Opposition parties on Tuesday decried the appointment of Brigadier General Ernest Zwane as the South African National Defence Force’s (SANDF) director of prosecutions. ”The decision by the SANDF to appoint convicted criminal Brigadier General Ernest Zwane as the new director of prosecutions is disgraceful,” Democratic Alliance spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said.
All Blacks coach Graham Henry on Tuesday made eleven changes to his team to take on the Springboks in their Tri-Nations Test in Pretoria on Saturday. There is a total overhaul of the reigning Tri-Nations champions team, with 10 new faces making it into the starting line-up and one positional change from the team that beat Australia last week.
In a major snub to the international maths community, one of the winners of the discipline’s most coveted prize has refused the award. The enigmatic and reclusive mathematician Grigory ”Grisha” Perelman has turned down a Fields medal — an award many consider the Nobel Prize of maths.
Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni, due to report to Pollsmoor prison by Thursday, will be treated like any other prisoner and be subjected to a strip search and have his fingerprints taken. ”We don’t have a category of more important or less important inmates,” Correctional Services ministerial spokesperson Luphumzo Kebeni said on Tuesday.
The South African government has been told that progress has been very slow in achieving black economic empowerment (BEE) in South African business, with government itself contributing little in terms of procurement from black business. This emerged in a meeting between President Thabo Mbeki and his economic cluster ministers on Tuesday.
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) says it has instructed its legal team to take action against public representatives ”who owe the party” following their defection to other parties. Party spokesperson Star Khonco said on Tuesday that the UDM has already ”won its case” against MP Martin Stephens, who crossed the floor to the Democratic Alliance.
The call by the Independent Democrats (ID) for Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s dismissal is about saving lives, not egos, said ID leader Patricia de Lille on Tuesday. De Lille was responding to the ministry of health’s swipe at her on Monday for urging Tshabalala-Msimang’s sacking.
Convicted paedophile and serial killer Sipho Dube should be jailed for life, prosecutor Joanie Spies told the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday. In pre-sentence submissions Spies said Dube’s crimes were premeditated and he had treated his victims with ”absolute contempt”.
An Iraqi Kurd told Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial on Tuesday how jets dropped poison gas smelling of rotten apples on his mountain village and aides to the ousted leader defended his campaign against Kurdish rebels. Saddam refused to plead and called the court a tool of the occupation. The Shi’ite judge entered a not guilty plea for him.
European economic growth is likely to slow going into 2007, as weaker exports to the United States and a softening of consumer demand and business investment take affect amid higher interest rates, international ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) says in its latest economic forecast for the region.