Blue Bulls prop Bees Roux, charged with beating Tshwane Metro Police officer Johannes Mogale to death last week, was granted bail of R100 000 in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Springbok coach Peter de Villiers said on Monday his team “supports Bees Roux 100 percent” .
At a press conference in Bloemfontein, De Villiers said: “Nothing must stand in our way between now and the World Cup and the players have to be strong enough to deal with all kinds of psychological issues and domestic circumstances.
“For instance, how will the Bees Roux tragedy affect those who know him well? We must deal with everything that comes our way.”
De Villiers said that the Roux case had been discussed by the players.
“We feel for all South Africans, especially rugby players, and while we do not defend the act (of Roux), we sympathise with the tragedy. It is an unfortunate reality that these things can happen to anybody.
“The team supports Bees 100 percent, not on the deed, but rather on the circumstances that led to the situation developing.”
What are your thoughts about Peter de Villiers’ statement?
So the Presidency finally got its hotline setup today. For those who do not know what is happening, Jacob Zuma promised us during his campaign that he will setup a hotline whereby we could call in and air our grievances. Officers at the Union Buildings call centre will handle calls and respond to public inquiries, and citizens will be able to lodge their queries by dialling the toll-free number, 17737.
It has been reported that in the first 3 hours of operation, they received 6000 calls. Now I have not yet called in to see how this is all going to work but I can imagine the kind of calls they are going to be receiving. I seriously doubt that a lot of people will be phoning in to praise the government as the bulk of the callers will be complaining about service delivery, schooling, housing, electricty etc. I would hate to be one of the people answering the calls!
What I am interested to find out is what happens when someone makes a call. Do you get given a reference number for you to then follow up your query with? With the large number of complaints that are going to be received, are the government going to be able to handle all the requests and attend to them? I think people also need to be told when to use this hotline. If I do not have electricity, should I call this hotline? I don’t think so, I should contact Eskom. But if I have never had electricity in my house for years then I must call this hotline. So I guess it is a matter of being reasonable enough to know when to use this number and I hope us as South Africans are able to differentiate when to call 17737.
It will be interesting to see how well this hotline works and we must see evidence in one form or the other of it working. What are your thoughts about 17737?
Michael Jackson has passed away. We at InTheNews.co.za are saddened by this tragic news and we would like to pass on our condolences to the Jackson family for the loss of arguably the greatest pop entertainer of all time.
Paramedics were called to Jackson’s Beverly Hills home at about midday yesterday (Thursday) after he stopped breathing. He was pronounced dead two hours later at the UCLA medical centre. It is believed that Michael suffered a cardiac arrest. Jackson was due to perform a couple of concerts in the UK from July13.
You either hated or loved Michael Jackson but there is no denying how talented he was. I think anyone who is into music will know who Michael Jackson is, even if you are not a music fan, I am sure you knew about the legend. Who can ever forget classic songs like Bad, Thriller, Lady Diana, the list is endless or the ‘Moon Walk’? Many artists today have tried to come onto the scene and emulate Michael Jackson but they have not come close, that is just how talented the man was.
RIP Michael Jackson, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
The inevitable has finally happened! We had known for a while now that the price of electricity in South Africa was going to go up at some stage and today (Thursday) we have gotten confirmation that Eskom has been granted a 31.3% tariff increase by the National Energy Regulator of SA(Nersa). Eskom had wanted a 34% hike but they have to settle for the 31.3% hike. The increase comes into effect as early as next week (1 July).
The tariff increase will result in a rise in the average standard tariff from 25.24c per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to 33.14c. With this increase, Eskom will up their revenue as they have been seeking to generate more cash so they can upgrade their current infrastructure. This increase is going to be met with very mixed reactions. Increasing the price of electricity will mean that the consumers are going to spend more on their monthly expenses bill and inturn, producers could hike the prices of their goods and services as most things need electricity to be made. So in the long run we could see an increase in the price of everything.
But then again, Eskom needed this increase so they can have money to build new power stations so that we do not have a shortage of electricity in the country.
