The South African Municipal Workers’ Union has called off its planned strike in Cape Town following a Labour Court ruling on Monday that the action would be unlawful. The strike, in protest against what the union claimed was unilateral staff restructuring by the city, was to have started at midnight.
Thousands of Greeks threatened by towering walls of fire fled their homes on Monday as strong winds fanned blazes that have devastated the country and killed 63 people in four days. Greek authorities dispatched helicopters to winch trapped people out of blazing hamlets, impossible to reach by land.
Confusion and a lack of communication among prison officials on Monday led to a delay in the start of former Hard Livings gang leader Rashied Staggie’s murder trial in the Cape High Court. The chaos also caused a frustrated Judge Nathan Erasmus to warn all involved that he would not tolerate unnecessary delays.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) launched a fund on Monday to provide short-term financial assistance to axed deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, who was sacked earlier in August, partly because she travelled to Spain to an HIV/Aids conference without authorisation from President Thabo Mbeki.
Tuareg rebels from a new group that has reneged on a peace accord with Mali’s government kidnapped 15 soldiers from an eastern town and fled in the direction of Niger, Malian security officials said on Monday. Several security sources said Tuareg leader Ibrahim Ag Bahanga was behind the kidnapping.
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The Supreme Court of Appeal reserved judgement on Monday in an appeal about the validity of search-and-seizure warrants served on a former attorney of African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma. The counsel for the state conceded that the warrants against attorney Julie Mahomed were not justified.
No one had come forward by Monday morning to claim the only winning ticket for a ,3-million (R2,25-billion) lottery jackpot sold near the Indiana-Ohio state line, lottery officials said. ”We don’t how many people — if it’s one person, or a hundred people — is the winner,” said Mark Sirkin, a spokesperson for the Hoosier Lottery.
Former South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) director general and sports commentator Steve de Villiers died in Johannesburg on Monday after a lengthy illness, his family said. He was 84. De Villiers’s career in broadcasting spanned more than 40 years.
An internal investigation has been completed into the conduct of South African Police Service officers at an accident scene near King William’s Town earlier this month where a truck carrying 211 pigs had overturned. Onlookers apparently stormed the truck and killed the pigs — of which some were still alive — for meat.
The South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC) Johannesburg offices were burgled for the seventh time on Sunday, the commission said. ”The commission is concerned that the same gang of armed robbers could be responsible for these criminal activities,” a spokesperson said.