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/ 24 September 2004
Meadowlands, Soweto, police have found a novel way of dealing with the high number of criminal cases withdrawn by complainants and the attendant sapping of staff morale. They have taken up 18 psychology interns from Rand Afrikaans University to help crime victims come to terms with their plight and make informed decisions about steps to take.
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/ 16 September 2004
The Mail & Guardian can reveal that this week’s launch of the Pan African Parliament went ahead thanks to quick action by the intelligence community and foreign affairs staff who fought off freedom of expression activists, Christian fundamentalists and a women’s lobby group.
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/ 16 September 2004
Brenda Wardle is one of more than 100 prisoners who have cases before Gauteng courts this month arguing that they should be released on parole. She presents the fact that she now has a law degree, enabling her to represent herself in the court proceedings, as her first exhibit.
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/ 6 September 2004
The battle to determine which South African cities will host the 2010 Soccer World Cup is on. After the announcement in May that South Africa had won the bid to host the biggest single sporting extravaganza, it was assumed that all 13 stadiums listed in the bid book as existing or to be built for the World Cup would get the nod. Not so, says South African 2010 Bid Company CEO Danny Jordaan.
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/ 6 September 2004
The logo of the Pretoria University-based Centre for Human Rights shows a butterfly in full flight with a colourful map of Africa as its wings. The logo could not have been more apt for the centre which leads the campaign to train young lawyers in human rights jurisprudence. This year it hosts a moot court competition. More than just a good training ground — it gives Africa a chance to reflect on itself.
The ever-versatile and accomplished jazz activist Darius Brubeck gets another album together ”before it’s too late”. A collection of some of the best local session musicians, Before It’s Too Late has all the elements of a great jazz album, writes Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya.
Mpumalanga’s ”romeo mayor” Jeri Ngomane now faces possible censure from his own comrades within the council. The Enhlanzeni District Municipality has established a five-person committee to probe allegations of wrongdoing against Ngomane and any other councillor implicated in multi-million rand wrongdoing in the province’s second largest municipality.
Nathaniel Pretorius, affectionately known as Nat or NP by those close to him, lived an interesting life, as the Chinese would say. Although the corpse is still missing, events in the last week have caused experts to presume Nat dead. The official presumption of Nat’s demise was made on Saturday by the curator of his estate, Kortbroek van Schalkwyk.
The Department of Justice expects the auditor general to give its management a clean bill of health — but Deputy Minister of Justice Johnny de Lange clearly does not share this optimistic view. De Lange said recently that there were too many managers, and they were not working in tandem for the benefit of the department.
I bumped into a childhood friend the other day. It was supposed to be a happy reunion because the last time I saw him was a little more than seven years ago, before he was arrested for the murder of another friend. But he was far from happy. Sula — that is my friend’s name — is no struggle hero. He should have been happy to be out on parole after serving five of his 10-year sentence.