A man accused of killing 18-year-old Kyle Norris in an East Rand nightclub in 2006 pleaded self defence in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday. ”I had no intention of killing anyone,” Jonathan Street told Judge Nico Coetzee on Thursday afternoon.
Zimbabwe has invited 47 regional and sub-regional organisations as well as countries from Africa, Asia, the Americas and one European country — Russia — to observe this month’s election, the government mouthpiece Herald reported on Friday.
South Africa will continue engaging with the European Union to ensure new trade agreements with African countries do not harm regional integration, President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday. Africa’s biggest economy has criticised the economic partnership agreements (EPA) designed to open up trade.
A well-known Zimbabwean journalist is challenging a year-long work ban imposed on him by the state media commission despite the recent relaxation of press laws, it was reported on Thursday. Lawyers for Brian Hungwe gave the Media and Information Commission until Wednesday to lift a ban on the reporter.
A Cape Town memorial to two anti-apartheid struggle heroes has been stolen, apparently for its scrap value, even though it was only a stone’s throw away from a police station. The memorial was to students Coline Williams and Robbie Waterwitch, who died in 1989 when a bomb they were handling exploded.
A Namibian court on Thursday halted the seizure of four farms owned by German citizens, saying the government had acted unconstitutionally. German land owners Guenther Kessl and Martin Riedmaier last year took the Lands Ministry to court, arguing that expropriation orders discriminated against foreign investors.
The issue of race has opened an ugly wound on the South African landscape.
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Lindiwe Hendricks is guilty of ”denialism” when she says South Africa is not facing a water crisis, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday. The country faces serious problems stemming from polluted water sources and the poor management of dams, sewage works and treatment plants, the DA said.
The government has approved an R8,6-billion road and rail improvement scheme to help cater for thousands of visitors expected for the 2010 soccer World Cup, a spokesperson said on Thursday. The Moloto rail corridor project will link Gauteng with Mpumalanga in the north-east close to the popular Kruger National Park.
National People’s Party (NPP) leader Badih Chaaban on Thursday made his third appearance in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court for allegedly throwing a cup at former NPP official Johan van der Merwe. According to the charge sheet, the incident happened in September last year, but the document gave no further details.