerie said. Pecquerie, who is based in Paris, described the move as a form of censorship. - Polity website

Media group urges Zuma to reconsider proposal - 16 August
A group representing major media houses in the United States has sent a letter to President Jacob Zuma urging him to shelve legislative proposals that would "severely restrict" South African media. "We call on you as the head of state and leader of the ruling African National Congress to ensure that such proposals are either amended in line with constitutional safeguards for freedom of the press and access to information, or withdrawn altogether in the interest of preserving the transparency, accountability, and democracy gained after apartheid", the letter penned by the newly established Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said. - IOL website

Media bill and mine rights put off foreign investors - 17 August
The controversial battle over ownership of the Sishen iron ore mining rights and prospecting rights for secondary minerals at a Lonmin platinum mine had contributed to making South Africa a considerably riskier place to do business, a London-based analyst said yesterday.  But while investors appear to be increasingly troubled by the uncertainty and signs of corruption surrounding the mining sector, it seems that the international ratings agencies do not believe that either the controversy around mining rights or the proposed state secrets bill justify a revision of the country's sovereign rating. - Business Report website

Analysis : the media freedom debate's new, powerful voice - 19 August
For the first time since the end of the Apartheid an incumbent US ambassador to South Africa has spoken out on a domestic controversy – the contentious media freedom proposals – and his words, while diplomatically couched, talk about the deep crisis this country is hurtling toward. - The Daily Maverick website
Keyphrase :
Donald Gips

18 August 2010
US : Gips : Remarks by the US Ambassador to South Africa, at the South African Institute of International Affairs, Johannesburg
Polity website

Proposed restrictions on the news media cause alarm in South Africa - 22 August
The front pages of South Africa's newspapers are regularly splashed with articles about politicians living it up at public expense in a country blighted by poverty. The adversarial dealings of politicians and the press have taken a particularly nasty turn recently, as an infuriated governing party has sought to rein in newspapers it has come to see as determined opponents. - New York Times website

See also :

Protection of Information Bill [Legislation]

Auckland Park Declaration

The US and South African approaches to the classification of government information - August 2010
The FW de Klerk Foundation comments on the South African and the US perspectives regarding the protection of senstive government information. - Polity website

Editors to meet with Cele - 10 August
The SA National Editors Forum (Sanef) on Monday said it wanted to discuss the police's treatment of journalists at crime scenes, when it meets with General Bheki Cele on Tuesday. The national police commissioner has called for a meeting with the forum in Johannesburg. It is believed he wants to talk about the Sunday Times report about a R500 million rental deal for a new police head quarters. - Eye Witness News website

6 August 2010
Social Justice Organisations denounce the arrest of Sunday Times journalist, Mzilikazi wa Afrika
Politicsweb website
Keyphrases :
Abahlali baseMjondolo
AIDC
Anti Privatisation Forum
Equal Education
Landless People's Movement
Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP)
Rural Network
Social Justice Coalition
SECTION27
Students for Law and Social Justice
SWEAT
Treatment Action Campaign
Unemployed People's Movement
Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

10 August 2010
SACP Mpumalanga shocked by arrest of Wa Afrika
Politicsweb website

Premier 'laid charges' that led to reporter's arrest - 8 August
Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza laid the forgery charges that resulted in Sunday Times reporter Mzilikazi wa Afrika's arrest, the newspaper reported on Saturday. Mabuza's spokesperson Mabutho Sithole told the paper the premier had laid the complaint at the Kabokweni police station on Monday in Nelspruit. - Mail & Guardian website

Spin doctor red-faced over fake letter - 13 August
Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza's spin doctors seem to have played a central role in circulating the fake letter that led to the dramatic arrest of Sunday Times investigative journalist, Mzilikazi wa Afrika, last week. Mabuza's chief spokesperson, Mabutho Sithole, reluctantly admitted on Thursday that he personally tipped off journalists about the existence of the letter, in which the premier purportedly confirms his resignation to President Jacob Zuma. Sithole refused to say why Wa Afrika had been targeted for arrest when he had not circulated the letter or written about it, or why journalists who had circulated it and written about the controversy had not been charged. The Hawks agreed to return Wa Afrika's notebooks and research files, which were seized from his home without a search warrant immediately after his arrest last week and were turned over to crime intelligence officers in Mpumalanga for "analysis". They include notes on his investigations into the arms deal, Travelgate and other scandals. - Mail & Guardian website
Keyphrases :
Jimmy Mohlala
Mbombela Stadium
Sizwe samaYende (City Press)

Why the Hawks? - 14 August
Last week members of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (also known as the Hawks) swooped on the offices of the Sunday Times and arrested Mzilikazi wa Africa. Reports suggest that he was arrested for fraud, uttering and defeating the ends of justice for being in possession of a letter purporting to be a resignation letter from the Premier of Mpumalanga. This was already rather odd and disturbing, as being in possession of a fraudulent letter does not constitute a criminal offense. But throughout the affair something else has been bothering me. Why would the Hawks investigate a matter of fraud and defeating the ends of justice against anyone? According to the South African Police Services Act, the Hawks is empowered to investigate "priority crimes". - Pierre de Vos on the Constitutionally Speaking blog

Did Hawks act criminally on Wa Afrika? - 14 August
The Hawks' involvement in the criminal case against Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika has been questioned. Legal opinions obtained suggest that the Hawks' swoop on Wa Afrika could be irregular because it would be a case that falls outside the new elite priority crimes unit's mandate. But yesterday, the Hawks attempted to distance themselves from the arrest. Hawks spokesman Musa Zondi - who was present when Wa Afrika was arrested - said "the Hawks were not necessarily involved in the case".  - IOL website

Charge Wa Afrika with high treason : ANCYL Mpumalanga - 16 August
The youth league in Mpumalanga welcomes the arrest of Sunday Times journalist, Mzilikazi waAfrika and his two accomplices with great relief. It is a move in the right direction to uproot the cancer of brown envelope journalism that is compromising the integrity of hard working journalists who follow proper ethics of the journalism profession. We call upon the prosecution authority to charge him with high treason as his actions are a threat to national security. He has undermined security in the Presidency and the Mpumalanga Premier's office which is a direct attack to the state and its people and a serious breach of national security. WaAfrika and his co-accused are a threat to themselves and the whole nation. - Politicsweb website

