The decision to prosecute apartheid-era minister law and order Adriaan Vlok is not a departure from reconciliation, the South African Council of Churches said on Wednesday. ”[The decision] seeks to strengthen it [reconciliation] by bringing out the truth,” said the SACC’s newly elected president, Professor Tinyiko Maluleke.
The case against five people accused of stealing Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s jewellery was postponed in the Orlando Magistrate’s Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The state prosecutor told magistrate Mohammed Jooma that four of the accused — relatives of the struggle stalwart — wanted the case postponed so that they could appoint an attorney.
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Claims of a plot to assassinate African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma should be treated seriously, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) said on Wednesday. ”We call on the police and other relevant law-enforcement agencies to do everything in their power to get to the source of this matter,” ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula said.
The month-long school boycott continued in Khutsong township near Carletonville on Friday. Some matric pupils, who had not been taught in the last five weeks, blamed the government for the lost study time. ”The person who decided to move us to the North West is to blame …,” Mamsy Khumalo, a grade 12 pupil at Badirile High School, said.
President Thabo Mbeki should personally intervene in the Merafong municipality demarcation issue, religious leaders in Khutsong said on Wednesday. ”We ministers of religion want to see peace restored and we plead with the president … to personally intervene …,” they told reporters in Carletonville.
At least 400 youths blockaded roads, stoned passing vehicles and robbed motorists in Khutsong township on Wednesday night, police said. The youths had just returned from a mass meeting called by the Anti-North West Forum to discuss Merafong municipality’s incorporation into the North West from Gauteng.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) have vowed to campaign for a change in the way the tripartite alliance operates. They said on Thursday the status quo in the alliance — comprising Cosatu, the SACP and the ruling African National Congress — encouraged opportunism.
Eight babies removed from a filthy cellar in Orange Grove in Johannesburg — where they had allegedly been abandoned by their teenage mothers — are back with their mothers. Johannesburg General Hospital spokesperson Lungi Mvumvu said on Tuesday that the babies had not been admitted but examined as outpatients.
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/ 28 February 2007
Fifa is confident that South Africa will ensure the safety of football fans during the 2010 World Cup, the world soccer body said on Wednesday. Fifa spokesperson Markus Siegler was addressing the 2010 Fifa World Cup media day held in Sandton. He said Fifa is aware of the social problems South Africa faces, and hopes the World Cup will help the country overcome them.
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/ 20 February 2007
The People’s Budget Campaign coalition on Tuesday repeated its call for a basic income grant for all South Africans. ”Although the proposed R100 is too little, it can make a difference to the dignity of the people,” said South African Council of Churches general secretary Eddie Makue.