A finding of guilty with exacerbating circumstances was handed down in the Hate Speech Special Court yesterday, with sentences of imprisonment and corrective re-education passed on three defendants, Rudolph Crasston, Herbert Driver-Fullman and Josephine Jolson, all of Sandton. The trial arose from charges made under provisions of the Prohibition of Hate Speech Act of 2004. (Extract from Mail & Guardian April 14 2008)
Growing up in a formerly coloured suburb in Johannesburg, the closest I got to seeing real ”wild” animals were the scrawny, unhappy lions or cheetahs at the zoo. So it was with scepticism that after 27 years of my life I was dragged on holiday to the Kruger National Park to check out the ”Big Five”. First exposure to the rituals of visiting a national park can be bewildering.
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"We clung on as the elephant thrashed around in the undergrowth a few metres from a young female tiger baring her teeth in what was either a genuine threat or a world-weary yawn. "Picture, picture, picture," shouted the mahout as we tried to respond from the unsteady platform on the elephant’s back." The hunt for tigers is an elusive but rewarding experience — which is pretty much what you would say about India.
The Johannesburg Tourism Company (JTC) is promoting the city as so much more than a place to enter and exit South Africa. Addressing the recent Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa) annual general meeting at the Indaba hotel in Fourways, JTC CEO Deon Viljoen unveiled a campaign to encourage international visitors to "stay another day" in Jozi.
"Everywhere you go, senses dulled by the daily workaday drudge are reinvigorated — by the morning-fresh mangoes so juicy they drip down your chin; by the coral reefs that house psychedelic fish and fauna; by the beaches and the people." Soak up Madagascar, where nine out of every 10 species living on the island cannot be found anywhere else in the world.
About 150 school children were hospitalised with suspected food poisoning after attending an event at the Dome in Randburg on Thursday, education authorities said. ”We understand from the emergency services that most of them are safe,” spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi said in the afternoon.
The onset of the monsoon has sparked an exodus from the central Indian town of Harsud, which is facing submersion by a new dam, but thousands of families are still refusing to budge, an official said on Thursday. Residents had been warned they would have to move as long as a decade ago.
Namibian President Sam Nujoma travelled to Zambia on Thursday ahead of trips to Kenya, Tanzania and later this month to China and Malaysia as part of a farewell tour before stepping down in March. Nujoma, who is travelling with members of his Cabinet, is to open a trade fair in Zambia.
Microsoft said on Thursday it is revamping its internet search operation and preparing to launch its own search engine later this year to compete directly with Google and Yahoo. The immediate change will be a ”cleaner look” for its MSN Search page that separates paid and unpaid search results and provides direct links to Microsoft’s encyclopedia service.