Psychology student Grant Harris, charged with shooting dead his parents in July, was on Wednesday referred to the Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital near Cape Town. ”He needs an urgent psychiatric assessment and treatment immediately,” district surgeon Dr S Trope advised the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court.
Jazz diva Thandi Klaasen has been forced to withdraw from her planned performance at the Joy of Jazz festival in Johannesburg later in August because of ill health, the events organiser said on Wednesday. The singer had a fall recently. She is still in severe pain and will not be able to manage rehearsals.
A notice of motion indicating an urgent application for an interdict will be brought against the pending change of Pretoria’s name on road signs to Tshwane. The notice of motion was filed by the Freedom Front Plus and one of its councillors on the City of Tshwane municipality as well as Afriforum.
The Democratic Alliance has asked Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela to place the health department under the administration of the provincial treasury. ”This will allow the province to take proper control of its finances and institute a complete review of all current appointments,” DA spokesperson Mike Waters said.
Production at coal mines countrywide will resume at midnight on Wednesday following a three-day strike by mine workers, trade union Solidarity said. ”We suspended the strike. Our workers are going back to work tonight [Wednesday] at 12am,” said spokesperson Reint Dykema.
North Korean authorities have indicated flooding may have left up to 300Â 000 people homeless, a United Nations aid-agency spokesperson said on Wednesday. North Korea said hundreds were dead or missing. Meanwhile, at least 38 more people died overnight in flood-hit Bangladesh.
Hurricane Flossie was downgraded to a tropical storm hours after sending powerful waves, wind and rain toward Hawaii’s southern coast late on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a new tropical depression formed in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Dean formed midway between Africa and the Caribbean, and Typhoon Sepat skirted the Philippines.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille will take disciplinary action against the city’s metro police who blocked the N2 in Cape Town on Wednesday, her office said. Zille spokesperson Robert Macdonald said the mayor had said ”urgent disciplinary measures” would be instituted and that criminal charges had also been laid with the South African Police Service.
A 26-year-old student police officer died after he was shot and set on fire in Buhle Park, near Germiston, police said on Wednesday. Inspector Juanita Kilian said Constable Kabelo Motsumi from the Katlehong police station was brutally murdered near his parents’ home on Tuesday night.
Britain’s biggest lottery winner was stunned into silence when she realised she’d scooped £35-million with a single ticket. Postal worker Angela Kelly (40) said on Wednesday she was still in shock after claiming the weekend jackpot that makes her one of the richest women in the country.