A team from the National Prosecuting Authority visited police national headquarters three weeks ago, seeking material that they thought might assist their investigation into the criminal syndicates surrounding Kebble murder accused Glenn Agliotti.
Major differences have emerged among public service unions ahead of Friday’s massive industrial action, with some union leaders in the bargaining council considering a compromise offer to break the impasse and others sitting tight on labour’s original demand of 12%.
About a quarter of nearly 400 000 refugees who deserted Mogadishu during fighting earlier this year have returned to the Somali capital, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday. But life in the war-scarred city was tough, with shortages of electricity and water, uncollected garbage clogging the streets and many businesses and schools shut, the agency said.
About 42 000 nurses’ jobs are going begging in South Africa — and the trade unions blame government’s macro-economic strategy, Gear, for the critical staff shortage. Among the union demands, in this year’s acrimonious pay talks, has been the filling of all vacancies in the public service, which is estimated at 35%.
Photos of a woman cavorting naked in bathwater have landed a university employee in hot water of another kind. Moses Peo, a coordinator in Tshwane University of Technology’s (TUT) operations and logistics department, faces possible dismissal following disciplinary charges the university has laid against him for allegedly circulating the photos via TUT’s email system.
The SACP has warned that several mysterious recent leaks about assassinations and coup plots bear the hallmarks and sophistication of government security agencies and resemble a series of events that took place before the killing of SACP secretary general Chris Hani in 1993.
Critics of the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Bill have drawn comparisons between it and the corralling and deportation of Jews in Nazi Germany. The Bill’s defenders in government, however, consider it a “revolutionary” way of preventing slumlords from renting out shacks and controlling the proliferation of informal settlements.
Police chief Jackie Selebi’s questionable friendships extend to Gavin Varejes, a player in the Tigon affair, one of corporate South Africa’s biggest scandals. Circumstances suggest that their friendship contributed to the vigour with which Varejes’s enemies in Tigon were investigated and charged.
In his June 2001 declaration of interests to Parliament, Tony Leon noted under consultancies or retainerships: “Richmart (Pty) Ltd — investment holding company”. The value of benefits to be received, he wrote, was “nominal at this stage — to be negotiated”.
‘The time may have arrived for South Africa to offer all children free primary education in law. This would place us in step with modern democracies worldwide.” Yes, Naledi Pandor really said this, in her budget speech in Parliament recently. Where did such a groundbreaking announcement come from?