The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Monday demanded action against Limpopo farmers who arrest Zimbabwean border-crossers, but the farmers said they were merely protecting private property. The rounding up of Zimbabwean migrants by farm patrols was reminiscent of apartheid-era white farm commandos, Cosatu said.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is demanding the Sunday Times retract ”malicious, untrue and injurious statements” made about her. This follows a weekend front-page report, under the headline ”Manto’s Hospital Booze Binge”, in which it is alleged the minister consumed excessive amounts of alcohol while in hospital.
Gauteng’s public works department denied a Democratic Alliance (DA) claim that hospital generators were no longer being tested weekly after maintenance contracts had been cancelled in June. Spokesperson Alfred Nhlapo said the system that had replaced the contracts, involving a pool of contractors, was better than what had been available under the previous system.
Authorities seized cocaine worth more than -million on Monday in Mauritania’s capital — the country’s largest haul ever, officials said. Security agents arrested five people — two Moroccans, a Senegalese and two Mauritanians with 830kg of cocaine, said state prosecutor Ben Amar Ould Veten.
The Presidency has dismissed newspaper allegations concerning Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, saying they do not warrant President Thabo Mbeki taking action against her. Earlier, it was reported Tshabalala-Msimang was to seek legal advice about a Sunday Times report alleging she went on a ”hospital booze binge”.
About 3 500 mine workers will continue their strike over low salaries on Tuesday, trade union Solidarity said. Spokesperson Reint Dykema said Solidarity members started striking at coal mines around the country on Monday over an inadequate pay offer, particularly for artisans.
An American fingerprint expert on Monday accused South African police of fabricating fingerprint evidence to secure a conviction in the Inge Lotz hammer murder. The expert, Pat Wertheim, was the first witness called in defence of accused Fred van der Vyver, who has elected not to testify himself.
The world’s oldest person, a Japanese woman who counted eating well and getting plenty of sleep as the secret of her longevity, died on Monday at age 114, a news report said. Yone Minagawa, who lived in a nursing home but was still sprightly late in life, died "of old age" on Monday evening, Kyodo News reported.
African nations have been falling over themselves to pledge support for an expanded peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s Darfur region under United Nations and African Union auspices. At least six countries have quickly promised troops. But in arguably Africa’s second biggest trouble spot, Somalia, the rush to supply Darfur has a bitter ring.
Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan freed two South Korean women hostages on Monday, officials in Seoul said, and they have been handed over to the Red Crescent. Reuters witnesses said the two women arrived in the village of Arzoo, near the city of Ghazni, in a saloon car driven by two tribal elders.