(Reuters (Eng) 06/22/13)
(Reuters) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela remains in a "serious but stable" condition in hospital, the government said on Saturday. Consistent with previous updates from the presidency, the statement shows that the 94-year-old anti-apartheid hero's health is little changed since his admission to a Pretoria hospital two weeks ago. Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994, was rushed to a Pretoria hospital early on June 8 with a recurring respiratory infection. The presidency also confirmed that the intensive care ambulance carrying former South African president Nelson Mandela to hospital two weeks ago broke down. Media reports said he was stranded for 40 minutes. Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said the former president was transferred to another...
(AFP (eng) 06/22/13)
JOHANNESBURG, June 22, 2013 (AFP) - The ambulance that rushed Nelson Mandela to hospital two weeks ago broke down and another had to be called, but the mishap did not endanger the anti-apartheid hero, the South African presidency said Saturday. "All care was taken to ensure that the former president's medical condition was not compromised by the unforeseen incident," presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj told AFP. The ambulance had engine trouble on its way from the 94-year-old Mandela's Johannesburg home to a specialist heart clinic in Pretoria, some 55 kilometres (30 miles) away. Doctors are "satisfied" that Mandela, who is battling a serious lung infection, suffered no harm during the wait for a replacement ambulance, Maharaj said. Maharaj said the "fully...
(AFP (eng) 06/21/13)
South Africa's peace icon Desmond Tutu on Friday welcomed renowned anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele's entry into opposition politics. "Few thinking South Africans would not welcome the entry into South African politics of someone of the calibre, background, intellect and resourcefulness of Mamphela Ramphele," said Tutu in a statement. A former World Bank managing director and medical doctor, Ramphele, will launch her political party Agang on Saturday to challenge President Jacob Zuma's ruling African National Congress (ANC) in 2014 polls. "If Dr Ramphele formally enters the election race next year, and goes on to attract sufficient votes to become a parliamentarian, there is no doubt that South Africans will benefit from her experience and her knowledge," Tutu added. Tutu, a Nobel...
( 06/21/13)
Black economic empowerment (BEE) is not only a political and social necessity in redressing the wrongs of South Africa's past, but is also crucial to broadening economic participation and so contributing to economic growth, says Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies. Davies was briefing journalists in Cape Town on Thursday before the debate on the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Amendment Bill in Parliament. "As we bring people into the economy those people become consumers ... but also they become involved as producers and contributors to the development of the wealth of the country." Davies said the growth in South Africa's automotive sector, for instance, could be attributed to new entrants in the market. He said the intention of the...
(Bloomberg 06/21/13)
And Treasury says it will work with Libyan authorities to locate more. South Africa has identified investments made on a “commercial basis” by the Libyan government domestically, including the Michelangelo Towers in Johannesburg. South Africa’s government will work with Libyan authorities to locate other assets, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said today in an e-mailed statement. The Libyan government will have to decide what it wants to do with the assets and funds, he said. Libya wants overseas assets to be returned to help replenish its sovereign wealth fund. The Libyan Investment Authority’s value has dropped to about $57-billion from $61-billion in 2008, according to Mohsen Derregia, the outgoing head of the fund. Former President Muammar Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for...
(Ventures-Africa 06/21/13)
VENTURES AFRICA – Africa’s richest man and president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange NSE, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has been hailed as the force behind the record gains at the stock market over the past one year. The stock market has recorded gains in excess of N5 trillion ($31 billion) – growing from 2012′s total market capitalization of N6.7 trillion ($41.6 billion) to 2013′s N11 trillion ($68.3 billion) – all under the leadership of the Nigerian businessman. Dangote was initially elected as the 17th president of the stock exchange in 2009, only for it to be nullified by Federal High Court in Lagos in March 2010. He was, however, re-instated by a court of appeal’s verdict on June 15 2012, which...
(Bloomberg 06/21/13)
The rand’s plunge may boost the value of currency futures traded on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to a record as investors buy the contracts in “panic” amid an emerging-markets sell off, said a bourse official. The rand, the worst performer against the dollar this year among 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg, lost 1.5 percent this month. It weakened 3 percent in the past four days and was 0.5 percent lower at 10.2356 per dollar by 3:02 p.m. in Johannesburg. The generic three-month rand contracts traded 3 percent higher at 10.6204 per dollar, signaling that investors expect further depreciation for the currency. Trading rose to 36 billion rand ($3.5 billion) this month through June 19 and should “supercede” the 41.7...
