Hundreds of people went on a looting rampage on Monday at an industrial park near Port-au-Prince airport, attacking passing cars and threatening journalists with machetes, witnesses said. The latest unrest came one day after at least six peoplewere killed when gunmen opened fire on an opposition rally in the Haitian capital.
The National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) on Monday rejected claims made by the Democratic Alliance regarding South African arms sales to Haiti. ”Accusations of impropriety by the DA’s [federal council chairperson] Mr James Selfe, as reported in the press, are simply untrue,” an NCACC statement said.
DA calls for arms shipment details
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is in the process of launching litigation against the government, TAC national chairperson Zackie Achmat said on Monday. Achmat said the TAC wants an urgent resolution on government procurement policy for Aids medicines.
W Cape extends Aids treatment
The Western Cape is to extend its anti-retroviral treatment to include every child under 14 who needs it, Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Monday. The province is acknowledged as having one of South Africa’s most effective treatment programmes.
United States dog-food maker Pedigree began recalling its dry dog food from Taiwan shelves on Monday following the deaths of hundreds of Taiwan puppies from kidney failure. Rumours began circulating on the internet early this year that hundreds of pet dogs in Taiwan had fallen ill after eating Pedigree.
The Democratic Alliance is using the Promotion of Access to Information Act to ”get to the bottom of the Haiti arms shipment fiasco”, it said on Monday. On Sunday, Minister of Education and National Conventional Arms Control Committee chairperson Kader Asmal said the shipment left South Africa with the full consent of the committee.
The United Democratic Movement has accused the ruling African National Congress of a ”staggering lack of accountability,” following a report in the Mail & Guardian that its youth league was involved in large number of business deals.
Inside ANCYL’s business empire
Elections 2004
The sole survivor in the Sizzlers gay massage-parlour massacre on Monday told the Cape High Court that he and those who died were promised they would not be killed. Before Judge Nathan Erasmus and two assessors are Victoria and Alfred Waterfront waiter Adam Roy Woest and taxi operator Trevor Bazil Theys.
Three Zimbabwean women activists were arrested while distributing pamphlets advertising a Women’s Day march in the second city of Bulawayo, a lawyer representing the three activists said on Monday. She said the pamphlet called on women to march in Bulawayo and Harare to push for a new Constitution in Zimbabwe.
Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa has promised to speed up the issuing of valid taxi permits after facing a crowd of protesting taxi drivers in Johannesburg on Monday. In the meantime, those with temporary permits would not have their vehicles impounded except when they are found to be unroadworthy.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=32340">Call for official’s sacking</a>