The City Press newspaper will not back down on a report exposing an alleged assassination plot against African National Congress (ANC) deputy president Jacob Zuma as an elaborate hoax. ”We stand by our story,” the newspaper’s deputy editor, Khathu Mamaila, said on Tuesday, in reaction to accusations that it made the whole thing up.
A court case against Annanias Mathe, the Mozambican national who made a daring escape from Pretoria’s top security C-Max prison last year, has been transferred provisionally to the Johannesburg High Court for trial. When his trial begins in the the court on November 12, he will be facing 76 charges.
It was ”pretty certain” that a second person would join Hard Livings gang boss Rashied Staggie in the dock on a murder charge, the Cape High Court heard on Tuesday. Prosecutor Anthony Stephen made the announcement when he applied — successfully — for the case against Staggie to be postponed to August 27.
England coach Brian Ashton has included three new caps in what he described as an ”interesting mix” for the first Test against South Africa in Bloemfontein on Saturday. Fullback Mike Brown, loosehead prop Nick Wood and lock Dean Schofield received their first call-ups on Tuesday as England look to take on the Springboks with nearly 30 first-choice players left at home.
Leaders from Africa’s main trading bloc met on Tuesday to discuss ways of enhancing its free trade zone, including steps to a customs union, at a two-day summit amid widespread regional tensions. Nine heads of state and government attended the summit and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was appointed vice-chairperson.
Villagers found heads placed on poles and body parts scattered in bushes in six murders the media blamed on Tuesday on an outlawed sect notorious for killing and extortion. People in the country’s central region found the heads and other remains after attacks on Sunday and Monday.
Fed up with your tenants? Just take off their roof. That’s what one frustrated Zimbabwean landlord did last week, reports said on Tuesday. The landlord hired workers from the low-income Kuwadzana suburb in Harare on Friday to remove tiles from a house he was renting to four families, press reports said.
A protracted legal battle in the Pretoria High Court was avoided on Tuesday when the police medical scheme, Polmed, indicated it would listen to thousands of former police officers on reasons why it should not cancel their membership of the fund.
The Department of Home Affairs has brought in experts to push the department’s turnaround strategy, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Tuesday. Briefing the media, Mapisa-Nqakula said the task team, comprising experts from both the private and public sector, would bring radical changes to the department.
The case against a hairdresser and a traditional healer accused of committing a muti murder was postponed in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. The postponement was for the Directorate of Public Prosecutions to determine a date when the two will stand trial in the Pretoria High Court.