A former member of Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on two charges of murder. Siphiwe Joka (41) is accused of last year’s shooting in Johannesburg’s Hillbrow suburb of two men who were involved in a fight. He was arrested in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, for the murders, which were said to be non-political. Joka is scheduled to appear again in court on April 3 where his attorney Piet Du Plessis is expected to bring forward a formal bail application for him. He will remain in police custody until his next court appearance.- 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 antiretrovirals 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.