Controversial draft legislation aimed at overhauling the structure of the judiciary has indeed been shelved as the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reported at the end of June, despite furious denials by the Department of Justice at the time. President Thabo Mbeki told reporters that the government believed it would be better to reach an agreement nationally on issues affecting the judiciary.
Violence erupted at the University of Pretoria’s Mamelodi campus on Friday, university authorities said. Students are protesting following a decision by the university that the campus will be turned into a community centre to cater for the needs of the Mamelodi community.
An Israeli air strike killed at least 33 farm workers in north-eastern Lebanon on Friday and Hezbollah fired scores of rockets into Israel in a worsening conflict that world powers have failed to halt. It was the second-deadliest strike in Lebanon after an air raid killed up to 54 civilians in the village of Qana on Sunday.
Hundreds of Britons are being urged to attend what is being branded as Europe’s first ”Masturbate-a-thon”, a leading British reproductive health-care charity said on Friday. Marie Stopes International said it expects up to 200 people to attend the sponsored masturbation session in Clerkenwell, central London, on Saturday.
The dog days of summer are murder on China’s canines. For the second time in days, a Chinese region has ordered a mass slaughter of dogs to curb a rabies outbreak, drawing criticism from animal lovers but also support from many who say such culls are the only sure way to contain the disease.
An African National Congress (ANC) councillor was shot dead by unidentified gunmen at his home in Umhlali, KwaZulu-Natal, early on Friday morning, police said. KwaZulu-Natal ANC spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said Khumalo had been ”receiving death threats for quite some time”.
The National Sea Rescue Institute borrowed a helicopter, a rubber duck and a tractor to complete two rescues and a mercy mission along the flooded coast on Friday. Meanwhile, one of 14 people rescued from the Thaba ‘Tseka mountains in Lesotho has been airlifted to hospital in a critical condition.
A heatwave that has killed more than 190 people nationwide as it crossed the country from California to the United States east coast appears to be coming to an end. A cold front passed over the New York area on Thursday and was heading south, National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Maloit said early on Friday.
Escalating violence in South Africa’s schools is a reflection of society and not of a defunct education curriculum, the national Department of Education said this week — this after criticism that the school curriculum fails to prevent school violence because it does not address pupils’ emotional and psychological development.
Women’s emancipation must remain the focal point in the new South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Writing in his weekly newsletter ahead of Women’s Day next Wednesday, Mbeki said South Africa could and should be proud of the progress made towards non-sexism during the first 12 years of liberation.