ANC slams Mpuma ANCYL over media - 18 August
The ANC criticised the Mpumalanga branch of its youth league on Tuesday for saying the conduct of Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika illustrated the need for a media appeals tribunal. "We don't agree with the youth league", said African National Congress spokesperson Jackson Mthembu. He said Wa Afrika's case was still in progress and that the league could not jump to conclusions on what the court would decide. - News24 website

I feel an emptiness, a sadness. I think you are feeling it too . . . - 24 August
Several weeks have passed since our reporter was arrested, held without access to his lawyer for eight hours, awoken for interrogation at 2.30 AM and finally released on the orders of the High Court. Not one single person in the government has expressed regret at how this incident was handled. But what makes me feel a terrible emptiness is the continuation of the legislative and administrative onslaught on the press by way of the Protection of Information Bill and the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal because this is being done despite an incredible public outcry. - Editorial on Times Live website

See also :

SABC briefing to Parliament held behind closed doors above

Swaziland minister quits over alleged affair above

Minerals and Energy

Ministers in limbo - 23 August
The split of the Department of Minerals and Energy into the Department of Mining and the Department of Energy creates a unique situation. When a new Minister, responsible for a new department, is appointed the powers and functions of such a Minister have to be defined by the President. In this instance the powers and functions of the previous Minister of Minerals and Energy will have to be allocated between, and transferred to the Minister of Mining and the Minister of Energy respectively. In terms of the Constitution the President can transfer powers and functions from one Minister to another Minister but must do so by proclamation. The replacement of Minister of Minerals of Energy with the Minister of Energy and the Minister of Mining has legal consequences for the mineral and petroleum industry with regard to the grant and execution of rights in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002. - Bowman Gilfillan on the Polity website

See also : ANCYL National General Council Discussion Documents above

Eskom

State mulls cancellation of R142 billion new Eskom plant - 25 August
South Africa may propose to cancel the building of the Kusile coal-fired power plant planned by power utility Eskom, a senior ministry official said on Wednesday. Ompi Aphane, Deputy Director General at the Department of Energy, said the cancellation of Kusile, whose first unit was initially expected to come on stream by 2014 to fill a power shortage in Africa's biggest economy, was one of the possible scenarios for the country's new national electricity plan. - Business Report website

See also :
Analysis : will Anglo become a power generator? - 24 March [2010]
The Daily Maverick website
[InfoUpdate 7 of 2010]

Mining

17 August 2010
Shabangu : Briefing by the Minister of Mineral Resources, on measures to bring stability to South Africa's mining sector, Pretoria
Polity website

Mines minister launches "major overhaul" of law - 17 August
In an address that will be noted by domestic and foreign investors, Susan Shabangu, South Africa's mines minister, on Tuesday proposed a "major overhaul" of legislation pertaining to mining, following recent debacles in the sector, headed by the catastrophic award to Imperial Crown Trading of prospecting rights at Sishen Iron Ore Company, a unit of Kumba Iron Ore. - Moneyweb website

Govt to redo 'ambiguous' mining laws - 17 August
Interview with Hilton Tarrant and Iraj Abedian, economic adviser to DMR minister. - Moneyweb website

Minister in 'major overhaul' of mine laws, 'licence-tracking' to go public - 17 August
South Africa's "ambiguous" minerals legislation would be subjected to a "major overhaul" and issues relating to Kumba Iron Ore, ArcelorMittal South Africa and platinum miner Lonmin would be dealt with "immediately" and taken to the Cabinet "soon", Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu said on Tuesday. From September 1, information on the status of exploration and mining licences would be accessible on the Department of Mineral Resources' website, "in the interest of transparency". All stakeholders, including members of the public, would have access to the new electronic administrative system. Within the next six months, the DMR would also have a completely new system of 'licence-process tracking' ready for public access. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Minister's mining industry 'stability' measures win support - 18 August
South Africa's Chamber of Mines has come out in support of Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu's "measures to bring stability to South Africa's mining sector". - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

See also : Department of Mineral Resources website

Shabangu stands fast - 25 August
Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu acknowledged at a press conference this week that there is growing negative sentiment about the mining sector and, specifically, its regulatory framework. The overhaul is being welcomed, but not without reservation - delays in issuing mining licences in the first case were seen to have contributed to the country missing out on the last commodity boom. At close quarters, Shabangu appears more of a bureaucrat than a politician. Her job is to implement the new law, the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act. - Mail & Guardian website

SA Finance Minister says anomalies in mineral royalties fixed - 24 August
"Some key anomalies that were identified during the past few months have been remedied. These include the introduction of roll-over relief. This roll-over relief is intended so that many smaller mining operations can roll the royalty over to parties", Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said in parliament. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Time to call it . . . expropriation? - 19 August
The recent 33-page ruling by an international tribunal that highlighted how the South African government agreed to a 5% equity stake for "black economic empowerment" (BEE), rather than the "compulsory" 26%, has fuelled plans for further challenges by a number of foreign-registered miners operating in the country. - Moneyweb website

See also :

International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
4 August 2010
ICSID Case No.ARB(AF)/07/1
Piero Foresti, Laura de Carli and others v Republic of South Africa

Conclusion of intl arbitration in mining welcomed - 6 August [2010]
BuaNews Online website
[InfoUpdate 18 of 2010]

S Africa State-owned mining firm seen before year-end - 17 August
South Africa's Mining Ministry will soon approach the Cabinet with its proposal for a state-owned mining company, which could be formed before the end of this year, a senior government official said on Tuesday. "We've developed a concept for a state-owned mining company and will approach the cabinet very soon on that . . . it could be next month", Sandile Nogxina, director-general in the mining ministry told Reuters. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

SA places moratorium on prospecting applications - 17 August
South Africa has put a six-month moratorium on all new applications for prospecting licences in the country while a review of irregularities in the administrative process is ongoing, a minister said on Tuesday. Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu said that all already launched mining right applications would be processed according to existing law. - Polity website

Minister announces mineral rights audit - 18 August
There will be a six-month moratorium on new prospecting applications while a full audit of all mineral rights granted since 2004 is conducted, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu announced on Tuesday. She also promised greater transparency in the way rights were allocated, and an immediate centralisation of the issuing process. The moves were aimed in part at combating perceptions of corruption and inefficiency, she said in a statement.  - Mail & Guardian website

