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/ 19 September 2005
Pre-trial detention conditions in South Africa do not meet international guarantees, a United Nations working group reported on Monday. ”Harsh” prison sentences, police brutality and the unjust treatment of asylum seekers were also raised as issues of concern following a two-week study by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.
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/ 15 September 2005
The current government of Côte d’Ivoire should remain in place until elections are held, even if this does not happen by October 31 as planned, South Africa said on Thursday. Regarding the rejection of South Africa’s mediation by the New Forces, Lekota said the country will continue its work until its mandate is withdrawn.
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/ 14 September 2005
Three senior officials of the collapsed Saambou Bank were granted bail of R50 000 each when they appeared in the Pretoria Regional Court on Wednesday on 13 charges involving about R640-million. They each face 10 charges of fraud, one of theft and two of contravening the Companies Act.
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/ 9 September 2005
The state was given the go-ahead on Friday to reopen its prosecution of apartheid-era germ-warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson on six charges of conspiring to commit offences abroad. But the principle of double jeopardy — shielding a person from being tried on the same charge twice — might yet preclude a retrial.
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/ 3 September 2005
There was smooth voter registration countrywide except for isolated technical problems and two service-delivery protest marches, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said. The IEC hoped to register 800 000 eligible voters at about 19 000 points countrywide on Saturday.
The Dutch Reformed Church is unlikely to find a mutually agreeable solution to the ideological divide over membership for practising gays, experts said this week. But while some expect the church to split on the issue, others predict a mere glossing-over to the detriment of gay congregants.
The South African Reserve Bank painted a rosy picture on Wednesday of the economy, but warned of threats to inflation. ”The performance of the South Africa economy in recent times seems to be more solid and consistent than before,” the central bank says in its annual economic report, released in Pretoria.
Friendship and camaraderie, not self-interest, were behind payments by Durban businessman Schabir Shaik to former deputy president Jacob Zuma, the Durban High Court heard on Tuesday. Shaik is asking the court for leave to appeal against his conviction on two counts of corruption and one of fraud.
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Friendship and camaraderie was the reason for payments made by Schabir Shaik to former deputy president Jacob Zuma, the Durban High Court heard on Tuesday in Shaik’s corruption and fraud appeal bid. Shaik’s defence also called his 15-year jail sentence ”shockingly inappropriate”.
South African citizens do not enjoy an automatic right to diplomatic protection, the Pretoria High Court ruled on Wednesday. Judge Essop Patel dismissed an application by a mining group seeking diplomatic protection arising from the cancellation of its diamond leases by the Lesotho government in 1992.