A witness in the LeisureNet trial on Thursday told the Cape High Court he plotted with one of the group’s bosses to lie to the official Companies Act inquiry into the collapse of the group. Dawid Rabie was once LeisureNet’s in-house architect and has been in the witness box for two days.
Pan Africanist Congress leader Motsoko Pheko has until April 28 to account for missing parliamentary travel vouchers or face possible civil proceedings, the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday. Pheko’s appearance on Thursday was the latest in the Travelgate liquidation saga.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has been accused of neglecting its constitutional duties because the service is ”no longer capable of protecting and safeguarding” South Africans and their property, said Freedom Front+ safety and security spokesperson, Pieter Groenewald, on Thursday. ”This incapacity is proven by the findings of the Institute for Race Relations that there are three times more private security officers than police officers.
Fear of bird flu again swept Britain on Thursday as scientists confirmed that a wild swan found dead in a Scottish seaside village had the H5N1 strain that can be fatal to humans. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the swan — found a week ago on a harbour slipway in Cellardyke, Fife — perished from the same H5N1 strain that has killed more than 100 people.
The Pretoria Regional Court has dismissed an application to throw out the case against an IT executive at the centre of an alleged hoax e-mail conspiracy within the African National Congress. Muziwendoda Sikhona Kunene’s defence representatives had asked that the case be set aside because of high court action over his arrest on a search-and-seizure warrant rather than an arrest warrant.
Hollywood film stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are holidaying in Namibia, officials and local papers reported on Thursday, with rumours that the pregnant starlet may give birth there. Immigration officials confirmed the couple jetted into the small Atlantic port of Walvis Bay on Monday morning.
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Jacob Zuma’s daughter believes his rape accuser had ulterior motives when she arrived at his Johannesburg home last November, the high court heard on Thursday. ”She was either trying to definitely seduce my father or get money from him,” said Duduzile Zuma (23), shortly before the court sitting was adjourned to Friday.
Drummer Don Alias, who kept tempo for Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Lou Reed, has died in New York aged 66, his website said on Wednesday. In a nearly 50-year career, Alias showed his versatility on drums and other percussion instruments, accompanying headliners such as Carlos Santana, Al Jarreau and Herbie Hancock.
The Special Court for war crimes in Sierra Leone said on Thursday it had assigned a lawyer free of charge for Liberia’s former warlord and president Charles Taylor, who faces trial for crimes against humanity. Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, a barrister with a British firm, has been appointed to represent Taylor for three months.
Zimbabwe police want to press fresh charges of treason against opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party activists cleared last month on charges of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, authoritative sources told ZimOnline.