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/ 24 January 2006
A vigil will be held in Cape Town on Tuesday night by victims of apartheid, as their lawyers possibly adjourn for a lunch-break while arguing a reparations lawsuit in a New York appeal court. Oral argument started in Khulumani et al vs Barclays et al on Tuesday with 87 South African victims claiming reparations from 23 foreign corporations charged with aiding and abetting the apartheid regime.
A political novice and former switchboard operator was named on Monday as the Independent Democrats’ mayoral candidate for Cape Town. Simon Grindrod (35) was elected unanimously by the party’s 105 candidates in the metropole. In his first foray into politics, he will contest the municipal elections against seasoned politicians.
Western Cape police suspect that the 47-year-old handyman accused of killing a six-year-old Johannesburg boy in Plettenberg Bay might not be South African. The accused, who was on Tuesday expected to appear in the Knysna Magistrate’s Court, goes by the names of Theuns Christian Olivier as well as Raymond Sinclair.
An accused man is arrested. At the court’s holding cells he is savagely raped. His assailants shove a ”bullet” filled with contraband dagga up his rectum, to be couriered into prison. His ordeal has only begun. This is the testimony of ”Frank Erasmus”, contained in a letter read out to members of Parliament in October 2004.
South Africa, an economic and political leader in Africa, is also the continent’s number-one jailer. If prisons are a reflection of society, what conclusions are to be drawn from this reality, particularly in a nation rightfully proud of its nascent democracy? Wendell Roelf investigates.
The man sitting opposite me looks avuncular. With wispy greying hair and beard, Andre du Toit could easily play Father Christmas, but instead he is serving a 20-year sentence in a maximum-security prison for a double murder. ”I was terrified. I’ve never ever been to a prison in my whole life, and in a matter of three, four seconds, my whole life changed,” he says.
South Africa, an economic and political leader in Africa, is also the continent’s number one jailer. If prisons are a reflection of society, what conclusions are to be drawn from this reality, particularly in a nation rightfully proud of its nascent democracy? In global terms, South Africa is not alone in registering a sharp increase in its prison population.
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/ 19 December 2005
A massive effort is under way to provide fuel to the two sectors most in need — the deciduous fruit farmers in the Western Cape and the summer rainfall farmers of Gauteng, Mpumalanga, the Free State and North West — the South African Petroleum Industry Association (Sapia) said on Monday.
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/ 15 December 2005
Reflecting on concerns raised at a Cape Town municipal imbizo (meeting) on Wednesday, mostly around service delivery, President Thabo Mbeki emphasised the critical importance of local government. "Everything that government does will stand or fall … depending on what happens at local government level," he said.
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/ 14 October 2005
Western Cape African National Congress dissidents on Friday displayed soccer-style red cards to condemn the actions of provincial executive committee members during a protest at the ANC’s regional headquarters. The red and yellow cards targeted provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha and others.