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/ 16 January 2008
This might sound like a plot line from a Bollywood blockbuster, but it’s for real. Gouri Roy, the eldest of eight sisters in India’s West Bengal, was married off when she was 11. Her husband did no work. After a decade of working as a domestic in other village homes, bearing two daughters and a son, and recurring bouts of battering, she started looking for work away from home.
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/ 15 January 2008
There is more than a touch of Ronald Reagan — or even, dare one say it, George W Bush — in Jacob Zuma. Apparently happily unencumbered by the need to demonstrate a towering intellectual faculty, he is an archetypal instinctive politician — streetwise, savvy and not to be underestimated.
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/ 15 January 2008
We are concerned about the tone of the debate around the contemplated trial of Mr Jacob Zuma, write Arthur Chaskalson and George Bizo.
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/ 15 January 2008
Raging veld fires in Hermanus have destroyed six houses and damaged several others, it was reported on Tuesday. ”We’ve had strong winds that got out of control,” explained an official in the Hermanus municipal office, who declined to give his name.
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/ 15 January 2008
The Ginwala Commission of Inquiry into suspended National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli has criticised the government for its ”slow response” and failure to deliver its submission on time. In a statement on Tuesday, inquiry head Frene Ginwala said she had ”reluctantly” granted the government a 10-day extension.
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/ 15 January 2008
The North West provincial government on Tuesday condemned the ”racist” killing of four people at the Skielik informal settlement. A 17-year-old was arrested in connection with the deaths on Tuesday after police launched a manhunt on Monday.
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/ 15 January 2008
The Presidency on Tuesday defended Thabo Mbeki’s handling of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s case. Addressing reporters at the Union Buildings, Mbeki’s legal adviser, Mojanku Gumbi, said Mbeki acted immediately when he learned that the National Prosecuting Authority was ready to proceed with action against Selebi.
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/ 15 January 2008
A former rebel fighter testified in the war-crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor on Tuesday that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone killed and raped civilians and burned their homes. Dennis Koker (39) told the Special Court for Sierra Leone how RUF rebels ”started shooting at people, killing them”.
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/ 15 January 2008
Opposition parties on Tuesday voiced their concern over Eskom’s inability to avert a power crisis in the country, with the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) calling for the appointment of a multiparty task team to handle the situation. FF+ spokesperson on energy Willie Spies said it was evident that the government did not have the capacity to deal with the current power crisis.