Hezbollah wants an immediate ceasefire and is ready to swap the two abducted Israeli soldiers ”in six hours” after it comes into force, according to officials from Amal, a Shia party allied to Hezbollah. Hezbollah has entrusted Amal with negotiations for a prisoner deal, realising that it cannot be a direct partner to talks.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair will press United States President George Bush on Friday to support ”as a matter of urgency” a ceasefire in Lebanon as part of a United Nations Security Council resolution next week, according to Downing Street sources.
The mother of all legal battles is set to begin in the Pietermaritzburg High Court as the state and the defence square up in the Jacob Zuma corruption trial. Though real engagements may not begin for months — the state has already applied for a postponement until mid-2007 — the early skirmishes may prove decisive in the long run.
An Mpumalanga tribe celebrated victory in an eight-year land claim against mining giant Anglo Platinum with a traditional dance on the steps of the Land Claims Court in Randburg. Judge Thomas Ncube ordered Anglo Platinum and the 190 households of the GaMawela community to settle by the end of next January. If no settlement is reached, the land will be expropriated for the community.
Girish Kotwal, suspended head of the University of Cape Town’s division of medical virology, says the ”persecution and character assassination” he has endured have made him understand how ”leaders under apartheid must have felt when they opposed government”.
Minister of Land and Agricultural Affairs Lulu Xingwana muscled a South African Airways passenger off her business-class seat on a flight to Johannesburg two weeks ago, relegating the latter to a crew seat at the back of the aircraft. According to the pilot’s formal incidents report, Xingwana stormed through the boarding gate and ”hijacked” seat 1F when she discovered she had been removed from flight SA 570 from Durban to Johannesburg.
South Africa’s weak and poorly resourced Parliament can only find its voice if it is given new powers in the Budget process, and the resources to live up to them, a growing number of MPs and parliamentary officials believe. The engine room of democracy is not a happy or productive place at present.
The Matatiele/Maluti Mass Action Organising Committee met the Public Protector recently to discuss investigations into alleged voting irregularities in Parliament’s passing of the 12th Amendment Act on cross-border municipalities.
Discussions also focused on issues such as the transfer of government assets and duties from KwaZulu-Natal to the Eastern Cape.
The black-gold bold letters with telephone numbers announcing who to call if you need armed response to a crime look a bit out of place on a White City, Soweto, street. White City is traditionally one of the roughest Soweto townships and also its poorest.
The Catholic Church in South Africa is currently investigating at least 24 incidents of sexual abuse by priests — 12 cases in Cape Town alone. Some of these are "historical cases" and happened years ago. In most of them, the victims were children when the sexual abuse took place.