SA undermined by mining-rights controversy : captains of industry - 19 August
Leaders from South Africa's top local and foreign companies have warned that the prevailing controversy around mining licences in South Africa had "undermined our country's reputation and standing" in the eyes of investors and "caused harm beyond the important sector of mining". Business Leadership South Africa chairperson Bobby Godsell, himself a former mining executive, said that executives from 50 of the organisation's 80 member companies discussed that issue, along with concerns about threats to media freedom, at a council meeting on Tuesday. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

See also : Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 [Legislation

Second Take : Awarding of mineral rights in SA - 13 August
[Look for video link]. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Lonmin sucker punched in new BEE debacle - 5 August
Major platinum group metal miner Lonmin was "ordered", late on Wednesday, by the Department of Mineral Resources to "immediately" refrain from selling nickel, copper, chrome, and other metals and minerals outside the PGM classification, which includes platinum, palladium, rhodium, gold, and others. - Moneyweb website

Lonmin's base metals sales suspended - 6 August
Interview with Alec Hogg and Peter Leon, chairman, mining law committee of the International Bar Association. - Moneyweb website

Second Take : Lonmin's stop order - 6 August
[Look for video link]. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Lonmin to appeal ban - 8 August
South African mining group Lonmin has said it will appeal the decision by the Mineral Resources Department ordering to stop selling copper, chrome, nickel and any other minerals. - NewsTime website

'I have conducted myself with full integrity' : Gounden on Lonmin dispute - 6 August
Former South African Public Enterprises DG and current HolGoun executive chairperson Dr Sivi Gounden said that he had conducted himself with full integrity and that his company had complied with all the requirements relating to the awarding of prospecting rights on part of Lonmin Platinum's property. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

'Puzzled' DMR says Lonmin in line for rights soon, but not in Keysha area - 10 August
South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources said on Tuesday that it was "puzzled" by Lonmin's "lost-rights" claim and indicated that the London- and Johannesburg-listed platinum-mining company was in line to be awarded rights to associated minerals soon, but not in the area where Keysha Investments 220 had already been allotted a prospecting right. Keysha, a HolGoun company headed by former Public Enterprise director-general and Bateman CEO Sivi Gounden, has separately petitioned the South Gauteng High Court to compel Lonmin to account for the nonplatinum-group-metals being sold from within Keysha's prospecting area. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Law already in place for Lonmin to mine, sell and compensate rights holder Keysha - 11 August
A statutory facility is already in place that allows Lonmin to extract and dispose of the nonplatinum minerals it mines, and to pay compensation to mineral rights holder Keysha, says former Department of Mineral Resources deputy director-general Jacinto Rocha, now a mining law consultant. Rocha says that the precedent set by the case of Trojan Exploration versus Rustenburg Platinum - which allowed miner Anglo Platinum to pay compensation to rights holder Trojan - is enshrined in South Africa's Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Lonmin 'had chance to apply for rights' : Department - 11 August
The Department of Mineral Resources yesterday stoutly defended a letter it sent to Lonmin ordering it to stop selling base metals from its mines. The order last week sent Lonmin's shares into a dive. - allAfrica website

Conciliatory Lonmin thanks South Africa's DMR for ‘clarification' - 11 August
London- and Johannesburg-listed platinum miner Lonmin on Wednesday softened its previously strident tone, extended a thank you to South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources, and made no further mention of the court proceedings it said it was bringing against the department. Instead, the company headed by CEO Ian Farmer, said that it would like to thank the DMR for its cooperation in expediting the approval of its Section 102 applications. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Lonmin conditions curbing court-backed accounting : Keysha - 11 August
"Onerous and impractical" conditions are preventing mineral-rights holder Keysha from commencing a High Court-sanctioned accounting process on the portion of Lonmin's platinum mine where it has a prospecting right, said Vanessa Gounden, CEO of HolGoun, the Keysha holding company, on Wednesday. Gounden said in a media release that HolGoun, headed by executive chairperson Dr Sivi Gounden, might have to revert to the court to ensure that the order it had obtained could be implemented. Gounden said that she found it strange that, to date, Lonmin had omitted to mention the High Court order, which compelled the London- and Johannesburg-listed platinum miner to account to Keysha on its sale of base metals from Keysha's prospecting area. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

South Africa says Lonmin base metals rights 'imminent' - 11 August
Lonmin, the world's third-biggest platinum producer, is likely to receive approval soon to sell the base metals it was ordered to stop selling last week, South Africa's mining ministry said. - Business Report website

Reprieve for Lonmin as state order withdrawn - 12 August
Lonmin has been given permission to sell base metals from its platinum mines again after the Department of Mineral Resources rescinded an order it made last week that the world's third-largest platinum miner immediately stop such sales. - Business Day website

See also :

South Africans outraged by DMR's favouritism - 3 August [2010]
Moneyweb website
[InfoUpdate 18 of 2010]

State faces legal battle as Lonmin loses rights - 6 August [2010]
allAfrica website
[InfoUpdate 18 of 2010]

'Controversy is not the same as corruption' - 13 August
ArcelorMittal CEO Nonkululeko Nyembezi Heita defended the steel giant's bruised public image in Parliament on Friday, which took a knock after it announced its BEE deal including controversial company Imperial Crown Trading. ArcelorMittal announced the empowerment transaction earlier this week but questions have been raised regarding the partners to the deal – which include the President's son Duduzane Zuma, as well as the influential Gupta family, close associates of the president. - Mail & Guardian website

Interview with Lindo Xulu, Moneyweb journalist, and Sandile Zungu, Phemelo Sehunelo and Imperial Crown Trading - 16 August
Moneyweb website

Unions oppose 'embarrassing' ArcelorMittal SA deals - 18 August
ArcelorMittal South Africa's sale of shares to black investors linked to government and plans to buy a company with ties to one of sons of the nation's president are "seriously embarrassing" and should be stopped, unions said. The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions, which is in an alliance with the ruling African National Congress, said in an e-mailed statement today that "narrow, elitist" deals threaten to tarnish efforts to promote black people in the economy. - Business Week website

