The largest consignment of Mandrax powder seized to date worldwide was destroyed outside Johannesburg on Thursday, the National Prosecuting Authority said. ”Today, we are destroying 45 tonnes of what kills our children, of what kills society,” said National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli.
South Africa has to move on from its apartheid history and forge ahead with democracy despite the pain it often causes, Johannesburg High Court Judge Mohamed Jajbhay said on Wednesday. He was addressing human rights activists opposing the Absa takeover bid by Barclays Bank.
President Thabo Mbeki has asked the secretary of Parliament to arrange for a joint sitting on Tuesday, his office said on Monday. Spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said: ”The president will deal with issues arising from the judgement of Judge Hilary Squires.”
The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa reserved judgement on Monday on whether the South African Broadcasting Corporation was misleading the public by referring to Tshwane instead of Pretoria in radio and television broadcasts. The two-hour hearing followed complaints by viewers and political parties.
Rescue workers called off their search for a schoolboy feared drowned in the sea off Richards Bay late on Sunday afternoon, hours after finding the bodies of seven of his classmates. The eight children were among a group of about 250 children from Ndlela Secondary School in Mpumalanga who attended a sports day at Mondini High School in Ntambanana.
Politician Patricia de Lille is not liable for the publication of the names of three women with HIV/Aids in her biography, the Johannesburg High Court found on Friday. Author Charlene Smith is also not to blame for the naming of the women against their wishes, Judge Ivor Schartzman found in a 58-page verdict.
Failure by the state to protect farmers from land invasions will be ”a recipe for anarchy”, the Constitutional Court found on Friday in a landmark judgement upholding farmers’ property rights. The ruling given by acting Chief Justice Pius Langa for a unanimous court brings to an end five years of legal wrangling.
The seizure of the assets of alleged brothel keeper Andrew Phillips was not for any ”legitimate purpose”, but to punish him even before his trial was over, the Constitutional Court heard on Thursday. Those assets were placed under a preservation order in February 2000 and a restraint order in December that year.
With smiles from ear to ear at the guilty verdict handed down on Thursday to the killers of ”Lion Man” Nelson Chisale, the public gallery in the Phalaborwa Circuit Court tried to raise a cheer in celebration, but were stopped by Judge George Maluleke, who ordered them silent until he had left the room.
Bomb-disposal experts swept a Phalaborwa courtroom for incendiary devices, the front row of the public gallery was cleared to make way for a line of police crowd-control officers, and parking outside the court was cordoned off in preparation for judgement in the lion murder trial of Mark Scott-Crossley and Simon Mathebula on Thursday.