South Africa

Mbeki rejected electoral draft Bill ­ Buthelezi
PRETORIA -- Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi has confirmed he submitted draft electoral legislation to President Thabo Mbeki to be tabled directly in the Cabinet in the event an early poll was called in KwaZulu-Natal. However Mbeki refu...

CONFERENCE IN BRIEF
US mum on 'invasion' claim STELLENBOSCH -- The United States has not queried the SA government on a media report suggesting it fears an invasion, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said yesterday. She was answering questions from jo...

Consulate robbed: 3 held
JOHANNESBURG -- Three people, including a security guard, were arrested yesterday morning after the Nigerian consulate-general here was robbed. A consulate spokesperson said R20000 was still missing even though police had arrested the two robbers...

Report on poll system delayed
JOHANNESBURG -- The task team mandated to investigate a new electoral system for South Africa and help draft new election legislation will release its report towards the end of January 2003. The team under the chairmanship of Frederik van Zyl Sla...

Council okays matric exams
PRETORIA -- This year's matric exams were above board despite some "minor" irregularities, the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training (Umalusi) said here yesterday. "The council found that the integrity of the...

Three held over fake notes
KIMBERLEY -- Three men were arrested in the Kimberley area yesterday after they tried to use counterfeit R100 notes, police reported. Inspector Tony Modise said the men tried to use the notes at banks, garages and supermarkets. However, sales per...

First male rape case postponed
JOHANNESBURG -- The first male rape case brought to the South African courts was postponed in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court in Cape Town to January 15 next year, SABC radio news reported yesterday. An awaiting trial prisoner at Pollsmoor prison,...

Minimum wages set for shopworkers
CAPE TOWN -- A minimum wage for workers in South Africa's wholesale and retail sector will take effect from February 1 next year, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana announced yesterday. "The highest wage prescribed is R14,87 per hour for shop m...

SCALING NEW HEIGHTS
The Luhlaza Choir, led by Lubba Nyamende, sings at the beginning of the 70th anniversary broadcast of the British Broadcasting Corporation from the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town yesterday. The broadcast ended at sunset. (AP) ...

Huge ammo bust in Limpopo
ELA BELA, Limpopo -- Police acting on a tip-off have discovered 16 boxes containing about 17000 rounds of ammunition in a stream under a bridge between Bela Bela and Elandsfontein. Captain Malesela Ledwaba said yesterday the ammunition -- found o...

ANC Conference Social security system preferred ANC rejects calls for BIG
STELLENBOSCH -- The ANC has rejected calls for a basic income grant (BIG) from, among others, its trade union partner Cosatu, saying it prefers the creation of a comprehensive social security system. Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shiloa, who chaired t...

Minister slams US approach to Iraq
STELLENBOSCH -- Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has condemned the US administration's unilateralism as "bad" for other countries. In a media briefing on the discussion of the commission on international relations at the ANC's nati...

No summit without Zim, EU told
STELLENBOSCH -- The ball was now in Europe's court to save next year's key European Union-Africa summit, under threat because Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe might be barred, according to Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Portugal, whic...

Focus on job creation
STELLENBOSCH -- The ANC has resolved that unemployment should be halved by 2014, Max Sisulu, head of the party's economic unit, said yesterday. "We want our people to be employed. Without employment the economy can't grow," he told journalists at...

Call for probe of mass grave claims
CAPE TOWN -- Western Cape Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk will be asked to investigate claims that coloured victims of the 1981 Laingsburg flood were buried in a mass grave next to a rubbish dump. Western Cape Local Government MEC Cobus Dowry sa...

NEC expected to include 21 women
STELLENBOSCH -- Twenty-one women are likely to make it onto the ANC's national executive committee (NEC), according to a lobby list compiled by the party's provincial secretaries and circulated to voting delegates ahead of the election. According...

Tables turned on poachers
CAPE TOWN -- A special task team established to crack down on perlemoen poaching in the Western Cape was yesterday given two high-tech rubber dinghies which were confiscated from poachers. Welcoming the move Western Cape Safety and Security MEC L...

Pop icons write song for Madiba
JOHANNESBURG -- U2 star Bono and two other rock veterans have written a song in a tribute to Nelson Mandela and hope to use it to raise money to fight HIV-Aids. Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics, Joe Strummer of The Clash, and Bono named their song ...

SABC suspends three employees
JOHANNESBURG -- The SABC has suspended three of its staffers after an investigation into a number of allegations of irregularity within the corporation. Although the broadcaster would not give the names of the suspended people, their departments ...

SARS seizes 10 tons of goods
JOHANNESBURG -- The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has over the last two weeks confiscated 10 tons of counterfeit items valued at more than R5million. SARS spokesperson Fani Zulu said the first batch of the goods, including DVDs, CDs and vi...

Stofile withdrew 'amid lack of support'
By Eric Naki Political Editor STELLENBOSCH -- The real reason for Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile's decision to withdraw at the last moment from the nomination list for the ANC national executive was the lack of support for himself and o...