Latest Johannesburg News
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Retiring Kirsten hopes to go out with a bang with Proteas Champions Trophy win
Outgoing South African coach Gary Kirsten has said that he wants to leave his post with a 'bang' by winning the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy. Determined to end his coaching tenure in the best possible way following his decision not to renew his contract with the Proteas earlier this month, Kirsten said that he hopes for a successful outcome at the Champions Trophy to end his career with a ...
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Proteas back Steyn to be better than more skillful Anderson
South African cricketer Dale Steyn's Proteas team mates have backed him to better than England pacer James Anderson, despite England's bowling coach David Saker saying the latter is "more skillfull". Saker's remarks have agitated the cricket community, with Proteas Test skipper Graeme Smith and wicketkeeper Mark Boucher postingd tweets of disbelief, Sport 24 reports. Boucher said that while ...
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South African MP says Prez Zuma root cause of Guptagate
A government report released into the use of a military base by an influential Indian family for a high-profile wedding in South Africa has implicated suspended Chief of State Protocol Bruce Koloane and exonerated President Jacob Zuma and his ministers. The report claims Koloane pressured military officials into allowing for a Gupta-chartered jet to land at Waterkloof Air Base under the premise ...
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Guptagate Why Waterkloof report wont fly
Though the government released a comprehensive timeline of events that led up to and immediately after the landing of a chartered plane at Waterkloof Air Force Base in late April, major holes remain in the official narrative. Chief among those is why at least two officials would risk their careers by lying about the involvement of "Number One", who they claimed had wanted arrangements ...
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MEC mum on transfer from shady builder
The head of the Northern Cape health department, Gugulethu Matlaopane, this week refused to explain a mysterious R1-million transfer to her account from a building contractor who allegedly accepted millions in municipal payments for houses that he failed to build. ...
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Parliament not given say on e-tolls
ANC MPs made a dramatic about-turn this week, caving in to pressure from members of the executive and withdrawing a bold proposal to give Parliament more say in the determination of road toll fees. The ANC rescinded its own proposed amendment to the Transport Laws and Related Matter Amendment Bill [e-tolls Bill] on Tuesday, which, if adopted, would have obliged Transport Minister Ben Martins to ...
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Matthew Wolmarans vows to clear his name
Wolmarans was released on bail after calling into question the way the state convicted him and his mayoral bodyguard Enoch Matshaba for the murder of Rustenburg councillor Moss Phakoe. The two were last year convicted of killing Phakoe, but were released on May 10 after successfully challenging their conviction at the Supreme Court of Appeal. The supreme court ordered the North West High Court ...
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Controversy over government link in Independent Group deal
The consortium due to buy South Africa's biggest newspaper group has come out fighting, blaming rising desperation among competitors for questions around its shareholding and intentions. Irish shareholders are due to decide the fate of the local Independent Group in a little less than a month, a decision that will bring major changes to daily media in the country, one way or another. ...
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John Block co-accused gets top health post
The allegations flow from his earlier tenure as the department’s head. Deon Madyo, now serving under provincial health MEC Mxolisi Sokatsha, faces fraud and corruption charges in the Northern Cape High Court, alongside ANC provincial chairperson John Block and Uruguayan businessman Gaston Savoi. With several others, they have been accused of graft involving about R112-million, in a case ...
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NUM not threatened by Amcu says Seshoka
Is your high wage increase is nothing but a strategy to prevent more of your members from joining the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu)? It is not true that we are doing it to stop members from leaving the union. It is pure nonsense by political commentators who simply want to see the demise of our union by spreading ...
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Cosatu leaders in ugly dash
The were debating whether a proposed inquiry into the embattled federation general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi should continue. "The meeting got so ugly," a senior Cosatu leader who was present at the meeting told ...
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Threatened metro manager calls for back-up
She has blamed political interference and intimidation. Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela has complained that interference by the executive mayor Nkosinathi Benson Fihla and deputy mayor Thando Ngcolomba is making her job unbearable and putting her security at risk. In a letter requesting the intervention of the MEC for local government and traditional affairs, Mlibo Qoboshiyane, Msengana-Ndlela said: ...
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Zuma warns about wildcat strikes
A seemingly relaxed President Jacob Zuma addressed the National House of Traditional Leaders in Parliament on Thursday, a day after a heated debate in the National Assembly about the landing of a plane carrying Gupta wedding guests at the Waterkloof Air Force Base. Zuma stayed away from the debate on Wednesday, where he was accused by opposition MPs of being the root cause of the Waterkloof ...