Special report podcast - 19 August
Interview with Lindo Xulu and Advocate Phemelo Sehunelo, Imperial Crown Trading on the Moneyweb website

Kumba expects mining rights resolution before July - 13 August
Kumba Iron Ore said on Friday it expects to solve the dispute over mineral rights in its Sishen mine before an interim price deal with ArcelorMittal South Africa expires in July next year. Kumba, the world's 10th-largest iron-ore producer and a unit of Anglo American, is contesting the government's granting of a prospecting right over a stake in its Sishen mine to Imperial Crown Trading. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Rocha fires new mineral-rights broadside, Kumba Iron Ore shoots back - 13 August
South Africa's former highly influential mineral resources deputy director-general Jacinto Rocha has rekindled the mineral-rights skirmish by firing a new set of broadsides at the Kumba Iron Ore (KIO) – and the Anglo American-controlled iron-ore miner has rapidly returned the fire. In a new outbreak of public acrimony involving the loss of Sishen iron-ore rights by ArcelorMittal South Africa, Rocha accuses KIO, headed by CEO Chris Griffith, of "inducing" officials to manipulate dates and of "stabbing" AMSA "in the back". - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

If it's Friday 13th, it must be Kumba, "the untold story" - 13 August
Jacinto Rocha, lately a mining bureaucrat, reflects on Kumba, and the state of the universe. - Moneyweb website

Why ICT's application was finalised before Kumba's - 15 August
Jacinto Rocha explains that one applied for a prospecting right, the other applied for a mining right. - Moneyweb website

Kumba says did not manipulate mining right application - 14 August
Kumba Iron Ore on Saturday dismissed allegations by a former government official that it was manipulating the system to gain rights to a stake in one of its mines previously held by ArcelorMittal South Africa. Former deputy director general at the Mining Ministry, Jacinto Rocha said Kumba had applied for the mining right before ArcelorMittal's right expired, fuelling an ongoing dispute between Kumba and the South African unit of the world's largest steelmaker. - Reuters website

Monday Comment : Hard to see the good in Mittal's BEE deal - 16 August
One of the interesting aspects of the ArcelorMittal SA kerfuffle is not the dispute between the company and Kumba Iron Ore but the black economic empowerment part of the deal. The crucial question is whether this is a genuine empowerment deal at all, or a cynical attempt to buy political influence disguised as a kind of empowerment. - allAfrica website

Minister upholds ICT iron-ore award, Kumba 'disappointed' - 17 August
South Africa's Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has upheld the awarding of the prospecting rights to Imperial Crown Trading 289, and the JSE-listed Kumba Iron Ore has expressed its disappointment at the decision. KIO's sole remaining option is to continue to challenge the award in the courts. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Cosatu slams 'elitist' BEE deals - 18 August
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has condemned what it termed "elitist" black economic empowerment deals in the steel industry. In a statement on Wednesday, the union federation said ArcelorMittal South Africa (Amsa) had "decided to get new BEE partners with strong links to some in the government in the form of Ayigobi Consortium, which now has a 21% stake in Amsa".  The deal was reported to be worth R9,1-billion. "Amsa went on to also acquire Imperial Crown Trading, which was awarded prospecting rights for 21,4% of Kumba's Sishen mine by the Department of Mineral Resources in March 2010." - Mail & Guardian website

ArcelorMittal BEE deal narrow and elitist : COSATU - 18 August
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has been closely following developments in the steel industry, involving ArcelorMittal South Africa and Kumba Iron Ore. - Politicsweb website

Mining laws and BHP Billiton's bid for PotashCorp - 18 August
Interview with Alec Hogg and Barry Sergeant (Moneyweb) and Marius Kloppers (BHP Billiton) on the Moneyweb website

Potash Corp has 'number' of approaches on rival deal, seeks talks - 23 August
Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Mittal appoints lawyers to evaluate ICT's Sishen move - 23 August
ArcelorMittal SA has appointed a team of lawyers to investigate whether Imperial Crown Trading engaged in corruption in its securing of prospecting rights over Kumba Iron Ore's Sishen mine. - Business Day website

Political solution is likely in Kumba-Mittal debacle - 24 August
The way Atul Gupta sees things, the uproar over the granting of rights to prospect the Sishen Iron Ore mine to Imperial Crown Trading is driven by jealousy over his soon-to-be-launched newspaper, The New Age. - allAfrica website

BEE : no good deed goes unpunished - 24 August
Nothing succeeds like success, as it is said, but it seems that sometimes, "no good deed goes unpunished" (courtesy Clare Booth Luce). This conundrum is where Kumba Iron Ore seems to find itself, given disparaging remarks made about Kumba by mines minister Susan Shabangu, seemingly into the face of one of the country's overwhelmingly - and rare - successful "black economic empowerment" stories. - Moneyweb website

For a history of this topic in InfoUpdate, see
http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGCM_enZA340&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=kumba+site:.lawlibrary.co.za

See also :

Media bill and mine rights put off foreign investors above

Mines minister launches "major overhaul" of law above]

More mining rights chaos - 27 August
Two new mining rights controversies emerged yesterday as an Anglo American subsidiary and Impala Platinum (Implats) confirmed that other companies had been awarded rights that they believed should rightfully have been theirs.  But while Anglo is headed for court, Implats's problem solved itself, when the new rights holder gave the affected rights up voluntarily. Anglo acknowledged yesterday that it was taking the Department of Mineral Resources to court over its decision to grant coal prospecting rights to little-known black economic empowerment company Melody Street Trading in 2009. - Business Report website
Keyphrase :
HolGoun. Keysha Investments 220

Block's permit taken with a pinch of salt - 6 August
A company owned by Northern Cape ANC chair John Block is to ask the Supreme Court of Appeal to validate an irregular mining permit that his company uses to mine salt in the province. Judge Hennie Lacock ruled in the Northern Cape High Court in January this year that Block's company, Suid Afrikaanse Soutwerke, had been mining at Vrysoutpan outside Upington using a fraudulently issued permit. Suid Afrikaanse Soutwerke was taken to court by Saamwerk Soutwerke, whose application for a mining licence was revoked at the last minute by the former department of minerals and energy. In his judgment Lacock found that Saamwerk Soutwerke received a licence to mine at Vrysoutpan on September 27 2006, threatening to displace Suid Afrikaanse Soutwerke, which had been mining at the site for several years. - Mail & Guardian website

