COPS SEIZE GOLD DUST
POLICE seized about six tons of gold dust on Friday in a raid on a hostel in Thabong near Welkom in the Free State. A combined force of police and soldiers, assisted by security officers from local gold mines and traffic police, took part in the raid at about 1.30am. A range of equipment and substances used in the refining of gold was also confiscated. Other items seized included 20kg of dagga, 15 forged banknotes, ammunition and pistol magazines and a quantity of stiolen goods. Two-hundred-and-fifty-eight illegal aliens were arrested during the swoop.
KRUGER POACHERS ARRESTED
FIVE alleged poachers were arrested this week after three impalas and a kudu were snared and slaughtered in the Kruger National Park on Wednesday, police said. Skukuza police said two men, aged 21 and 23 years, were arrested on Friday while inspecting wire snares. Three other suspects, farm labourers aged between 40 and 42 years, were arrested on Wednesday after allegedly snaring three impalas and a kudu. All the suspects are from Mkhuhlu township near Hazyview. They will appear in Skukuza’s periodical court next Wednesday.
FOUR DIE IN RACIST SHOOTING
THREE white women, all employees of Syfrets in Hatfield Pretoria, were shot dead on Thursday by a black fellow worker in an apparently racially motivated attack. After shooting the three women, the gunman, Jospeth Mkhize, shot himself dead. A note found by police on the man’s body listed the names of all three women, and marked one of them as a racist and the other two as having stolen his money. It is believed the attacker, a clerk at Syfrets, faced a company disciplinary hearing on Thursday.
PROTECTOR TO PROBE AUDITOR
The public protector will examine the role of the auditor general in auditing the Strategic Fuel Fund, an extraordinary precedent in which one independent investigative body will examine another. The ANC pushed through a demand for a probe against stiff opposition from other parties to neutralise the damage caused by Energy Minister Penuell Maduna, who accused the auditor general of a “cover up”. Said the Democratic Party’s Douglas Gibson: “The ANC is kicking up dust to protect a minister who has made a fool of himself.” Maduna himself was not in the house to hear the remark.
Who’s not up to the job?
Last week’s ZA*NOW report
GAUTENG BACKS OFF MASONDO
ANC leaders in Gauteng last night agreed to withdraw their backing for Amos Masondo as the next premier against stiff opposition from grassroots campaigners for rival Mathole Motshekga. The premier race has split the party after Motshekga refused to stand down, despite calls from the leadership, which preferred party insider Masondo.
Backgrounder on premiership dispute
FUEL PRICE UP
THE Automobile Association warned on Friday that the petrol price will increase on September 3 by four or five cents a litre. “This price hike is imminent due to an underrecovery in the price of petrol for the last month,” an AA statement said. The AA said the average under-recovery for the past 24 days amounts to 4,102 cents per litre. The Central Energy Fund will announce the change in price for petrol and diesel by the end of August.