Former LeisureNet joint chief executives Peter Gardener and Rod Mitchell should not be sacrificed on ”the altar of deterrence”, their advocate, Francois van Zyl, told the Cape High Court on Wednesday. He was responding to a comment by acting Judge Dirk Uijs, who last month found them guilty of fraud involving a total of R12-million.
South Africa’s companies will soon be able to have a stake in Niger’s meat and diary industries, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Wednesday. She met her Niger counterpart, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and African Integration Aichatou Mindaoudou, in Pretoria.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe accused the opposition of trying to foment anarchy on Wednesday as the troubled Southern African nation marked the 27th anniversary of its independence from Britain. In a keynote speech at a packed football stadium in Harare, Mugabe accused opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of being a puppet of the West.
Award-winning Tsotsi actor Presley Chweneyagae pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud when he appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. He was given a fine of R5 000 or six months’ imprisonment. The star was accused of driving with a fake Ivorian driver’s licence doctored to look like an international licence.
United States President George Bush on Wednesday bluntly warned that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had one "last chance" to help end violence in Darfur or face tougher US sanctions and other punishments. "The time for promises is over, President Bashir must act," Bush said in remarks at the Holocaust Museum in Washington.
Britain has the worst level of drug abuse in Europe, and the second highest level of drug-related deaths, a report said on Wednesday. The value of trade in illegal drugs is estimated at £5-billion a year, according to the study by Professor Peter Reuter of Maryland University in the United States and Alex Stevens of Kent University in Britain.
Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has been challenged by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to do something concrete about climate change. ”As the lead minister on climate change, Van Schalkwyk spends a lot of time talking at international conferences on the need for ‘serious and immediate’ action. But he has yet to actually produce anything concrete,” the DA said on Wednesday.
Young Ugandans living with HIV prefer to date partners who are not HIV-positive. This was revealed in a study among adolescents.
South Africa’s Kumba Iron Ore has started legal action against Senegal after the government ordered it to stop exploration at a key mine into which Arcelor-Mittal wants to invest ,2-billion. Kumba, Africa’s biggest iron ore producer, exercised an option to acquire a controlling stake in the Faleme project some time ago, but Senegal put this interest in dispute in 2005.
During apartheid rule in South Africa, the country’s liberation movement used the United Nations as a key battleground to win support for its struggle for democracy and human rights. But these days, South Africa’s UN diplomats find the issues are rarely so clear cut.