NUM calls for broader debate on mines nationalisation - 25 August
South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Wednesday called for broader debate around the nationalisation of mines, saying that a standard model should be developed that could be implemented across all sectors of the country's economy. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Green Scorpions order colliery to stop activities - 11 August
An Australian-owned colliery in Limpopo has been ordered to stop activities that are illegal in terms of environmental legislation. The department of environmental affairs confirmed on Tuesday that its inspectors, the Green Scorpions, issued a compliance notice to Coal of Africa's Vele colliery to cease with activities that are in contravention of the National Environmental Management Act. Breach of the notice, the department says, will result in charges being laid in addition to the criminal investigation that is already underway. - Business Report website

Coal of Africa says it may ask staff to leave South Africa's Vele site - 19 August
Coal of Africa Ltd, the Australian miner of the fuel in South Africa, said it will ask all workers to leave its Vele mine construction site in the northeast of the country by the end of next week if the government doesn’t lift a suspension on development. The company may let 100 or 200 of about 800 workers go in the next few days to reduce costs at the coking-coal project, which was about 90 percent completed when it was stopped, John Wallington, chief executive officer of the Perth-based company, said today in an interview in Johannesburg. - Bloomberg website

The regulatory environment in South Africa - 20 August
Interview with Barry Sargeant and John Wallington, CEO, Coal of Africa on the Moneyweb website

Coal mining, rehabilitation concurrent at stopped Vele mine : CoAL - 23 August
Mining and rehabilitation will take place concurrently at Coal of Africa Vele's opencast coal mining project where South Africa's Department of Environmental Affairs has ordered mining to cease. "One of the benefits of this resource is that it's a mine that we're able to rehabilitate as we move along", CEO John Wallington tells Mining Weekly Online in a video interview. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Special report podcast - 24 August
John Wallington, CEO, Coal of Africa on the Moneyweb website

See also :
Enviro groups turn to court to halt CoAL's Vele project - 6 August [2010]
Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website
[InfoUpdate 18 of 2010]

Shabangu won't name dirty mining names - 18 August
Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu has declined to reveal the names of mines that have contravened approved environmental management plans (EMPs). In written reply to a parliamentary question by the Democratic Alliance, she said her department had in the past two-and-a-half years acted against numerous mines for a variety of environmental transgressions of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act. - Times Live website

See also : Task team to look at acid mine drainage above

Aurora receives R14m from Swiss group, union still sceptical - 23 August
The much-publicised financial troubles of Aurora Empowerment Systems once again took centre stage on Monday, when the company announced that Swiss investment group Global Emerging Markets (Gem) had advanced the first tranche of interim funding to JSE-listed Labat, into which Aurora is reversing. Aurora commercial director Seshile Ngubane told Mining Weekly Online that the interim funding amounted to around $2-million, or just over R14-million, and that the company expected further funding to come through towards the end of next month. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

Aurora confirms illegal miner murders - 12 August
Embattled gold miner, Aurora Empowerment Systems, confirmed there had been deaths at its East Rand-based Grootvlei mine, but added the killings were of illegal miners. This followed a push by the South African Police Services to flush them out, it said. Earlier, newspaper The Sowetan reported up to 20 individuals had been killed and left to rot in the underground recesses of the mine in what appeared to have been an arbitrary act of violence. However, Aurora management told Miningmx four illegal miners had been shot dead. - Miningmx website

Dead miners 'lived' in shaft at Aurora mine - 13 August
The people whose bodies were pulled out of a mine shaft near Johannesburg on Thursday appeared to have lived in the mine, a volunteer who helped pull their corpses out said on Friday. - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly website

We had to protect our assets : Aurora - 13 August
An Aurora director has defended the killing of alleged illegal miners at the mine's Grootvlei operations, saying this was about protecting the company's assets. "It is simple . . . if you go out there and steal gold, should I just go down on my knees and pray? It doesn't work like that. We have to protect our assets", Aurora Empowerment Systems commercial director Thulani Ngubane told Sapa on Friday. - Politicsweb website

Aurora director explains mine shooting - 14 August
Aurora mine security officials are at war with illegal miners and thieves who are alleged to have vandalised and stolen expensive equipment, amid regular gun battles. "If I can show the cars that these people have been shooting at, the bullet holes on those cars of the security personnel - you'll be shocked", said Aurora Empowerment Systems commercial director Thulani Ngubane. Ngubane's comments came in the week that four illegal miners - also known as Zama-Zamas - were found underground and gunned down by Aurora's security personnel. - Times Live website

Murder investigations opened over Aurora's Grootvlei mine shootings - 14 August
Gauteng Police confirm that murder investigations have been opened following the discovery of four bodies in the underground shaft at Aurora's Grootvlei mine in Ekurhuleni. - NewsTime website

'Bad Brad' involved in Aurora mine shooting - 14 August
Eyewitness News are reporting that "Bad Brad" Wood's lawyer Piet du Plessis has confirmed that he is acting on behalf of the former Big Brother housemate and four other security guards who were involved in the shooting at the Aurora mine. - NewsTime website

'Bad Brad' did nothing wrong : lawyer - 13 August
The lawyer representing Bradford "Bad Brad" Wood on Friday said despite being involved in a shooting at a mined owned by  Aurora Empowerment Systems, he did not do anything unlawful. - Eye Witness News website

Illegal miners were armed : 'Bad Brad's' lawyer - 14 August
"Bad Brad" Wood's lawyer said on Friday the illegal miners who were shot at in  Aurora's Grootvlei Mine were armed and dangerous. - Eye Witness News website

Illegal mining charge dropped amid murder investigation - 14 August
Charges of illegal mining against five suspects arrested at  Aurora's Grootvlei Mine in Ekurhuleni have been dropped pending a murder investigation. The five appeared in court on Friday after being arrested during a shoot-out with mine security inside Grootvlei's circle shaft on Monday. - Eye Witness News website

See also :

Environment above

Judges halt sand dune mining [Western Cape High Court

ANC Youth League response to a component of the ANC Discussion Document on Economic Transformation above