If you missed Jacob Zuma being sworn in yesterday as the new president of South Africa, then you can view the video clip below and see what happened. For me the highlight of this video is two fold, Zuma said in his speech with reference to Nelson Mandela, “He (Mandela) taught us that all South Africans have equal claim to this country, and that there can be no lasting peace unless all of us, black and white, learned to live together in harmony and peace.” Now I seem to recall Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe saying something similar when Zimbabwe got its independance i.e. there is a place for black and white in Zimbabwe, but look at how that panned out with the white farmers being chased out of Zimbabwe. I hope the same does not happen in South Africa. Then have a look at the end of the clip how Mugabe is so excited for Zuma!
The puppet that caused a lot of controversy has been auctioned off for R100 000. The puppet which featured in the recent Nandos TV advert and became a “celebrity overnight” was sold to Ryan Lotter from Johannesburg. It is understood that the proceeds of the auction will be donated to a charity group. The question now remains; what will Lotter do with the puppet? There are some suggestions that he is going to give it to DA leader Hellen Zille who Julius Malema recently called a ‘racist little girl’.
It was announced yesterday (Monday) by South Africa Home Affairs minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, that Zimbabwe citizens can now travel to South Africa and obtain a free 90-day visitor’s permit and apply to do casual work during their stay. The new regulations came into effect May 1, but Mapisa-Nqakula acknowledged bureaucratic hurdles could slow implementation.
South African officials have been overwhelmed by Zimbabweans, who apply for asylum at a rate of more than 8,000 a day, and they believe many will now opt for the visitor’s permit. Most asylum seekers are denied because South African officials believe most Zimbabweans are not fleeing out of fear or persecution, but to find work as their economy collapses.
This decision is going to cause a lot of controversy, I am sure of that. Not too long ago, we had a serious problem of xenophobia in South Africa with a driving reason behind it being that there are too many foreigners in South Africa who are taking jobs away from the South Africans. Now with this ruling, there will be even more Zimbabweans coming into South Africa. It will not surprise me at all if we see another wave of xenophobia attacks caused by this visa ruling. Watch this space.
It may be a public holiday today and many of you may not be surfing the Internet today but I have just come across a piece of interesting news! Julius Malema was today addressing thousands of tripartite alliance supporters at Workers Day celebrations at the Thomas Shabalala stadium at Lindelani, north of Durban. And as always, Malema had something to say! “She [Zille], the racist little girl, must remember that Zuma is her boss,” Malema said. He went on to also say, “Helen Zille must give report to Zuma about the Western Cape…the racist girl has not won…all of them must call President Zuma, President.”
I guess we have gotten used to Malema and his comments and statements but this one today has caught me by surprise. I would have thought that now they (ANC) have won the elections, Malema will now keep quiet but he may just be warming up for bigger statements now that they are in charge.
As we expected the ANC has claimed a resounding victory in the general elections. With a 66% majority in Parliament, the ANC is set to elect Zuma as president when the new legislature convenes on May 6. The final results were released today (Saturday) and they showed that the ANC was allocated 264 seats in parliament after winning 65.9 percent of the vote. The ANC won control of eight of the nine provinces. The DA won the Western Cape province. ANC president, Jacob Zuma has come out and said, “Working together we will make it a government for all South Africans.”
The final results were:
Total number of votes per party:
ANC: 11,650,748 (65.90 percent)
DA: 2,945,829 (16.66 percent)
COPE: 1,311,027 (7.42 percent)
IFP: 804,260 (4.55 percent)
ID: 162,915 (0.92 percent)
OTHER: 805,950 (4.56 percent)
The Constitutional Court has ruled that registered voters living overseas can vote for in the elections on April 22. South African citizens living abroad who are not yet registered will not be allowed to vote. Those who can vote must notify the chief electoral officer of their intention to vote by March 27, the court ordered.
Now that this judgment has been passed, how much of an impact will it have on the outcome of the votes come April 22? I guess it all depends on how many foreigners are out there and who are registered to vote. There is no clear indication yet of the exact number, with some saying it could just be a small handful of a few thousands with some thinking they may be in the hundreds of thousands.
