Tokyo Sexwale’s billiard-ball-like smoothness might develop a scratch or two as the presidential hopeful faces the first real public probe of one aspect of his leadership record. Two of Sexwale’s former comrades, members of the Ex-Political Prisoners’ Committee (EPPC), have gone to court to challenge the way in which he has presided over the Makana Trust, which he chairs.
Nearly 5 000 store owners, managers and business executives have been arrested since the Zimbabwe government began its campaign to slash prices last month, state media reported on Thursday. The Herald newspaper said that at least 23 owners and managers of shops and gasoline stations had been arrested on Wednesday.
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Facebook, a popular social networking website, is headed to a United States court on Wednesday to try to quash allegations that its founder stole ideas for the company from a group of former Harvard University students. The long-running legal battle revolves around accusations, strongly denied by Facebook, that Mark Zuckerberg stole ideas for Facebook.
Former national cricketer Garth le Roux and companies under his control never paid a cent of tax on property-sale commissions totalling just over R1,9-million, Cape Town’s Wynberg Regional Court heard on Wednesday. Le Roux and his accountant, Deon van Heerden, have pleaded not guilty to 48 counts of income-tax and VAT fraud.
Dane Michael Rasmussen took an important step towards overall victory in the Tour de France with an easy win on the 16th stage, a 218,5km ride from Orthez in the Pyrenees on Wednesday. The Rabobank rider beat Discovery Channel’s Levi Leipheimer of the United States by 26 seconds to retain the leader’s yellow jersey.
The consistently high death toll of workers in South Africa’s mines is of great concern, Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said on a visit to AngloGold Ashanti’s Moab Khotsong mine near Orkney on Wednesday. The two deaths there over the weekend brought to four the toll at the mine, said chief inspector of mines Thabo Gazi.
The Citizen portrayed Robert McBride as a criminal, his lawyer said during McBride’s R3,6-million defamation suit against the newspaper on Wednesday. Advocate Daniel Berger said acting editor Martin Williams had ignored the fact that McBride was granted amnesty, thus clearing his criminal record of acts that were politically motivated.
The families of hundreds of Libyan children with HIV condemned Bulgaria’s ”recklessness” on Wednesday for its pardoning of six medical workers accused of infecting the children and called on Tripoli to cut ties with Sofia. In a statement, an association of the families demanded the medics be re-arrested by Interpol.
A senior Japanese power-company official defended on Wednesday the speed with which the public was notified about damage at a quake-hit nuclear plant that resulted in a radioactive water leak. The Tokyo Electric Power Company has come under fire for being slow to inform the public about damage at the plant.