The death toll in the powerful quake that hit Mozambique on Thursday morning was still uncertain with authorities still visiting rural areas to assess the impact there. Up to two deaths have been reported so far. The quake could be felt as far afield as Harare and Durban, and Johannesburg’s emergency services also received quake-related calls.
A general dealer voluntarily evacuated his shop and a Standerton street was closed to traffic, as was a dirt road in a nearby township on Thursday, as water was released from the Grootdraai Dam after this week’s heavy rains. It was not nearly as bad as previous floods in the Mpumalanga town, residents said on Thursday.
A possible flood emergency at Standerton in Mpumalanga has not materialised after less water flowed into the Grootdraai Dam than expected, authorities said on Wednesday afternoon. Police spokesperson Superintendent Amanda Peens said the outflow of the dam, which is 114% full, will be maintained at 850 cubic metres per second.
Search-and-seizure raids by the Scorpions at the offices of Jacob Zuma’s former attorney Julekha Mahomed were ruled illegal by the Johannesburg High Court on Friday. Judge Ismail Hussein found that the search warrants were obtained and executed unlawfully. They were set aside.
The National Prosecuting Authority on Wednesday denied any wrongdoing in the raid on a former attorney of Jacob Zuma. The NPA told the Johannesburg High Court that it had strictly adhered to its ruling Act in obtaining a search warrant for and executing the warrant at the office and home of Julekha Mahomed.
Arguments in an application by one of former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s attorneys regarding the Scorpions raid on August 18 will be heard in the Johannesburg High Court next Wednesday. Julie Mahomed filed an urgent application on Tuesday, asking the court to set aside the search warrants obtained by the Scorpions, the investigating arm of the National Prosecuting Authority.
Despite his advancing years and his stint in prison for assault, Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre’blanche is still an imposing figure. ”The rest of my life belongs to my culture, my language, my God and my nation,” he said in an interview on Thursday.
About 80 000 mineworkers will down tools on Sunday night for the first strike in the gold sector since 1987, the National Union of Mineworkers said on Tuesday. This came after at least two unions in the gold industry on Tuesday afternoon received strike notices from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
Politician Patricia de Lille said on Friday she was aware that the three women suing her had retracted their complaints about a clinical Aids trial in which they participated. However, she had ignored this, she told the Johannesburg High Court. She was responding to counsel Daniel Burger, appearing for the plaintiffs.
Randburg Magistrate Deon Pool lashed out at nightclubs in the Rivonia area on Tuesday. As 29-year-old Ashley Ginder — accused of beating up a student at the Tiger Tiger club in Rivonia over the weekend — appeared in court, Pool said the frequency of cases involving Rivonia clubs is ”getting ridiculous”.