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.
Three South African names appear on this year’s Forbes World Billionaires list, released late on Wednesday. The names include Nicky Oppenheimer, Anton Rupert and mining magnate Patrice Motsepe — this country’s first black billionaire. Nicholas Oppenheimer is placed 173rd on the list, while Rupert is in 284th place and Motsepe is at number 503.
The price of gold hit a new record on Thursday close to the symbolic $1 000per ounce level as the precious metal was boosted again by the weak dollar, traders said. On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold jumped as high as $991,68 per ounce, beating Wednesday’s record high of $991,47.
Delays in construction as a result of the country’s current electricity-supply problem undermine efforts to grow the economy, the African National Congress (ANC) said on Thursday. ”Every effort must be made to ensure that the current problems in electricity supply do not negatively affect the building of projects of this nature,” it said in a statement.
The Cabinet has given the assurance that everything possible is being done to address the British government’s concerns about the security of South African passports. ”South African passports are among the safest … in the world, and that’s the reason why they are being targeted,” government communications head Themba Maseko said on Thursday.