Posted on July 10, 2009 by Rick Crouch
By Political Bureau
With the impending appointment of Constitutional Court judges likely to test the uneasy relationship between politicians and the judiciary, the ANC has sparked a row by replacing the only opposition National Council of Provinces MP on the Judicial Service Commission with one of its members.
The Democratic Alliance says the move is “absolutely unacceptable”.
The convention of multi-party democracy and representativity had been broken and the ANC had used its majority position to abuse the constitution by replacing the DA’s Darryl Worth with an ANC member, the DA’s leaders in Parliament and the NCOP, Athol Trollip and Watty Watson respectively, said in a statement.
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Filed under: South African Government, South African Politics | Tagged: anc, da | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 10, 2009 by Rick Crouch
DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA Jul 10 2009 09:42
South Africa’s mix of English and Dutch law needs to be “Africanised” to make it more relevant, Cape Judge President John Hlophe said in Durban on Thursday night.
“I believe that people need law that embodies their own culture and their values. We need to Africanise our law and make it relevant to the masses. There is a huge void in our legal system,” he told a symposium organised by the Progressive Professional Network.
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Filed under: Crime in South Africa, South African Government, South African Politics | Leave a Comment »
Posted on July 3, 2009 by Rick Crouch
The way banks conduct themselves here in South Africa leads me to believe there is no fear that the consumer can go to another bank and get a better deal. Hence no competition in the banking industry.
Banks here in South Africa charge the consumer fees on every little item. You are charged if you use your ATM card at an ATM, if you use your debit card at a POS, you are charged a fee on every transaction in your bank account, they even charge you around R6 if you setup a direct debit to pay a creditor every month. The craziest thing I have ever heard is that they charge you to deposit money into your account, and they charge even more if that deposit is cash, where is the incentive for anyone with a CASH business to deposit their daily earnings in the bank.
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Filed under: Economy and Business | Tagged: banking | Leave a Comment »
Posted on June 25, 2009 by Rick Crouch
Despite what seems to be a low turnout with most people not even knowing that there was an election on Wednesday, the DA blew them away.
Unofficial results on the KZN By-Elections held on June 24th, 2009 are as follows:
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Pietermaritzburg with 90%
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Umhlanga with 91.4%
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Westville / Pinetown with 83.5%
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Durban North with 75% of the votes
Well done Warwick Chapman and the DA for your double digit wins in PMB, Umhlanga, Dbn North, Westville / Pinetown. You are going to make a great councilor Warwick.
Filed under: South African Government, South African Politics | Tagged: da, elections, warwick chapman | 2 Comments »
Posted on June 20, 2009 by Rick Crouch
REBECCA HARRISON | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Jun 19 2009 16:44
South Africa should scrap its drive to give black people a slice of the white-dominated economy because it stifles growth and spurs corruption, the brother of the country’s former president said on Friday.
Political commentator, entrepreneur, journalist and critic of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), Moeletsi Mbeki believes the affirmative action policies championed by his brother Thabo have entrenched the rich-poor divide in Africa’s biggest economy and could lead to an explosion of violence.
MOELETSI MBEKI
“If you made me president of South Africa, the first thing I would do would be to scrap everything to do with black economic empowerment [BEE],” Mbeki told Reuters in an interview following the publication of his book on economic policy in Africa, Architects of Poverty.
“If we keep going with these policies, the question is what will collapse first, BEE or the economy, or the country?”
As part of a push to right the wrongs of apartheid and give blacks a stake of the economy, South Africa requires firms to meet quotas on black ownership, employment and procurement.
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Filed under: South African Government, South African Politics | Tagged: Affirmative Action, BEE, Mbeki | Leave a Comment »
Posted on June 19, 2009 by garethmorgan
18/06/2009
Speech by Gareth Morgan MP (DA)
Honourable Members, the world is lurching towards a climate disaster. Last week in Bonn at the climate negotiations the developed countries of the world frustrated the process and showed a clear lack of ambition towards cutting emissions. A close analysis of pledges by developed countries indicates that, if implemented, they would result in a negligible cut in emissions compared to 1990 levels. Countries like Japan and Canada are deaf to the science, and just do not want to understand that that without ambitious cuts we will severely overshoot the 2ºC rise that the science suggests we can tolerate.