Municipal Management and Procedure

eThekwini

Mpisane houses demolished - 12 August
Two houses built six years ago by Durban tycoon Shauwn Mpisane's construction company, Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport Company, were demolished yesterday because they were unsafe - and residents of the Durban township of Lamontville have called for several more to be torn down and rebuilt. Ward councillor Nolubabalo Mthembu said 298 homes had been inspected, and it was resolved that two houses should be demolished. She said 30 other houses with serious structural defects, including cracked walls and roofs and broken doors and windows, would be renovated soon. - IOL website

Press Release : EXCO approves surety for ICC and Ushaka This press release was emailed out at : 25 August, 2010 11:45 The eThekwini Municipalitys Executive Committee has approved recommendations confirming the Councils commitment to ensuring the future financial viability of two Municipal Entities, the International Convention Centre (ICC) and the Durban Marine Theme Park. This is in line with the 2009 recommendations of the Auditor General. Council has committed to meet any funding shortfall that may compromise the ability of these entities to continue trading as a going concern. The Exco report states that during the 2009 audit of the Municipal Entities the AG recommended that the Municipality approve on an annual basis the surety of any cash flow shortfalls that maybe incurred by the Municipal Entities. "Essentially, the Council is required to provide a commitment to assist the entities if a cash flow shortfall is incurred. Compliance with this requirement will assist the Auditor General in reducing his assessment of a risk that the entity may not be able to continue trading in the foreseeable future", says the report. Exco also agreed to the redrafting of the management, lease and shareholders loan agreement of the ICC Durban (Pty) Ltd to reflect the Municipality as shareholder. During a debate on the matter, City Manager, Dr Michael Sutcliffe explained that this is not a bail-out for these entities, but this was to cover things like depreciation, rates and finance charges. Mayor Obed Mlaba said these entities had played an important role in reviving the Citys economy and the rejuvenation of the inner city. It was agreed that the Municipality will conduct an analysis and review of the contributions made to these entities as well as other bodies receiving funding from the Council. Issued by the eThekwini Municipalitys Communications Unit. For more information contact Thabo Mofokeng on 031-311 4820 or 082-731 7456 or e-mail mofokengthabo@durban.gov.za

Johannesburg

Joburg unveils new billing system - 12 August
The City of Johannesburg on Thursday unveiled details of its new billing system which authorities hope will improve the city's billing practices which have caused frustration to thousands of residents. Officials are adamant, however, that the new system - dubbed Programme Phakama - will ensure greater functionality in the areas of metered services, billing, collections, customer services and payments which will now be operated under one call centre to be situated in the city centre.  - BuaNews Online website

See also : Environment above

Msunduzi

Cash crisis in KZN capital - 16 August
The municipality that controls Pietermaritzburg has R4.8-million in the bank. It needs R200-million a month to function properly. The man sent to save KwaZulu-Natal's capital city, Johann Mettler, an executive director of the SA Local Government Association, told The Times yesterday that the municipality had been running on a three-day budget since March. - Times Live website

State sleeps on Msunduzi mess for 4 years - 16 August
Though the warning signals about the parlous state of the Msunduzi municipality's finances were apparent from as early as 2006, action was not taken until less than five months ago. - Times Live website

Mending Maritzburg - 25 August
Six months down the line, Johann  Mettler, who has a legal background and who is an executive director of the South African Local Government Association (Salga), is able to report to residents on what has been done and what is left to do. Some tough and unpopular decisions have had to be made, but he says there is no choice, he and his team have a mandate to fulfil. Mettler’s report card on Msunduzi lays bare the critical aspects of the city's turnaround strategy. - The Witness website

Government departments told pay or we'll cut you off - 26 August
The clock is ticking for government departments which have been given until Friday to pay R100 million they owe the cash-strapped Msunduzi Municipality. - Times Live website

Msunduzi : 'hordes' more officials to be suspended - 27 August
Eleven people are currently under suspension at Msunduzi Municipality, and another one has been fired. - The Witness website

National Prosecuting Authority

Courts are not clearing case backlogs : NPA head - 11 August
National Prosecuting Authority chief, Menzi Simelane, has conceded no major dents are being made in efforts to clear case backlogs. While briefing MPs in Parliament on Wednesday, Simelane said clearing the backlongs remained one of the NPA's biggest challenges. - Eye Witness News website

SA's prosecutors threatened by crime syndicates - 12 August
National Prosecuting Authority chief Menzi Simelane on Wednesday said a high number of prosecutors require protection from organised crime syndicates as they are threatened by violence. - Eye Witness News website

Simelane restructuring by stealth : DA - 11 August
The NDPP Adv Menzi Simelane is continuing to restructure the NPA and to decapitate and disband the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit in defiance of President Zuma's instructions. That is the only possible interpretation of his reply this morning to my questions during the NPA's quarterly appearance before the Portfolio Committee on Justice. - Dene Smuts on the Politicsweb website

'Crime statistics must be accurate' - 17 August
The Independent Complaints Directorate on Tuesday said it was interviewing potential suspects over the manipulation of crime statistics at three Western Cape police stations. The watchdog looked at close to 2000 dockets at the Paarl, George and Oudtshoorn stations after receiving complaints. - Eye Witness News website

Ignorance contributory factor to mob justice - 12 August
Mob justice is often sparked by ignorance of South Africa's court system - a lack of understanding of the principle of "innocent until proven guilty". The mob often sees the arrest of a suspect as proof of guilt, and wants to see instant "vengeance" take its course. This is the view of experts concerned about the recent incidents of mob justice in which men have been beaten and even killed in parts of the country. These incidents should more rightly be referred to as "mob injustice", said a spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority, advocate Mthunzi Mhanga. - IOL website

Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI)

Hawks officials accused of torture and assault - 17 August
The police watchdog revealed on Monday that it is probing 29 complaints of torture and assault against Hawks officials in Belville South, Cape Town. - Eye Witness News website

Top health official held for fraud - 10 August
A senior manager in the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department has been arrested in connection with charges of financial misconduct and tender irregularities - and five more arrests are to follow this week. The arrest forms part of the provincial Health Department's crackdown on corruption and fraud in its ranks. - IOL website

