A group opposed to Potchefstroom’s expected name change to Tlokwe has threatened to ”punish” the town’s residents if the mayor doesn’t reverse the name-change procedure within 40 days, a mayoral spokesperson said on Thursday. Meanwhile, another street sign bearing former president Nelson Mandela’s name has been defaced.
The Cape High Court on Thursday jailed Dina Rodrigues and two accomplices for life for the baby Jordan-Leigh Norton contract murder. Judge Basheer Waglay said the murder, in June 2005, was ”calculated, callous and cold-blooded”, and ”cowardly and cruel in the extreme”.
A strike in the industrial chemicals and petroleum sector seems unavoidable after dispute negotiations came to naught this week, according to the trade union Solidarity. This could halt the production of petrol, gas and paraffin in the near future, it cautioned on Thursday.
Israeli President Moshe Katsav pleaded guilty on Thursday to committing sexual crimes against women employees in a plea bargain that will keep him out of jail, Israel’s Attorney General said. Under the deal, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz retreated from his stated intention to charge Katsav with rape.
Springboks coach Jake White on Thursday defended his controversial selection policy of bringing an under-strength squad to play the Wallabies and All Blacks in next month’s Tri-Nations Tests. The South Africans arrived in Sydney Thursday minus 24 leading players, who White said were either injured or being rested ahead of September’s World Cup in France.
A roadside bomb killed two soldiers in Somalia’s chaotic capital, Mogadishu, on Thursday, witnesses said, just hours after two aid workers were shot dead in an overnight attack in the north of the country. One woman at the scene of the blast said a vehicle carrying troops through a northern district of the city was lifted into the air by the powerful explosion.
South Africa’s champion amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who runs with carbon-fibre blades below both knees, will take on Olympic and world 400m champion Jeremy Wariner in his international top-flight debut against able-bodied athletes. Pistorius is fighting for the right to compete in the Beijing Olympic Games.
Alt-X listed DataPro Group has obtained shareholder approval to change its name to Vox Telecom, the company said on Thursday. The change is consistent with the company’s strategy of positioning itself as an alternative telecom operator offering a broad portfolio of voice and data services, it said.
A properly implemented social-security system can benefit South Africa even more than it has Chile, Dr José Piñera — former presidential candidate and architect of Chile’s highly successful social-security system — said on Thursday. He said the spectre of bankrupt, government-run social-security systems is haunting the world.
Ethiopia said on Thursday it was making military preparations for any possible invasion by arch-foe and neighbour Eritrea, against whom it fought a devastating border war. ”It is deemed necessary to make the necessary military preparation for deterring a possible Eritrean invasion,” Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told Parliament.