■In trouble
Irvin Khoza, chief of the local organising committee of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, had until Friday (29 February) to apologise for telling a journalist to stop “thinking like a k****r” and repeating this at a media conference, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said, according to Sapa/M&Gonline. If Khoza failed to do so, the SAHRC would consider instituting proceedings in the Equality Court. Khoza claimed it was acceptable for him to use the word as it was still used in townships, Cape Argus reported. He later told the paper he did not call the journalist a k****r; he warned him that “his state of mind was such that during the apartheid era, he would have been labelled with the k-word”.
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■To court
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is expected to go ahead with legal action over the composition of the newly-appointed SABC board. According to The Weekender the matter would be discussed at a three-day meeting of Cosatu’s central executive committee this week.
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■In court
Judgment was reserved in the interdict application of finance minister Trevor Manuel against Terry Crawford-Browne, an arms deal activist, SABC TV News reported. Manuel was seeking an order to gag Crawford-Browne. Business Day reported court action followed calls by Crawford-Browne for the finance minister to be charged with corruption.
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Have spent
■Vodacom said participants in an SMS competition in which 100 BMWs could be won in 100 days, remained responsible for their cellphone accounts as they “knew what they were doing”. According to Rapport, some customers claimed Vodacom had allowed them to overspend on competition SMSs, despite the existence of account limits. The competition was ended prematurely after the National Lottery Board intervened. Vodacom, however, still maintains it was lawful.
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■Can spend
Signal distributor Sentech received R500-million to fund a national broadband wireless network, 20 months after this project had first been announced (Business Day/Rapport).
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■Will spend
Caxton planned to spend R300-million on capacity-building projects, including “bulking up” printing plants, Business Day reported.
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■Withdrawn
The Nuclear Industry Association of South Africa (NIASA) withdrew a complaint to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) about a November broadcast of the short film Uranium road on Carte blanche. Beeld reported NIASA’s decision followed an undertaking by Carte blanche‘s executive producer, George Mazarakis, to do a follow-up to the programme. Mazarakis said he had planned to produce a follow-up from the outset.
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■Rejected
The Star “dropped” a newspaper advertisement announcing the death of affirmative action, supposedly because affirmative action was no laughing matter, Business Day reported. The ad was part of a campaign of the trade union Solidarity.
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■Oscar success
A documentary produced by a South African won an Oscar. Taxi to the dark side received the award for best documentary feature at the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday (Monday morning, South African time). The executive producer of the film is local producer Don Edkins, News24.com reported.R
■Cinema shopping
Property investors could for the first time this past week property shop from the comfort of their movie theatre seats, Beeld reported. Selected Ster Kinekor theatres would in future host regular events at which investors could view properties from all over the world and purchase them online.
See “Related Links” below for other media stories of the week.