(Bloomberg 06/21/13)
Ntombi Shabalala arrives at the Design Quarter mall in an affluent suburb of Johannesburg in her Hyundai ix35 SUV, wearing red suit pants, a black jacket and black boots. Gesturing to a waiter with a manicured French-tip fingernail, she orders a fresh-squeezed carrot juice. She’s come a long way since 1998, when she moved to Johannesburg four years after South Africa held its first all-race elections. Then, Shabalala shared a one-bedroom apartment in Hillbrow, in a crime-ridden area that often had power and water outages. Her two daughters stayed at home with an aunt. Her income came from selling food from a trailer on the street -- a fitting beginning for someone who became a store manager at McDonald’s Corp...
(Ventures-Africa 06/21/13)
VENTURES AFRICA – As part of his promise to donate half of his family’s personal wealth to charity, South Africa mining billionaire, Patrice Motsepe has pledged the sum of R12 million ($1.2 million) to help rid poverty and unemployment in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain. Each of the communities will get R6 million ($590,000) to establish forums in the Motsepe family name. According to Motsepe, the donations will be channeled into two Motsepe Development Forums, one in Khayelitsha and the other in Mitchells Plain. “This forum must comprise of all the sectors in these communities, including NGOs.” “The forums will be established by you (the community) and will be the vehicle to assist our young entrepreneurs, co-operatives, youth, religious...
(The Sowetan 06/21/13)
Flamboyant businessman Kenny Kunene lambasted President Jacob Zuma on Friday, calling him a "monster" and a "tyrant" in an open letter published on The Star's website. In the letter, addressed to Zuma, Kunene said: "In public you smile and laugh, but in truth you behave like a monster, a tyrant who will target perceived enemies ruthlessly, and because of that fear few dare to speak openly." Kunene wrote that he had supported Zuma before he ascended to the presidency, but was now disillusioned with his leadership. "I'm writing this because I've never been more disappointed with the ANC you lead. "...Mr President, I don't want to be one of those who tell you in fear that you have clothes on,...
(News24 06/21/13)
Johannesburg - If existing problems of wealth distribution and poverty are not urgently addressed, South Africa will face serious problems in future, former president Thabo Mbeki has warned. Speaking to new Gauteng talk radio station Power FM, Mbeki said South Africa remained a two-nation, The Star reported. Mbeki was speaking to presenter Tim Modise. The former president urged the public to hold elected representatives accountable. “South Africa remains divided in terms of race and colour, in terms of wealth. If we don’t address it properly, tomorrow, we are going to have very serious problems,” Mbeki said. Noting SA Airways’s plan to train more black pilots as an example, Mbeki said the aim was “not to discriminate against white people, but...
(Voice of America 06/21/13)
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's most famous senior citizen, Nelson Mandela, has spent nearly two weeks in a Pretoria hospital for a lung infection, and is receiving the best possible medical care, said President Jacob Zuma. But few others among South Africa's rapidly growing elderly population are faring so well. Advocates for the elderly say the services for senior citizens have dramatically decreased in the last two decades. At 94 years old, Nelson Mandela has received round-the-clock medical care for more than six months in the comfort of his large home in a leafy, wealthy Johannesburg suburb. By all accounts, the anti-apartheid hero is doted on by his staff, his family and by top South African officials. Mandela is not the...
(Voice of America 06/21/13)
The Committee to Protect Journalists says in the past year, 55 journalists in 21 countries have gone into exile because of violence, threats and imprisonment. An official of the committee says an estimated 40% of those who’ve fled are from sub-SaharanAfrica. A new report by the CPJ says most journalists who have fled violence or repression come from Iran and Somalia, followed by Ethiopia, Syria and Eritrea. They’re also found at the head of the CPJ’s annual Impunity Index. It ranks countries according to the degree to which attacks against journalists are investigated, and perpetrators punished. Tom Rhodes is the Eastern African consultant for the Committee to Project Journalists. He says the government of at least one of the top...