Dawn raid on shady government bigwigs - 24 August
Crime-busters planned to swoop on government bigwigs and shady businessmen in simultaneous pre-dawn raids today to seize assets worth R200-million in Cape Town, Durban and Pietermaritzburg, The Times has learned. A court order seen by The Times allows the state to attach at least 20 houses and farms, 40 luxury vehicles - including a Ferrari 612 Scagglietti and a Maserati Quattroporte - and a Learjet. Prominent properties facing seizure by the Asset Forfeiture Unit include the five-star Steenberg Hotel in Constantia, Cape Town, the Shamwari Lodge in the Eastern Cape and City Royal Hotel in Pietermaritzburg. - Times Live website
Keyphrases :
Blue Serenity Investments
Busisiwe Nyembezi (formerly Kwazulu-Natal Department of Health)
Gaston Savoi
Intaka Holdings
Public Finance Management Act
Sipho Buthelezi (formerly KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health Chief Financial Officer)
Sipho Shabalala (Ithala bank Chief Executive Officer)
Skyros Medical Suppliers
Victor Ntshangase (formerly KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health)

Three in court after R200m fraud - 25 August
A government official and two former officials appeared in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate's Court on Wednesday after raids over fraud and corruption allegedly involving R200 million. They were former KwaZulu-Natal head of the health department Dr Busi Nyembezi, KwaZulu-Natal legislature chief financial officer Sipho Buthelezi and a former procurement officer for the department of health, Mdu Ntshangase. - IOL website

Three 'amigos' nabbed in fraud raid - 26 August
They were "amigos" - a name they used affectionately in SMS correspondence with one another. Now the three friends - Ithala boss and former KwaZulu-Natal Treasury head Sipho Shabalala, former provincial health boss Busi Nyembezi and Cape Town-based billionaire Gaston Savoi - will stand trial accused of ripping off the government. Shabalala's arrest is imminent - as is that of his wife, Ntombi, and Durban advocate Sandile Kuboni, according to an affidavit filed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. - IOL website

Lear jet seized in R200m fraud raid - 25 August
Eight people appeared in court in two provinces on Wednesday following a R200m tender fraud crackdown by the Hawks and the Asset Forfeiture Unit. - News24 website

Asset raids snare ANC heavies - 27 August
The corruption probe by the Hawks and the asset forfeiture unit centring on Uruguyan businessman Gaston Savoi and his Intaka health group is likely to have significant political fallout in KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape. Savoi was arrested on Wednesday and charged with fraud over contracts worth more than R180-million. Allegations that kickbacks were paid by Intaka come uncomfortably close to some traditional ANC power-brokers in both provinces and may have a bearing on ANC succession battles. - Mail & Guardian website

See also :

Why the hawks? above

Hawks probing Naomi Campbell's dirty diamond gift above

Hawks seize cops property [KwaZulu-Natal High Court : Pietermaritzburg]

Presidency

President Zuma honoured to serve on UN Panel - 11 August
President Jacob Zuma is greatly honoured to be requested by the United Nations Secretary General, Mr Ban ki Moon to serve as co-chair of the Second Panel on Climate Change Sustainability. The President will share the responsibility with Excellency Tarja Kaarina Halonen, the President of Finland. - The Persidency website

Zuma to miss UN meeting for ANC NGC - 23 August
South African President Jacob Zuma will miss the United Nations general assembly in September in favour of attending the African National Congress's National General Council meeting, the Sunday Independent reported. This would be the second time since 1994 that South Africa would not be represented at the general assembly by a Head of State because of party politics, the paper said. The first time was in 2008 when former President Thabo Mbeki was "recalled" by the ANC. - Polity website

Provinces

ANC to question number of provinces in SA - 24 August
The ANC on Tuesday said its National General Council would hold a meeting to decide whether the country still needs nine provinces. This was revealed at a briefing on the party’s policy discussions. - Eye Witness News website

Public Protector

See also :

Malema cleared, says ANCYL above

President Zuma receives the reports of the Public Protector on Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda above

Cele's lease facing two probes below

South African Police Service

Cops' watchdog toothless - 16 August
Not one case of police abuse listed in Parliament has been prosecuted. Police closing ranks, gaps in legislation and justice system delays were blamed for stalling investigations of alleged police brutality in the Western Cape by the police's watchdog body yesterday. - Times Live website

Cele takes control as corrupt evidence grows - 15 August
The Special Investigations Unit has uncovered massive corruption within the SA Police Service's procurement units, leading police boss Bheki Cele to take over signing powers from his deputies as questionable contracts emerged. Independent Newspapers has learnt that Cele discovered a number of multi-million-rand contracts were signed on the eve of his appointment in July last year. - IOL website

Cele's lease facing two probes - 7 August
The controversial R500m/10 year lease entered into by the SAPS is facing scrutiny from two different bodies. The Sunday Times newspaper reports that the Special Investigations Unit and the office of Public protector Thulisile Madonsela were looking into the deal even before the newspaper’s own expose last week. The SIU is reported to be focussing on multi-billion rands worth of irregular government leases. - NewsTime website

Another building rental for police probed - 18 August
Minister of Public Works Geoff Doidge has revealed plans to lease another building to house police headquarters has been put on ice. Doidge said on Tuesday the hold is meant to allow the Public Protector and the Special Investigations Unit time to complete their probes into the matter. - Eye Witness News website

See also :  Hawks seize cops property [KwaZulu-Natal High Court : Pietermaritzburg]

South African Revenue Service (SARS)

The design and implementation of SARS's eFiling system- 17 August
Interview with Hilton Tarrant and Mark Kingon, group executive, business systems, SARS. - Moneyweb website

Sport and Recreation

Athletics

10 August 2010
Interim administrator of Athletics South Africa (ASA) on decision of International Association pf Athletics Federations (IAAF) on ur "Golden Girl" : briefing
Parliamentary Monitoring Group website

Cricket

Cricket bonus probe - 12 August
A former chief justice is to investigate R2-million in bonuses paid by the Indian Premier League to two South African cricket bosses. The money was part of R4.7-million in bonuses paid to 40 Cricket South Africa employees following the hosting of the IPL in South Africa last year and the International Cricket Council's Champions Trophy last September. Former chief justice Pius Langa's investigation, however, is likely to centre on the biggest slice of the bonus pie - R3.2-million which was paid to Cricket SA chief executive Gerald Majola and former chief operating officer Don McIntosh. - Times Live website

