Lawyers for seven men accused of a multimillion-dollar heist at Johannesburg International airport have objected to a police demand for samples of their blood. The state wants the men’s DNA tested to determined whether any of it matches a trace of sweat found on a bolt-cutter left at the scene of the robbery.
The Kempton Park regional court on Friday refused bail to nine people arrested following a massive heist at Johannesburg International airport last month. Magistrate Eric Mhlari said there was a danger of their interfering with witnesses as certain of them could face lengthy jail terms if convicted, and another 15 suspects were still on the run.
Two security guards helped load stolen money in last month’s heist at Johannesburg International airport, the Kempton Park regional court heard on Wednesday. This emerged when the investigating officer, Peter Mbobani, was cross-examined during the bail application of nine people arrested since the March 25 heist.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is sure a UN human rights council would be able to work with the United States, even if the US were to vote against its being established. Annan was speaking after meeting former president Nelson Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
The SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union has threatened to make its national strike on Monday next week the launching pad of a second round of downing tools. This follows the union’s claim that Transnet, at the weekend, went ”behind labour’s backs” and signed an agreement to transfer Metrorail to the SA Rail Commuter Corporation by the end of this month.
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Khutsong community stalwart Jomo Mogale on Wednesday called for a by-election in the troubled township where residents are boycotting the local government poll. He said the few voters who had trickled in to cast their ballots were mainly candidate councillors themselves.
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/ 27 February 2006
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Traditional leaders would be given powers at local government level under African Christian Democratic Party rule, party leader Kenneth Meshoe said on Sunday. He was speaking in a church at Barcelona informal settlement in Daveyton, Ekurhuleni, on the East Rand.
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/ 15 December 2005
Word from Cape Town that Parliament had rubber-stamped a Bill that put an end to cross-border municipalities triggered violent protests in Khutsong on Wednesday. By evening, a police officer had been badly burnt during a petrol-bomb attack and five houses had been torched.
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/ 14 December 2005
Two houses were set on fire on Wednesday during protests in Khutsong outside Carletonville as thousands of residents protested the proposed incorporation of Merafong municipality into North West from Gauteng. They took to the streets in a mobilisation march after a clash with the police.
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/ 14 December 2005
Aubrey Welken, a South African Secret Service agent imprisoned for a year in Zimbabwe, arrived at Johannesburg International airport on Tuesday. Speaking to the media, the middle-aged Welken, with shoulder-length grey hair, said: ”It was a tough time, but I am okay.”