The Department of Health has shown a decided lack of enthusiasm for investigating the activities of vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath, the Cape High Court was told on Wednesday. ”The government has failed completely in its … duties to protect the health of the public,” said Geoff Budlender, advocate for the Treatment Action Campaign.
South Africa on Wednesday rejected ”with contempt” claims by jailed British mercenary Simon Mann that it backed his plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. ”South Africa is thrown in just out of the blue … he says he had a nod from us. I would like to know in what sense he had a nod,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said.
President Thabo Mbeki needs to urgently intervene to stop Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla’s ”sadistic games”, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) chief whip Koos van der Merwe said on Wednesday. ”The minister of justice can best be described as a sadist,” he said in a statement.
South Africa believes conditions for a free and fair election in Zimbabwe exist — at least on paper, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters at the Union Buildings, Pahad said the next 17 days in the run-up to the Zimbabwean presidential and parliamentary elections would be telling.
Parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence came to ”incorrect conclusions” in its report on the so-called ”Special Browse Mole Consolidated Report” produced by the Scorpions, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday. ”Whilst we respect the role of the committee, we contest its views,” NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said.
South Africa’s manufacturing output growth quickened to an unadjusted 1,4% year-on-year in January, despite an energy crisis that knocked industry, official data showed on Wednesday. Compared with December, manufacturing production in volume terms increased, unexpectedly, by a seasonally adjusted 1,1%, Statistics South Africa said.
South Africa can become a caring society despite the racist incidents at Skielik and Reitz hostel at the University of the Free State, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in Johannesburg on Wednesday. ”We are a wonderful country with many talented people,” Tutu said in launching an exhibition honouring struggle stalwarts Walter and Albertina Sisulu.
Vitamin salesperson Matthias Rath is patently dishonest, lying whenever it suits him, the Cape High Court was told on Wednesday. ”We say that Dr Rath is, on his own showing, not an honest person,” the Treatment Action Campaign’s advocate, Geoff Budlender, said.
Police arrested an employee from the trading room of Société Générale on Wednesday as part of their investigation into an alleged rogue trading scandal at the French bank, Europe 1 radio reported. In January, Société Générale unveiled €4,9-billion of losses which the bank blamed on rogue deals carried out by Jerome Kerviel
Violence at the hands of security forces, lynchings and vigilantism against criminals, are tarnishing Mozambique’s human rights record, according to a new report by the United States. The US State Department’s country report on human rights, launched in Maputo, said there had been a rise in vigilante killings.