( 06/21/13)
The descendants of South Africa's Khoi and San communities must benefit from the country's land reform programme if the legacy of the 1913 Natives Land Act is to be reversed, says Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti. Nkwinti was addressing a business briefing in Cape Town on Thursday to coincide with the centenary of the passing of the Act by the Union Parliament on 19 June 2013. The notorious law laid the groundwork for the apartheid policy of racial segregation in South Africa. Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti said the Khoi and San people were the first lines of defending the land when South Africa was invaded by colonialists. "We could not, as a democratic...
(Mail & Guardian 06/21/13)
Zwelinzima Vavi's detractors say he covered up a report critical of his ally Collin Matjila, the chief executive of Cosatu's investment company. Zwelinzima Vavi's detractors in the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) have latched on to an apparent financial scandal surrounding its investment company, Kopano Ke Matla, to make a new case for their dissatisfaction with his leadership. In the latest development, the Mail & Guardian has learned that some of the leaders of the trade union federation are pushing for action to be taken against the Cosatu general secretary for allegedly covering up a damning report by the Financial Services Board (FSB), which uncovered apparent cases of corruption, fraud and money laundering involving Kopano ke Matla and...
(Bloomberg 06/21/13)
Nelson Mandela’s health is improving after a two-week stay in a South African hospital where he is receiving treatment for a recurring lung infection, former President Thabo Mbeki said. “I maintain very close contact with the family and doctors about Nelson Mandela’s condition,” Mbeki said in an interview on Johannesburg-based PowerFM radio yesterday. “I don’t think anybody should entertain some wrong notion that Nelson Mandela is going to die tomorrow. He’s not going to.” Mandela, who turns 95 next month, was admitted to the intensive care unit on June 8, his fourth hospitalization since December. The last official update on his health was on June 16, when President Jacob Zuma said Mandela’s condition remains “serious,” though he is recovering. “We...
(AL Jazeera 06/21/13)
The country's poor education system and weak governance mean young people suffer from high rates of unemployment. The road to Lulu Pieterson's house is bumpy. The little car bobbles continuously on the potholes along the red earth of Braamfischerville, a neighbourhood in Soweto. It is the broad smile of Pieterson, who emerges from an unfinished doorway held up by bare bricks, that greets one first. Pieterson was five years old on the day that her older brother, Hector Pieterson, was killed when police opened fire on protesting students in Soweto on June 16, 1976. The date has come to be seen as a pivotal turning point in the struggle against apartheid. The image of a dying Hector, cradled in the...
(The Sowetan 06/21/13)
The resumption of expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema's corruption case was delayed in the Polokwane Magistrate's Court on Friday morning due to a technical problem. Proceedings could not begin on time because there was a problem with the power supply to the machine that records the court proceedings. Around 8.30am it was decided that the case be moved to another courtroom. Malema is accused of making nearly R4 million from corrupt activities. He is out on bail of R10,000 and faces charges of fraud, corruption, money-laundering, and racketeering. His co-accused are his business associates Kagisho Dichabe, Lesiba Gwangwa, Helen Moreroa, and Makgetsi Manthata, who are out on bail of R40,000 each. Malema arrived at the court on Friday...
(Africa Review 06/21/13)
Sub-Saharan Africa is losing slightly above 1.5 million children under the age of five annually due to malnutrition, according to non-governmental organisation Save the Children. On June 8, thousands of people including Bill Gates gathered in Hyde Park for the Big IF London rally aimed at reversing the situation, estimated to cost two million lives of children under the age of five globally. The rally, a coalition of over 200 UK organisations, was campaigning for action by G8 leaders to eliminate hunger and save millions of lives. The campaign wanted the G8 leaders, during their June 18 meeting, to act on four issues that mean so many people do not get enough food. The issues were enough aid to stop...
(The Sowetan 06/21/13)
I have known Dr Ramphele for more than 30 years as a brave and principled leader who has been ready to take costly stands for social justice. South Africa's constitutional democracy was very hard-earned. People were harassed, beaten, locked up, banished, forced into exile and killed for it. They included supporters of the UDF, ANC, PAC, BCM; members of religious, cultural, sporting, business and youth formations; young and old, men and women – across our beautiful land. When push came to shove, God blessed South Africa with an extraordinarily gracious and magnanimous leader. After the hundreds of years of suffering that preceded it, our relatively peaceful transformation was a miracle. Working together, politicians across the political spectrum developed a Constitution...