Some of the 62 South African suspected mercenaries who had been due to be freed from a Zimbabwean jail this week became tearful upon learning on Thursday morning that their release has been put on hold. ”They are not doing well,” lawyer Alwyn Griebenow said from Harare after visiting the men at the Chikurubi prison.
Attorneys representing ousted Independent Democrats Western Cape leader Lennit Max have queried the independence of the Scorpions in the latest development surrounding his disciplinary hearing. ID leader Patricia de Lille has testified that she became aware from a source in the Scorpions that criminal charges were being investigated against her.
South Africans feel less likely to see corruption in government today than they were during the 1990s, says the Afrobarometer survey released on Thursday by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa). This response was noted ”despite recent controversies over the so-called Travelgate scandal”, said the survey report.
Although mining-related earthquakes are an ”industry exclusion”, one insurer has said it will pay claims from Wednesday’s Klerksdorp earthquake because of the ”emotional content” of the event. The ombudsman for short-term insurance, Helem van Zyjl, advised people to lodge their claims as soon as possible to see whether they are covered.
Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade has sacked two key leftist ministers, distancing himself further from the coalition that brought him to power in 2000 after spending decades in opposition in the West African state. State radio announced late on Wednesday that the ministers will be replaced by members of Wade’s ruling Senegal Democratic Party.
Rebels hacked to death six people in northern Uganda overnight as the army detained two opposition politicians for alleged collaboration with the insurgents, officials said on Thursday. The six adults and children were beaten and stabbed with machetes and hoes when the rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army assaulted three villages.
Crime cost South Africa’s 46 000-odd commercial farmers about R1,2-billion in the financial year ending February 2002 — more than a quarter of their total losses, Statistics South Africa revealed on Thursday. Stock theft accounted for about R484-million of farmers’ total R4,4-billion losses for the year.
The excitement of the Absa Cup starts this weekend, and the boys will be separated from the men as they try to reach the quarterfinals. For the lower-division teams, it will be do or die against the Premier Soccer League teams. It seems the lower-division teams have reached the end of the road unless they plan to surprise their opposition, as Silver Stars did in 2003.
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Deputy President Jacob Zuma’s legal adviser Julie Mahomed went into the witness box at the Schabir Shaik fraud and corruption trial in the Durban High Court on Thursday. She has testified about a loan agreement that she drew up between Zuma and Shaik in May 1999.
A fire broke out on a tanker belonging to the Pakistan navy at a dock in the southern port city of Karachi on Thursday, and relief officials said at least 60 people — most of them sailors — were injured in the blaze. A naval doctor said he fears many others are trapped on the ship.