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One wished him well, while another wished him a fate similar to what he allegedly bestowed upon hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. As former dictator Saddam Hussein appeared in court on Thursday, some of the 25-million people who spent the better part of their lives under his authority voiced mixed emotions about the proceedings.
In a judgement hailed as a landmark by the Pan South African Language Board (Pansalb), the Pretoria High Court has ordered the Department of Labour’s Compensation Commissioner to change its policy of communicating only in English. The court found the department and its commissioner in breach of the Pansalb Act and the Constitution. The ruling has signalled to government departments that multilingualism must become a reality.
The installation of ”intelligent road studs”, along a notorious stretch of road in KwaZulu-Natal, has seen accidents drop so dramatically that the province’s transport department has just had them installed on another stretch of highway. The studs have seen fatalities drop from 27 in the seven months prior to the start of installation in October 2002, to one.
Two NGOs working with the poor and working classes demonstrated on Thursday against their eviction by the Johannesburg Development Agency from a building in Newtown, Johannesburg. Approximately 50 people from Khanya College and the Workers’ Library demonstrated outside the old municipal compound.
Saddam Hussein’s defence team, which has not yet been allowed to enter Iraq, on Thursday again slammed as ”illegal” the Iraqi special tribunal trying the deposed dictator. ”This court is illegal since it was designated by an illegal authority, created by the occupation,” one of the lawyers said.
The debate about the South African government’s empowerment equity requirement in greenfields mining projects remains "fluid" and up for debate, Department of Minerals and Energy Deputy Director General Joacinta Rocha said on Thursday. The mining empowerment charter only covers existing mining operations, Rocha said.
The death toll from Typhoom Mindulle’s rampage through the Philippines rose to 16 with 17 other people still missing and feared dead, civil defence officials said on Thursday. The typhoon has displaced nearly 180 000 people from 48 towns and three cities and destroyed or damaged more than 6 000 houses.
Zimbabwe’s Parliament has passed a tough new Bill that allows police to hold suspects for three weeks before they are brought to court. The Criminal Procedure and Evidence Amendment Bill was passed late on Wednesday despite stiff resistance from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said the party’s shadow justice minister David Coltart.
The Western Cape public works and education departments may sell off some state and school properties to raise money for a school-building initiative that could cost R500-million. The provincial government is looking at alternative means of generating funds to build new schools.
South African gold mining giant Anglogold Ashanti on Thursday took its first steps into Russia, saying it would buy a 29,9% stake in London-listed Trans-Siberian Gold in a multi-million dollar deal. Anglogold Ashanti president Sam Jonah said the projects in Russia opened new horizons for the company.