Witnesses called to testify in the Leigh Matthews murder trial provided the court with gripping facts on Wednesday, contradicting Donovan Moodley’s claims that he didn’t move Matthews’s body after he shot her in cold blood. On Monday, Moodley (25) was found guilty of kidnapping, extortion and the murder of Matthews.
Murderer Donovan Moodley sat emotionless when details of Leigh Matthews’s autopsy report was heard in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday. Pathologist Hendrik Scholtz took the court through a graphic description of findings that led him to cast doubt on Moodley’s claim that he killed Matthews at the spot where her body was found.
The HIV/Aids pandemic, which has affected millions of people in Southern Africa and around the world, often takes a back seat to dramatic news events and political scandals. In South Africa, the recently launched <i>Journ-AIDS</i> aims to assist journalists writing about HIV/Aids.
Opposition leader Tony Leon on Friday suggested that a judicial commission of inquiry be appointed to investigate the allegations published in the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> that Imvume Management — which channelled R11-million in state oil money to the African National Congress before the 2004 election — was effectively a front for the ruling party.
South African tennis champions Liezel Huber and Wesley Moodie’s victories at this year’s Wimbledon tournament has raised questions about support for the sport in South Africa. Ian Smith, chief executive of the South African Tennis Association, told the Mail & Guardian Online that both wins were great to build support for South African tennis, especially since the two players weren’t funded and had no coach.
"We were about 150m into the tunnel when a bomb went off in our carriage. I definitely knew a bomb had gone off. There was a lot of soot and dust in the tunnel," says South African Jason Rennie, who was on the London Tube when a bomb exploded in his carriage, one of the four bombs that killed about 50 people in last Thursday’s terror attacks.
"If I happen to be in an accident and I become a vegetable, I would like my partner to have a right to my belongings," says Darren Hayward, a gay South African who has been in a committed relationship for the past six years. Hayward, like other gay and lesbian South Africans, is looking forward to good news from the Constitutional Court later this year regarding same-sex marriages.
The bomb attacks in London caused panic among South Africans on Thursday, resulting in stiff congestion on major phone routes between South Africa and London. Telkom said its network successfully routed 500Â 000 calls to the United Kingdom between noon and 2pm on Thursday, reported ITWeb on Friday.
Following the bombings in London on Thursday, in which more than 50 people died and about 700 were injured, Johannesburg residents can rest assured that there are preventative measures in place in the city if ever it should experience a sudden urban terror attack, a police spokesperson told the Mail & Guardian Online on Friday.