President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday opened two huge wooden doors to signal the inauguration of Constitutional Hills, the new and final home of the country’s highest court. The massive doors, at least six metres tall, have carved on them the numbers, one to 27 — the length of former president Nelson Mandela’s prison term.
The government is concerned by reports that the risk of infectious diseases was high in prisons as a result of rapes, says Health Minister Manto Tshabalala Msimang. She says HIV/Aids was reported to be high in prisons, especially among male inmates, because of the rape cases that were reported.
Education Minister Kader Asmal’s intention to appoint a truth commission to deal with the damage of apartheid education would be a divisive step, says Western Cape education minister Andre Gaum. It would merely open up old wounds and not contribute to improving the education system, says Gaum.
Thousands of Capetonians participated in Monday’s Freedom Parade, the public launch of the 10 Years of Freedom celebrations in the Western Cape. The parade saw two processions parading from opposite sides of the Cape Flats to converge at Athlone Stadium.
The bomb that killed three black policemen and one informer in Motherwell in 1989 will feature at an amnesty hearing starting this week. The justice ministry says the three former security policemen, including Gideon Nieuwoudt, who had been convicted of being responsible for the bomb would apply for amnesty.
Palestinian militants today warned of swift and bloody retaliation against Israel after it "opened the gates of hell" by assassinating Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin. Hamas and other armed groups in the region warned of an immediate escalation in violence, while tens of thousands of mourners poured on to the streets of Gaza for the funeral procession of Yassin.
<li><a class="standardtextsmall" href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=33007">World condemns assassination</a>
<li><a class="standardtextsmall" href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=32994">SA condemns assassination</a>
George Bush’s re-election campaign suffered a stinging blow when the president’s former chief counter-terrorism adviser accused him of doing ”a terrible job” in protecting America against attack, largely because of a fixation on Iraq.
A high court in Zimbabwe will on Monday hear an urgent application brought by lawyers representing 70 men detained in Harare on charges of plotting to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea for their case to be heard in an open court.
Outraged team officials, coaches and upset parents marched hundreds of athletes, who arrived in East London at the weekend for the SA Games, out of arranged accommodation facilities, describing them as ”unacceptable”. They argued that some of the pre-booked guest houses were still being renovated and did not have sufficient rooms, toilet or even blankets.
A second-innings collapse from Free State allowed Western Province to run out easy eight-wicket winners with a day to spare in their Supersport Series Super Six cricket match at Goodyear Park on Sunday. The home side began the second innings with a 120-run lead but were skittled out for a mere 78.