Stofile disappointed by CSA bonus scandal - 13 August
Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile is "extremely disappointed" by the revelations that Cricket South Africa bosses have received R2-million in bonuses from the Indian Premier League. - IOL website

CSA mum on performance bonus saga - 13 August
Cricket South Africa said on Friday they would not comment on bonuses paid to their employees until a review is completed by an independent audit committee. - IOL website

Rugby

Misconduct charges against De Villiers dismissed - 10 August
A claim of alleged misconduct against Springbok Coach Peter de Villiers has been dismissed by SANZAR Judicial Officer Jannie Lubbe SC. The misconduct charge related to comments made by the Springbok Coach on Australia's Fox Sports 'Rugby Club' programme on 21 July 2010. Mr Lubbe heard the case on Friday 6 August 2010 and after considering the evidence decided that, on balance of probability, Mr de Villiers had not breached the SANZAR code of conduct. - SA Rugby website

Sanzar now after Oregan Hoskins - 10 August
Having hauled Bok coach Peter de Villiers over the coals during a disciplinary hearing last week, SANZAR are now getting ready to tackle SA Rugby boss Oregan Hoskins. Hoskins last week said that SANZAR appeared to have declared war on SA Rugby alluding to the lengthy bans incurred by Bok players and the de Villiers hearing. - NewsTime website

No case against Hoskins - 11 August
All SANZAR disciplinary questions are now firmly behind the Springbok team and management, national teams manager Andy Marinos announced. There will also be no disciplinary hearing for South African Rugby Union president Oregan Hoskins, after SANZAR sent a letter asking for an explanation of his comments relating to a charge of "alleged misconduct" against Springbok coach Peter de Villiers. - Sport24 website

Its official : NZ are being favoured by refs - 17 August
It's official! New Zealand are treated differently by referees to either of their Tri-Nations opponents. The statistics from the first five games of this year's competition show a staggering difference in the ratio of penalties per yellow card. Suspicions are rife at the highest levels of South African rugby that the All Blacks get a special deal, and are favoured whether sub-consciously or consciously by referees. Now, the official figures seem to prove the point.  - IOL website

Taxation Issues

State must establish tax ombudsman : Saipa - 26 August
The South African Institute for Professional Accountants (SAIPA) is urging the government to fast-track plans to consider establishing a tax ombudsman. - Business Report website

Company car recipients could qualify for tax refund - 18 August
Company car recipients could potentially qualify for a tax refund for the 2010 tax year. - Business Report website

Gordhan moots new emissions tax for all vehicles - 25 August
Speaking in the National Assembly on the Taxation Laws Amendment Bill and related legislation yesterday, Mr Gordhan said the tax for used vehicles would encourage citizens to use public transport. - Business Day website

Double-cab carbon tax delayed to 2011, threshold to be higher than for cars - 25 August
South African consumers would start paying carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions tax on new double-cab pick-ups in the first half of next year, with the implementation of the tax on single-cab pick-ups delayed indefinitely. It is understood that the delay in the implementation of the tax on the sale of new double-cab vehicles served to allow the local automotive industry to conduct testing on these vehicles to determine their level of CO2 emissions. - Polity website

Treasury says double-cabs to be taxed from March 1, at higher threshold and rate - 26 August
Treasury confirmed on Thursday that the sale of new double-cab pick-ups would be subject to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions tax from March 1, 2011. The emissions tax would still be introduced on new passenger cars from September 1, 2010. Both the penalty and threshold for CO2 tax on double cabs would be higher than for passenger cars. - Polity website

Transport and Roads

Permanent transport tariff regulator mooted - 17 August
Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele said yesterday his department was looking at setting up a permanent economic regulator to oversee tariffs and infrastructure development across all modes of transport. - Business Day website

China vies for Jozi-Durban $30bn link - 25 August
The building of a $30 billion (R220bn) high-speed rail link between Johannesburg and Durban will enable China to export its technology and give South Africa the means to effectively link the economic hubs. Talks have begun between the government and China Railway Group on the feasibility of the project. China Railway chairman Li Changjin said discussions were at an early stage and no funding was in place. - IOL website

Western Cape

Hawks delve into Rasool dossier - 11 August
The police have confirmed that the Hawks specialist investigations unit has begun examining evidence connected with allegations that journalists were paid to pursue former premier Ebrahim Rasool's agenda. - IOL website

More named in Rasool PR debacle - 17 August
While the storm around former Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool - who is now South Africa's ambassador-designate to the United States - continues to brew, it's emerged that a slew of companies are now suspected of underhand dealings with the provincial government while under Rasool's watch. The three companies who have come under the scrutiny of the Western Cape provincial government's forensic investigation unit and whose details have been passed onto the Hawks are Hip Hop Media, Inkwenkezi Communications and Brand Talk. - Moneyweb website

Vavi considering Zille's invite - 6 August
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi is considering an invitation from Western Cape Premier Helen Zille to tell her cabinet about the labour federation's ideas about lifestyle audits on politicians and bureaucrats living beyond their means. Vavi said yesterday the DA leader had invited him because her provincial government intended passing a law banning state employees from doing business with government. - IOL website

Xenophobia

'We don't allow Nigerians in here' - 15 August
Nigerian government officials are fuming over the treatment dished out to Dr Anderson Anyikwa, who works at a state hospital in Port Elizabeth. The 38-year-old doctor was denied entry to Cubana Latino Café in Port Elizabeth by staff who, he claims, said Nigerians were not welcome in the establishment because they sold drugs. Vincent Omeokachie, minister of consular matters at the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria, this week said he had taken up the matter with South Africa's Department of International Relations and Co-operation. - Times Live website

Miscellaneous

'The most remarkable days of my life'  - 13 August
Pietermaritzburg looms large in Jay Naidoo's autobiography Fighting for Justice. Cosatu's first secretary-general and a cabinet minister in Nelson Mandela's government, he spent a good part of the eighties in the city. Reading his book you realise that this is where he cut his teeth as a trade union organiser. - The Witness website

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