The launch of an online tax-filing facility was delayed after pilot tests revealed system flaws, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on Monday. ”We are … not prepared to offer any service where we are not happy with the quality and cannot guarantee a pleasant experience for all taxpayers. We expect the eFiling facility to be functional next week,” said Sars.
At least 7 600 shop managers and business executives in Zimbabwe have been arrested in a crackdown on businesses accused of profiteering, police said Monday, as President Robert Mugabe vowed to continue the blitz. ”The latest update is that 7 660 people have been arrested countrywide,” police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka said.
Media watchdog Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) on Monday slammed Zimbabwe for passing a controversial law allowing the government to monitor phone calls, faxes and emails. "Zimbabwe had already given itself one of the world’s most repressive legislative arsenals as regards press freedom" the Paris-based body said in a statement.
The suspended chief executive of the Transport Education Training Authority, Piet Bothma, has become the third person to be arrested in connection with the Fidentia affair. He appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday where he was released on R200 000 bail. Bothma has been charged with fraud, theft and with corruption.
Finns stayed invincible to keep their world champion titles in male and female sauna sitting, beating Russian, American, German and Turkish competitors on their home ground, organisers said on Monday. Timo Kaukonen won the male championship for the third year in a row, staying in a sauna heated to 110 degrees Celsius for 12 minutes and 26 seconds.
South Africa urgently needs to know that its energy supply is secure, experts said on Monday. Norman Ndaba of auditing firm Ernst & Young’s energy department said valid questions were being asked about the consequences of fossil-fuel and nuclear-power sources. Demand for electricity was unlikely to subside, and additional capacity was required as a priority.
South Africa indefinitely suspended meat imports from the United Kingdom after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the south of England, officials said on Monday. ”[We] confirm that no veterinary import permits will be issued for cloven-hoofed animals and products derived thereof originating from the UK,” the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said.
Child murderer Theunis Olivier had threatened to throw Steven Siebert into the sea if he resisted being sodomised, the Cape High Court heard on Monday. Giving evidence in mitigation of his sentence, Olivier said he told the six-year old to cooperate or face death. ”I told him that I was going to throw him into the sea if he protested,” he said.
South Africa’s workers in the petroleum sector said they were hopeful that talks with their employers later on Monday could end their strike over pay, which has severely affected fuel delivery. "We have a meeting tonight [Monday] beginning at 8pm with the employers of the workers and we are hopeful," a union spokesperson said.
Students and medical staff at the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital say they feel unsafe — and that administrators need to do more to improve safety at the world’s biggest hospital. On July 30, a student was raped at the hospital. She had been on her way to the blood bank at about 7pm when two men approached her and one of them raped her.