Eastern Cape traditional leaders want the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to slaughter an animal to apologise for screening a documentary on circumcision, media reports said on Wednesday. The leaders found SABC1’s drama Umthunzi Wentaba insulting because it stripped the tradition of its secrecy and sacredness.
Charges against alleged gang high-flyer Quinton Marinus — known on the Cape Flats as ”Mr Big” — were withdrawn on Wednesday when he and two co-accused appeared in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court. No reasons were given for the withdrawal. The arrest of the three was seen as a major breakthrough in the fight against organised crime.
The Transport Ministry on Wednesday called on motorists to drive carefully over the Easter weekend. Among others, main routes out of Gauteng are expected to carry heavy traffic from noon until 10pm on Thursday and from 6am to noon on Friday, said ministry spokesperson Ntau Letebele.
Thousands of people left homeless by a powerful earthquake and tsunami in the Solomon Islands may not get help for another two days, the government warned, as rescuers struggled to reach remote villages. Some islands are still out of contact and dozens of villages unreachable by road after Monday’s disaster.
At least seven miners were killed when underground galleries in a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) collapsed, a radio report said on Wednesday. Witnesses said dozens of people were underground when the collapse occurred on Tuesday night.
Slain Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer was totally and utterly incorruptible, his friend and sports scientist Professor Tim Noakes told Woolmer’s memorial service in Cape Town on Wednesday. Addressing about 300 mourners in the Wynberg Boys’ High school hall, he said the match-fixing theory was completely and utterly without substance.
Heavy floods in 19 provinces of Afghanistan left at least 91 people dead and 49 other injured in the past five days, while avalanches in northern Afghanistan have claimed the lives of 23 people, officials said on Wednesday. The most heavily affected regions were the northern Parwan and western Herat province.
Shortly before this past weekend’s world summit on children’s media in Johannesburg, the African National Congress (ANC) released a policy discussion document on media. This coincidence turned out to be a contrast — high hopes from the summit; a real let-down by the ruling party.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday he would free 15 British sailors and marines as a ”gift” to Britain. In a dramatic announcement, Ahmadinejad said while he was ”saddened” by Britain’s violation of Iran’s borders and felt the country was not ”brave enough” to admit it made a mistake, he was willing to forgive.
A South African drug manufacturer has signed an agreement with an international company allowing it to distribute an antiretroviral (ARV) cheaply in sub-Saharan Africa, the companies said on Wednesday. The agreement allows Aspen to register, package and distribute the protease inhibitor Prezista in sub-Saharan Africa.