The second phase of construction on the Gautrain will proceed in Johannesburg after judgment was reserved in a recent court application to stop work for an environmental impact report, the rail construction company said on Thursday. Last week, Pretoria residents applied to the Pretoria High court to halt construction immediately for an environmental impact report.
The former joint chief executives of the now-defunct LeisureNet group, Peter Gardener and Rodney Mitchell, were on Thursday acquitted on the main charge against them, one of fraud involving an alleged R1,9-million kickback. However, acting Judge Dirk Uijs ruled that they had a case to answer on the alternatives to the fraud charge.
The Ministry of Health has slammed Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon’s Women’s Day speech in which he said that the ministers of health and foreign affairs were ”letting women down”. ”Leon is the last person to speak on racial and gender transformation in this country,” said the ministry in a statement on Thursday.
Hezbollah guerrillas fought Israeli troops pushing further into south-east Lebanon on Thursday, though an Israeli Cabinet minister said plans for a deeper ground assault were on hold to give diplomacy a chance. Hezbollah also fired nearly 70 rockets into Israel, killing a woman and a toddler in an Israeli Arab village, medics said.
A super typhoon, the strongest to threaten China in half a century, slammed into the south-east coast on Thursday killing at least two people, injuring more than 80 and forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes. Typhoon Saomai made landfall in Zhejiang province, hitting Cangnan county just after officials there declared a state of emergency, Xinhua news agency said.
Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika on Thursday demanded the resignation of a top prosecutor for withdrawing corruption charges against the nation’s former president. Director of Public Prosecutions Ishmael Wadi last week unconditionally dropped all 42 counts of corruption, fraud and abuse of office filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau against former president Bakili Muluzi.
Chelsea skipper John Terry has been appointed as England’s new captain, the Football Association said on Thursday. Terry takes over the armband after David Beckham stepped down from the role in the wake of England’s World Cup quarterfinal defeat on penalties by Portugal last month.
Immigration officers have threatened to go on strike after an unresolved dispute over salary levels, the Public Servants’ Association (PSA) said on Thursday. ”The department [of home affairs] should accept sole responsibility for the situation, as well as the impact of the strike, which will cripple all points of entry into the country,” said PSA deputy general manager Manie de Clercq.
Johannesburg metro police will clamp down on motorists not displaying number plates on their vehicles. ”Many motorists remove their number plates in order to avoid being caught for speeding through speed cameras,” metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said on Thursday.
Lectures scheduled to resume at the University of Pretoria’s Mamelodi campus have been suspended, university management announced on Thursday. ”The cancellation of classes follows the assurance by several student groups that classes would resume on Thursday as normal. However, things have not turned out so,” said Mamelodi campus director Edwin Smith.