A police sergeant inexperienced in murder scenes told the Cape High Court on Tuesday of his shock at finding the corpse of estate agent Andre Weitz bludgeoned to death in a duplex in Cape Town. Bernard van Zyl (28), Weitz’s former romantic partner, is alleged to have attacked Weitz with an axe in June 2004.
An assault case against the kwaito star known to his fans as Mandoza was postponed in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, police said. Glen Nonkonyana (30) laid a charge at the Kliptown police station on Monday, alleging that Mandoza had assaulted him at a flat in Ferndale in Randburg late on Saturday, police said.
The Labour Ministry on Tuesday accused the Democratic Alliance (DA) of purposely misrepresenting the facts about Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana’s availability to answer questions in Parliament. A DA statement on Monday listed Mdladlana as being among ministers who evaded parliamentary questions.
Royalty payments are tax deductible under the Income Tax Act, the Supreme Court of Appeal held on Tuesday, upholding an appeal by BP Southern Africa against a judgement of the Cape Town Income-Tax Special Court. The case was about the BP trademarks, colour schemes, designs and symbols that BP Southern Africa has used since 1959.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is considering a tough security plan that could see the country placed under a state of emergency within the coming month, media reports said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has appeared in court, two days after he was arrested, and a protest in Johannesburg has called for his release.
Google on Monday added details of WWF environmental projects to its popular global online mapping service. The Mountain View, California, internet search powerhouse wove WWF images, information and website links into its popular Google Earth program.
A South African business group called on government on Tuesday to adopt new strategies to combat rampant crime and make the police force and Department of Justice and Constitutional Development more efficient. ”The previous solutions weren’t going to achieve results,” Siphiwe Nzimande, CEO of Business against Crime, told a forum.
United States entertainment giant Viacom on Tuesday launched a billion-dollar lawsuit against Google and its affiliate YouTube, accusing the video-sharing website of "massive" copyright infringement. The suit seeks more than $1-billion in damages, as well as an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from further infringements.
A Mozambican NGO has managed to collect more than 800Â 000 weapons used in the country’s 16-year civil war, Vista News reported on Tuesday. This was revealed by the head of the Mozambican Christian Council’s Transforming Swords into Ploughshares project, Bishop Dinis Sengulane, in a report published by Radio Mozambique.
Stalled peace talks to end a brutal 20-year insurgency by the Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army are to resume, government officials said on Tuesday. ”Both parties have agreed to resume talks,” Ruhakana Rugunda, head of the government negotiating team and Minister of Internal Affairs, told journalists.