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Filed under: South African Government, South African Politics | Tagged: environment, gareth morgan | Leave a Comment »
Posted on June 17, 2009 by Rick Crouch
All these ANC members and other activists that continue to vilify Helen Zille by calling her a racist have short memories, and obviously are so entrenched in partisan politics that what’s best for the country comes second to what’s best for the ANC.
Have they forgotten that is was Helen Zille, who in 1977, while working as a Political Correspondent for the Rand Daily Mail, did an expose’ on the death of Steve Biko, where she said he died because he was tortured. After the front page story, headlined “No sign of hunger strike – Biko doctors”, was published on Friday October 7, 1977, Zille received death threats.
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Filed under: South African Government, South African Politics | Tagged: anc, da, democratic alliance, helen zille, richard crouch | 1 Comment »
Posted on June 4, 2009 by garethmorgan
4th May 2009
By Gareth Morgan, MP (DA)
The negotiations that will plot the world’s new climate change framework are less than six months away. But you wouldn’t think so if you listened to President Jacob Zuma’s first State of the Nation Address. This subject matter, on the mind of every President or Prime Minister worth her salt, did not feature in the President’s programme of action.
The closest he came to the topic was acknowledging that South Africa was a dry country and that it required urgent action “to mitigate adverse environmental changes and to ensure the provision of water to citizens.” He also said that the government would work to improve energy efficiency and the uptake of renewable energy. But where was the detail and how do these programmes relate to rejuvenating an economy that is in recession.
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Filed under: South African Government, South African Politics | Tagged: climate change, da, gareth morgan | 1 Comment »
Posted on June 2, 2009 by Rick Crouch
By Alex Eliseev
June 02 2009 at 06:37AM
The purchase – and overnight loss – of a luxury Mercedes-Benz worth almost R1-million has landed Gauteng MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko with a lot of explaining to do.
Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko
The fresh controversy, which follows that of Transport Minister S’bu Ndebele and his R1-million Merc, broke at the weekend and centred around a rare ML 63 AMG which the MEC for agriculture, conservation and environment insisted on taking home on Friday afternoon.
The story began a few weeks back when Nkomo-Ralehoko’s husband, Sydney, allegedly spotted the white Mercedes-Benz SUV on the showroom of the Alberton-based Bez Mega Motors. The car belonged to one of the dealership’s directors and cost more than R1-million new. It had a custom number plate – 010 BEZ GP – and stood on display while its owner was away.
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Filed under: Crime in South Africa, South African Government, South African Politics | Tagged: anc, mercedes, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko | Leave a Comment »
Posted on June 2, 2009 by Rick Crouch
eThekwini Ward 18 by-election
Pinetown, Westville, Cowie’s Hill or Paradise Valley
The Ward 18 eThekwini DA Councillor, Tom Stokes, has been elected to serve in the KZN Provincial Legislature as a result of the DA’s growth in the 2009 elections. As a result there will be a local government by-election on 24 June to elect a new ward councillor. The Democratic Alliance has put forward Warick Chapman as the Party’s candidate for ward 18. In 2009 the DA managed to secure a narrow majority as a result of a strong turnout of our supporters. To keep ward 18 DA another strong turnout will be necessary.
What is a by-election?
Each Ward in the City of Durban (eThekwini) is represented by a councilor on the City Council. In the event that a sitting councilor must be replaced, a by-election is held by the IEC which allows residents of that ward to choose who will represent them on the City Council.
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Filed under: South African Politics | Tagged: ward 18, ward elections, Warick Chapman, warwick chapman | Leave a Comment »
