Top United States film director John McTiernan, the maker of such blockbusters as the Die Hard movies, was charged on Monday in connection with a fast-spreading Hollywood wiretapping scandal. McTiernan (55) is the 14th person to be charged in a snowballing criminal investigation that has threatened to envelop some major stars over alleged phone bugging.
The Department of Correctional Services does not know how rife HIV/Aids is in South Africa’s 240 prisons, but will shortly undertake a national HIV prevalence survey in a bid to ”allay speculation”. The survey will be piloted in Gauteng during April and May. Based on these results, it will be expanded nationally.
Manala Manzini, the newly appointed Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), will have his work cut out turning the tide at the demoralised intelligence service. President Thabo Mbeki appointed Manzini to take over the hot seat left by former head of the NIA Billy Masetlha, implicated in the hoax e-mail saga.
Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor, once one of Africa’s most feared strongmen, pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges of crimes against humanity over years of atrocities in Sierra Leone. ”Most definitely, I’m not guilty,” Taylor told Judge Richard Lussick at the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone.
South Africa is in no hurry to send ousted president Jean Bertrand Aristide back to Haiti without first securing agreement from the new president, the foreign minister said on Monday. ”South Africa as the host country is still willing to have Jean Bertrand Aristide here,” Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said.
The third Castle Lager Test between South Africa and Australia at the Wanderers was on a knife-edge when bad light stopped play about twenty minutes early on Monday. When the players left the field Australia were 248-6 and needed another 44 runs for victory. Australia took just 13 minutes and 15 balls to wrap up South Africa’s second innings.
Assessment of flood damage in the Taung area in the North West province began on Monday and is expected to be completed by Thursday. Town mayor Boitumelo Mahlangu said on Monday the damage has to be assessed and communicated to provincial and national government to free funds for reconstruction.
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Jacob Zuma was told by a lawyer not to say in a statement to police he had sex with the woman who accuses him of rape, the Johannesburg High Court heard on Monday. He testified that his lawyer Michael Hulley had told him instead to write in the statement ”after we shared each other’s company privately”.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called on the government to reverse its decision to exclude Aids pressure groups — including the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) — from participating in the United Nations General Assembly’s special session on Aids later this year.
Vehicles allocated by the KwaZulu-Natal government to Zulu royal households are not fit for queens, according to Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini. South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Monday that the Zulu monarch complained that the provincial government is not giving the monarchy the necessary support.