KWAZULU-NATAL police have reported the murders of at least two children including that of a 12-year-old boy who was burnt to death in the province since Monday. Durban south police representative Superintendent Danelia Veldhuizen said the 12-year-old burnt to death on Tuesday after his mother’s boyfriend set their Mariannhill house on fire following an argument. The boyfriend apparently took petrol, threw it over the bed where the boy was sleeping and set it alight. His mother tried to rescue him but the heat from the flames kept her at bay The boyfriend fled the scene and police were still searching for him, Veldhuizen said. On Monday the body of an 11-year-old boy was found next to the Lindokuhle railway line in Umlazi. Veldhuizen said the body of the boy, who was believed to be a street child, was covered by a piece of plastic. He had been stabbed behind his left ear and there were several bruises on his body while his skull was fractured. – Sapa
THEY SAID IT, from Sapa
“It would be odious to calculate the number of lives one could consider affordable in order to save the respondents (the government) the sort of inconvenience they foreshadow. I find myself unable to formulate a motivation for tolerating preventable deaths for the sake of sparing the respondents prejudice that cannot amount to much more than organisational inconvenience.”
– Pretoria High Court Judge Chris Botha, ordering the government to provide nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women at all state hospitals with the capacity for testing and counselling.
“Nobody from elsewhere in the world should presume they have a superior right to tell us what to do with our challenges.”
– African National Congress representative Smuts Ngonyama, reacting to former US president Jimmy Carter’s remarks that South Africa could learn from poorer countries with better success in curbing the spread of HIV/Aids.
“If one sees a five-year-old raped girl’s torn body and the plea for help in her eyes, you do everything that any doctor should do. You help her with all the knowledge and means at your disposal.”
– Dr Thys von Mollendorff who lost his job as superintendent of the Rob Ferreira hospital in Nelspruit for allowing a group that provides anti-retrovirals to rape victims to work in the hospital.
“If my appeal does not succeed, the 20 years I have been in the medical profession will be like a bad caption for the Hippocratic oath, which I tried to exemplify.”
– von Mollendorff.
“It is believed that the animals did not eat him as they had been fed shortly before he gatecrashed into the enclosure.”
– Police representative Milica Bezuidenhout, referring to an incident at the Rhino and Lion Reserve in Krugersdorp where tigers mauled a robber to death.
“You reporters can go and play golf.”
– Herstigte Nasionale Party secretary Louis van der Schyff. The media was barred from the party’s annual congress this year. Last year van der Schyff chased a coloured Beeld reporter from the congress.
“For two to three years, let’s not mind losing international competitions because we are bringing our people into those teams. Let’s build a 100% South African team rather than a 30% one.”
— President Thabo Mbeki.
“Is the president implying that black sportsmen and women can’t win?”
–Democratic Alliance representative Paul Steward, reacting to Mbeki’s statement.
“I hoped and prayed the camera had fallen.”
— South African batsman Neil McKenzie, who lost his wicket after 99 runs in the second test against Australia.
“It hurts to see how the Bulls are the joke of South African rugby Saturday after Saturday… The way the Bulls play now, they cause irreparable damage to the image, tradition and legacy of the Blue Bulls.”
– Piet Uys, chairman of the Blue Bulls’ Trust of Former Players.