Former Grootvlei prison director Tatolo Setlai has been acquitted of corruption charges. Setlai had been charged with acting ”’grossly negligently” in allowing a prisoner and others at the prison to produce a video showing footage of wardens procuring sex with minors for prisoners and involved in other illegal actions.
A magistrate on Friday dismissed a ”confession” from prosecution evidence in the trial of three Kenyans charged with plotting terror attacks in the country, a defence lawyer said. Salmin Mohammed Khamis, Mohammed Kubwa Seif and Said Saggar Ahmed are accused of plotting the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, when 213 people died.
Telecommunications giant Telkom will go ahead with its plans to acquire South Africa’s fourth-largest internet service provider in the dial-up market, Tiscali SA, allegedly for R400-million despite "strong opposition" from a number of industry players. The Internet Service Providers’ Association has accused Telkom of being anti-competitive.
Botswana President Festus Mogae on Friday joined last-minute negotiations to head off a strike by approximately 5 000 miners at the country’s four diamond mines, which would severely impact on the nation’s income and the world diamond market, already facing a shortage of rough diamond stock.
South Africa recorded a trade deficit of R2,299-billion for its trade with non-Southern African Customs Union trading partners in June after a deficit of R76,4-million in May and a surprise R3,121-billion deficit in April, according to the latest Customs and Excise figures released on Friday.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Friday she was shocked by reports of the attempted murder of Josiah Jele, a former South African envoy to the United Nations. Jele was shot outside his home in Glasgow Road in Lombardy West, south-east of Johannesburg, on Thursday.
In the first half of 2004, Zimbabwean total foreign-exchange inflows amounted to $778,6-million compared with $160,7-million over the same period in 2003, Standard Bank noted in its research brief on the Southern African country citing the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s report.
Cape Town brothel-keeper Amien Andrews, who offered young girls for sex and watched as two of them were raped, was on Friday jailed for 17 years. Cape Town Regional Court magistrate Chris Naude jailed him for three years for keeping the Salt River brothel and an additional 14 years as an accomplice in the rape of the two teenagers.
Negative perceptions are a greater challenge than crime with regards to South Africa attracting tourists to watch the 2010 Soccer World Cup, bid committee CEO Danny Jordaan said on Friday. Jordaan said these perceptions are the result of crime and because South Africa is the first African country to host the World Cup spectacle.
A gas pipeline in southern Belgium exploded in a ball of fire on Friday, killing at least 14 people and injuring 200, many of them seriously. Belgian authorities immediately rolled out a high-level disaster reaction plan as hundreds of firefighters and emergency service personnel raced to the scene of the explosion in Ath.