President Thabo Mbeki’s government has approved the disbanding of the elite Scorpions crime-fighting unit, bowing to pressure from supporters of rival Jacob Zuma who accused it of political abuse. Mbeki’s Cabinet adopted two Bills last week paving the way for the end of the Directorate of Special Operations.
A Zimbabwean court on Monday released a United States journalist and a British national on bail after charging them with reporting on the March 29 elections without accreditation, their lawyer said. "They have both been released on Z$300-million bail," lawyer Harrison Nkomo told journalists outside the court.
Lawyers for an award-winning <i>New York Times</i> journalist and a Briton held in a Zimbabwe jail complained on Monday that they were being given the run-around as their clients spent a fifth day behind bars. Meanwhile, two South African satellite technicians were formally charged with defeating the ends of justice.
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/ 16 December 2007
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Ministers and aides in President Thabo Mbeki’s government were heckled by delegates on Sunday when the African National Congress opened a conference that could see Mbeki losing control over the party. Some of the delegates booed Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Essop Pahad, a top aide to Mbeki, as they arrived.
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/ 30 November 2007
Nationwide’s aircraft will remain grounded until the airline has fixed deficiencies in its maintenance section, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said on Friday. The CAA suspended approval for the airline’s aircraft maintenance organisation from midnight on Thursday, said CAA chief executive officer Zakes Myeza.
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/ 30 November 2007
Nationwide Airlines said on Friday that all its domestic and international flights had been grounded by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority, but did not know how long the ban would last. Nationwide’s spokesperson Rodger Whittle said he did not anticipate that grounding would be a ”long situation”.
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/ 28 November 2007
Doctors have long argued about the health effects of coffee, but its reputation seems poised to receive a boost thanks to a flavoured condom that aims to encourage safer sex in Ethiopia. About 300 000 of the coffee condoms were sold in a week when they were launched in September.
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/ 25 November 2007
Despite qualifying automatically as hosts of the 2010 World Cup, South Africa got some of the toughest opposition possible as preparation in the 2010 World Cup draw on Sunday. The draw, broadcast live to 170 territories, took place at the Durban International Convention Centre.
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/ 16 November 2007
A Pretoria High Court judge has reserved judgement in the Mail & Guardian‘s legal challenge of a controversial 2005 report by Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana about his investigation into the Oilgate scandal. The M&G wants to have the report overturned and rewritten.
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/ 8 November 2007
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Thursday expressed its satisfaction after it won all its appeals in the Supreme Court of Appeal in its legal battle with African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma. ”It brings certainty and finality at least up to this point on the contested issues,” said NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali.