The North West owner of 10 lions that killed a boy has offered to sell two of the animals to compensate the child’s family, the province said on Thursday. The boy was killed by the lions on a farm near Vryburg. The lions apparently grabbed the boy and pulled him into their enclosure after he put his hand through a gap near the entrance gate.
In the third such accident this week, four people were injured when a train hit a car at a crossing in Welkom in the Free State, emergency services said on Thursday. Three adults and a young child were travelling between Welkom and Odendaalsrus at about 8.15pm on Wednesday when their car was hit by a train carrying mined rock.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) says it cannot take action against German vitamin salesman Matthias Rath. This follows a complaint by the Democratic Alliance complaint on Thursday that Rath had reopened offices in Cape Town offering products promising the natural control of HIV/Aids.
The outcome of government departments’ annual financial reports paints a bleak picture, Auditor General Terence Nombembe told the Johannesburg Press Club on Thursday. In the 2005/06 report, only 12% of government departments have clean audit opinions. This figure shrinks to 4% at provincial level.
Hundreds of newborns are reportedly dying every year at Frere Hospital’s overburdened maternity section in East London — many because of negligence, a media report said on Thursday. The situation is so bad that a cleaner delivered a baby in front of shocked students, it said.
A court on Thursday denied parental rights to the father of a girl who became a symbol of Mozambican hope after being born in a tree during the devastating floods of 2000. The Chibuto District Court ruled that her father, Salvador Mabuiango, had cheated her by selling off goods donated to her after her birth.
Najwa Petersen was refused bail by the Cape Town Regional Court on Thursday because her history of suicide attempts showed she was a danger to herself. She is to go on trial in February with Abdoer Emjedi, Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders, charged with the murder of Petersen’s husband, internationally known entertainer Taliep.
Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu handed over 10 houses at an ”innovation hub” in Soshanguve, Pretoria on Thursday. The project will afford people who have new innovations the opportunity to have their materials tested and, if approved, the materials are used to build dwellings.
South Africa’s manufacturing output rose by an unadjusted 6,6% in volume terms in the year to May, from a 3,8% rise in the previous month, data showed on Thursday. Compared with April, manufacturing production in volume terms increased by a seasonally adjusted 4,5%, Statistics South Africa said.
South African gold output rose by 1,3% year-on-year in May, the first increase in in nine months, while overall mining production rose by 0,8%, official data showed on Thursday. Gold output in South Africa, the world’s largest producer, showed an increase in volume terms for the first time since August 2006.