A STALWART of right-wing politics in South Africa, Herstigde Nasionale Party (HNP) leader Jaap Marais, has died at the age of 77. One of the gentlemen of South African politics, Marais died in a Pretoria hospital last night barely an hour after being admitted with what is thought to have been a bleeding ulcer. He […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday THE assault that killed a three-year-old toddler – allegedly for wetting her bed – was the culmination of a series of beatings by her father, the Cape High Court has heard. Nicole Bianca Banthom, who died in August 1998 of extensive bleeding on the brain, had died fearing her […]
NEW estimates of rhino numbers in the wild suggest that their populations are higher than they have been since the early to mid-1980s. The African rhino specialist group of the World Conservation Union said today there are just over 13 000 wild rhino in Africa, up from 1992’s estimate of as few as 8 300. […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday HUMAN rights organisations have expressed reservations about a proposed new anti-terrorism law which allows for terrorism suspects to be detained without trial for up to 14 days, calling it “reminiscent of apartheid-era security legislation.” But Justice Minister Penuell Maduna says he’d like to see the draft Anti-Terrorism Bill, which was […]
THE Umtata High Court granted a R2m forfeiture order to the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) against a Lusikisiki prosecutor alleged involved in defrauding the Bank of Transkei of R4.6m. National Director of Public Prosecutions spokesperson Sipho Ngwena said that the AFU had the South African Police Service’s outstanding investigation to thank. In 1995 the sum […]
THE Nigerian Senate is to pick a new head of the upper house of parliament after voting to oust the country’s third-highest ranking official over charges of corruption. Senators were scheduled to pick a successor to Chuba Okadigbo, dismissed by 81 votes to 14 after he refused repeated pleas to resign over detailed allegations made […]
NAMIBIAN President Sam Nujoma and his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki held talks in Windhoek on Tuesday on detailed development and investment issues, including the Trans-Kalahari highway. “We discussed the nitty gritty of development and investment,” Namibian Trade Minister Hidipo Hamutenya told journalists after the talks. He said the meeting had been “businesslike, not politics […]
STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Friday A MAN police say is responsible for a campaign of terror against bus drivers and commuters in Cape Town’s ongoing transport war has been convicted on three murder charges in a trial shrouded in secrecy. In a highly unusual step, the Cape High Court held an in-camera trial for […]
DAVID LE PAGE, Johannesburg | Friday THE country’s largest providers of Internet services to home dial-up subscribers, M-Web, World Online and SAIX, are carrying links to child pornography websites on their servers. The links are part of the Usenet service, an Internet-wide system of virtual bulletin boards on which subscribers can place and respond to […]
BACTERIOLOGISTS at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute in Pretoria are baffled as to what is causing chunks of meat to glow and frighten rural villagers in Northern Province. Head of the bacteriology division Dr Maryke Henton said it was the first case of its kind that she had investigated, and that she believed it was something […]