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Cape Town Working it out at Frankies
Locals call it Gaza, a term used on the Cape Flats for bloodshed - and there are definite similarities. The suburb of Rusthof is a place that is strafed by poverty, unemployment and almost perpetual violence. The hot, sandy and windblown streets are where people socialise because the houses are small and tightly packed together. The names of gangsters are scrawled along vibracrete ...
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Poor whites Penury goes beyond the pale
'SStupid people shouldn't breed," shouts a sun-glassed man through the open window of his white BMW. The heavy-set woman doesn't blink. She's standing near the robot in the burning sun, holding a cardboard sign: "Four children, no work, all gifts welcome, God bless." You see them at robots, at stop streets, in parking lots. Weathered looks and blank ...
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Crossing the language barrier
Every thinking white South African must have at least toyed with the idea of learning to speak an African language. Few, however, have made the effort. Now it seems their children will be learning one. The department of basic education said this week it finally intends to make an African language compulsory in all primary schools, perhaps as soon as next year. Last week, the University of ...
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PetroSA boss iced Thabos boys
Former acting PetroSA chief executive Yekani Tenza faces tough questions over his role in the allegedly irregular awarding of a R720-million contract for a gas drilling project off the south coast of South Africa. After Tenza made a case against it, a bid by a company seen as close to former president Thabo Mbeki's administration was sidelined. Instead, PetroSA offered the contract ...
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PetroSA suspends top exec after R1bn scandal
Ghana deal . The Hawks police unit is investigating PetroSA, and a probe by the Central Energy Fund, its holding company, is said to be ...
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Cosatu hesitant about Fridays e-toll protest
"We are still trying to get a decision on whether it will go ahead legally," spokesperson Patrick Craven said in Johannesburg on Thursday. "We are just waiting for a decision." By 5pm, the Cosatu had failed to get permission for the drive-slow, planned for Friday. "Authorisation has not been given," said Johannesburg Metro police Chief Superintendent Wayne ...
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Zuma says no to dropping his name
However, Zuma stopped short of calling for action against those who name-drop. "We call for vigilance and urge all our officials who are entrusted with managing state institutions not to succumb to pressure from name-droppers," the president said on Thursday. "They should immediately report to their superiors and to law enforcement agencies, anyone who behaves in this ...
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Mapisa-Nqakula honours two unsung CAR heroines
13 soldiers who died in clashes with the Seleka rebels in March, the South African government on Thursday highlighted civilian Susette Gates and medic Alphina Moletana Nkoana. The two women got a special mention from Defence Minister Mapisa-Nqakula while she delivered her department's budget to Parliament, for their bravery during the battle of Bangui. Mapisa-Nqakula told Parliament how ...
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Under-fire minister attacks killer MPs
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Thursday. She made the accusation during a heated debate on her budget vote in the National Assembly. "At a time when some of you were conducting raids and maiming and killing women and children in the frontline states, I was there in the trenchesfighting for liberation in this country," Mapisa-Nqakula said, pointing at opposition party benches. She ...
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Kleinfontein segregation not about race
Kleinfontein - The Afrikaners-only community Kleinfontein outside Rayton, east of Pretoria, insisted in a debate with the DA on Thursday that the criteria for its residents were not based on race. The community, which has existed for 21 years but came under the media's spotlight this week, merely wanted to live out their values in seclusion, said controlling body chairperson Jan Groenewald. ...
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Dept must pay up over teacher axing
Johannesburg - The Northern Cape has been ordered to compensate a teacher fired for refusing to alter a pupil's marks, the education department said on Thursday. "Indeed, as the department, we have received the award regarding this case," provincial spokesperson Sydney Stander said. According to a statement by Solidarity, the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) ruled that ...
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Ministry worries over police gang links
Johannesburg - Reports of collusion between police and criminals in the Western Cape are a serious allegation, the police ministry said on Thursday. "Should they be proven true, they could compromise and derail efforts of crime reduction, not only in the Western Cape but the whole country," spokesperson Zweli Mnisi said in a statement. The department was responding to a report that ...
Johannesburg Focus
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Security and Soccer in the City of Gold
In 1991, on the 11th of February, South Africa celebrated an immense moment of change as Nelson Mandela walked free from prison, then on the 25th of June 1995, the Springboks defeated the All Blacks and South Africa became the winners of the rugby world cup. These two events were indicative of the country’s potential, especially when set against the pessimism of the public and the global community at large.
South Africa has become a country used to exceeding expectations. When the ANC came to power in 1994 many South Africans expected violent reprisals, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda did nothing to allay these fears and South Africans flocked in numbers to the greener pastures of Australia, but the massacre never came, the reprisals never occurred, the white-owned property was never confiscated by the government. Read more
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