Once again, South Africa’s most debauched music festival was a riot. Lloyd Gedye and Lisa Skinner made the trek to Oppikoppi.
The treatment of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit has shown that there is no real political will to hold the Zimbabwean leadership accountable for their actions, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday.
South African hard-line apartheid-era minister of law and order Adriaan Vlok and four co-accused received suspended sentences on Friday after pleading guilty to attempting to murder a leading black activist cleric in 1989.
President Thabo Mbeki has taken issue with those elevating sacked deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge to ”heroine” status. ”Ordinarily, I would not make any further comment on this matter,” Mbeki said in his online newsletter on Friday, ANC Today. However, an ill-founded hue and cry about the dismissal had been raised.
Southern African leaders launched a peacekeeping brigade on Friday as part of a planned African standby force to be deployed on peace missions and to tackle disarmament and humanitarian crises on the continent. Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa officially launched the brigade and inspected troops in front of regional heads of state at a summit.
Najwa Petersen was not mentally ill when she allegedly killed her husband, Taliep, and is fit to stand trial, a Cape Town regional magistrate ruled on Friday. The finding, based on the unanimous reports of three psychiatrists, cleared the way for Petersen and her three co-accused to go on trial in the Cape High Court in February next year.
South Africa’s apartheid-era minister of law and order Adriaan Vlok and four co-accused pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of attempting to murder Frank Chikane, a leading black activist cleric, in 1989 by poisoning his underwear. They confirmed in the Pretoria High Court that there had been an agreement between the state and themselves over the charges.
The JSE was lower at noon on Friday as early indications pointing to a weak start on Wall Street pressed jittery investors to continue to slash risk amid global credit upheaval. At midday, the all-share index was down 1,57%. Resources fell 2,33%, the gold-mining index was off 2% and the platinum-mining index tumbled 2,69%.
The 2007 Southern African Development Community (SADC) <i>Business Climate Survey</i> has put crime, theft and corruption on top of the list of stifling blocks to more regional trade and investment, reported the Association of SADC Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Friday.
A super-strength typhoon that brought flooding to parts of the Philippines tore into Taiwan on Friday, forcing the cancellation of flights and sending coastal residents rushing to secure their homes. Meanwhile, Hurricane Dean strengthened and threatened to become a dangerously powerful storm as it plowed toward the Caribbean.