September 2004
Up one levelSeptember 2004 news items are stored here
Patricia takes to the phone
2004-09-01. Cape Town - Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille has sent out 6 500 SMS messages to councillors across the country urging them to defect to her party, according to one of her members of parliament, Avril Harding.
Eighteen cross floor to ID in first day
2004-09-01. Eighteen cross floor to ID in first day. The Independent Democrats (ID) welcomed 18 municipal councillors - mainly from the New National Party - to its ranks today, the first day of the two-week period for councillors to change parties without losing their seats.
De Lille starts defection with 6,500 SMS
2004-09-01. Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille has sent out 6,500 SMS messages to councillors across the country urging them to defect to her party, according to one of her Members of Parliament, Avril Harding.
The thunder of feet...
2004-09-01. Cape Town - Large numbers of local government councillors, mostly from the New National Party, lost no time in using the floor-crossing period to change political parties without losing their seats.
I want my name cleared, says speaker Mbete
2004-09-02. National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete wants a multiparty parliamentary committee to be set up to clear her name after weekend news reports implicated her in a multimillion-rand travel scam to defraud parliament.
Major boost for De Lille
2004-09-02. Cape Town - The Independent Democrats welcomed 18 municipal councillors - mainly from the New National Party - to its ranks.
ID and DA clash at meeting
2004-09-03. Durban - A media briefing called by the Independent Democrats to welcome eight new councillors into its ranks in Durban on Friday turned into a public spat with members of the Democratic Alliance.
De Lille gets nasty with DA 'spy'
2004-09-04. The leader of the Independent Democrats, Patricia de Lille, has launched a scathing attack on the DA, accusing the party of using dirty tricks and sending spies to ID press conferences.
De Lille welcomes DA defectors
2004-09-05. Johannesburg - The leader of the Independent Democrats, Patricia de Lille, on Sunday welcomed five ex-Democratic Alliance councillors to the party's ranks.
De Lille slams DA as five councillors join ID
2004-09-06. After six years with the Democratic Alliance, Wilheminah Motlatsi has forsaken it for a party led by a woman.
Mbete moves against media claims
2004-09-09. Strengthened by the support of her peers across political parties in parliament, National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete has moved against two newspapers in a bid to clear her name.
Denel needs refocusing: ID
2004-09-12. State-owned arms manufacturer Denel must urgently refocus its business by either closing or selling off its money-losing operations, the Independent Democrats said on Sunday. Denel posted a net loss of R377.5 million on revenue of about R4.4 billion in 2003/04. "What Denel needs is solid, daily operational management.
Mbeki signs Naude condolence book
2004-09-13. President Thabo Mbeki has called the late anti-apartheid cleric Beyers Naude a "great giant of freedom" in a message written into a condolence book for the former Dutch Reformed Church minister.
Bureaucrats poorly paid: De Lille
2004-09-15. The Independent Democrats (ID) party said on Wednesday that it understood the plight of public service workers as they were over-burdened, under-resourced and poorly paid.
Public service unions threaten to increase demand
2004-09-15. Public sector unions today threatened to increase their pay demand to 12% if government withdrew their R28 billion package. "The minister wants to open Pandora's Box. Labour can also play this game," the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said. "If we are starting at ground zero, our offer to settle at 7% is also off the table and we go back to 12%. We trust that a more mature approach will prevail."
ANC wins floor-crossing
2004-09-15. Parliament - With only hours remaining before the local government floor-crossing window period closes at midnight on Wednesday, most political parties appear content with the number of municipal councillors they have attracted over the past 15 days.
ANC notches host of new members in floor-crossing
2004-09-16. The municipal defection season closed at midnight on Wednesday, with the ruling party predictably benefiting the most from the 15-day floor-crossing period.
ANC comes out tops
2004-09-17. Cape Town - The ruling African National Congress was the biggest winner in the municipal councillor floor-crossing period which ran from September 1 to 15 - notching up at least 290 councillors countrywide.
Quorum drought delays ethics committee probe
2004-09-18. Parliament's ethics committee has been forced to delay its investigation into a multitude of prominent members of parliament for more than two weeks because the committee did not have a quorum.
Police stats show crime decrease
2004-09-20. PRETORIA - Aggravated robbery rose by 3.2 percent over the past two financial years while most other violent crimes dropped, according to statistics unveiled in the police's latest annual report on Monday.
Floor-crossing: Bad news for opposition
2004-09-21. Cape Town - The madness of the floor-crossing period for municipal government councillors is over and once again the ruling African National Congress has snatched up swathes of support from the opposition.
Heritage: SA has a way to go
2004-09-24. Ten years into South Africa's democracy, many politicians still don't believe South Africans share a common heritage.
ANC wins 13 SA by-elections
2004-09-24. The African National Congress (ANC) has made a clean sweep of all 13 by-elections in which it stood on Wednesday while in another tightly fought contest in the Free State, the Democratic Alliance (DA) retained its seat in a tough contest with the Freedom Front Plus (FF+).
DA retains four of five seats in Cape
2004-09-01. The Democratic Alliance (DA), the official opposition in the Cape Town metropolitan council, has retained four of five local government seats in a by-election contested on Wednesday - but the ruling African National Congress (ANC) snatched one of its seats.
DA hits out at ID
2004-09-01. The Independent Democrats' approach to opposition politics was to support the African National Congress in exactly the same way as the New National Party, the Democratic Alliance said in a statement on Monday.
