A Limpopo medical doctor has documented a string of physical abnormalities — including breasts on a five-year-old girl — that he believes are directly linked to the unregulated use of agricultural chemicals. Dr Johan Minnaar (44) has produced evidence of serious illnesses and disorders among his patients in Groblersdal.

An international tug-of-war has erupted over a young lioness rescued from a Romanian zoo and sent to South Africa, only to disappear on a “canned” lion-hunting farm in the Free State. The feud over Frida, held captive at the infamous Camorhi Game Lodge in Bethlehem, is playing out against a furious row over government attempts to clamp down on canned hunting.

If a lump of alien goo landed in South Africa, as depicted in the movie Evolution, there would be no system to prevent it from invading the country and ”wiping the silly smile off our planet”. Leading scientists who spent years developing a national system to prevent invasions by alien species are dismayed that it has been dismissed by the department of environmental affairs and tourism.

Fashion and decor shops trading in huge quantities of porcupine quills are contributing directly to the imminent extinction of the species, warns an independent report on the trade released this week. Despite the fact that porcupines are listed as a protected species, retail outlets are dealing in hundreds of thousands of quills.

President Thabo Mbeki attacked green laws recently, saying they were causing development delays that had contributed to ”a quite considerable slowing down of economic activity”. Mbeki’s statement came amid growing resistance among national and provincial politicians to environmental impact assessments.