A SENIOR Northern Province magistrate charged with statutory rape pleaded not guilty in the Louis Trichardt Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. The 47-year-old magistrate was arrested after patrolling police allegedly found him and two girls, aged 15 and 19, naked in a car along the road. Inspector Patricia Rakhadani said Magistrate Ailwei Mudau was released on R3 000 bail and the case was postponed to March 13. The two girls said they were selling themselves to men as they had no means of support and that Mudau had allegedly paid them R50 each for their services although the younger one was below the legal age of consent. – Sapa
THEY SAID IT, from Sapa
“Our nation is dying of Aids. We can no longer hesitate or falter. We can no longer wait or debate. This is the time to act in the full measure of our capacity, leaving no stone unturned.”
– Home Affairs Minister and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, explaining the IFP-led KwaZulu-Natal government’s decision to provide nevirapine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
“Only the dim-witted and those consumed by misguided loyalty or ideology will fail to realise that South Africa, and Africa’s greatest challenge is the HIV/Aids epidemic.”
– Pan Africanist Congress health secretary Dr Costa Gazi. He said the PAC intended to bring charges of genocide, alternatively culpable homicide, against the President and the government for its response to the disease.
“He is talking the kind of nonsense that is not worth responding to.”
–Presidential representative Bheki Khumalo about Gazi’s statements.
“I would have liked it to be in a Formula One hotel where there’s more people with HIV.”
– Aids activist Zackie Achmat on the handover of the Mandela Health Award to HIV/Aids researchers in a ceremony at Cape Town’s upmarket Mount Nelson Hotel.
“Regardless of what it will cost, the name will change.”
– Mxolisi Mfazwe, secretary of a task team investigating the matter of a new name for the Eastern Cape.
“Just because we’re the Rainbow Nation doesn’t mean we have to have to use every colour in the spectrum at the same time.”
– An unidentified fashion expert about the outfits seen at the opening of Parliament.
“Nothing’s worn. It’s all in perfect working order.”
– Democratic Alliance MP Graham McIntosh, asked what was worn underneath the kilt he chose for the opening of Parliament.
“… As a captain, it was helluva difficult. But as they say, anything that does not kill you makes you stronger.”
– National cricket captain Shaun Pollock at the team’s return from Australia where it lost a test series 0-3 but won the tri-nations one-day series.