A post template

No image available
/ 16 November 2006

Law Review Project slates asset seizures

The Law Review Project on Thursday expressed deep concerns about the constitutionality of core aspects of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and the actions of the Asset Forfeiture Unit. ”The Prevention of Organised Crime Act and its implementation subject innocent South Africans … to arbitrary penalties …,” the law body said in a statement.

No image available
/ 16 November 2006

Mbeki congratulates DRC on elections

President Thabo Mbeki congratulated the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Independent Electoral Commission on Thursday for organising the first and second round of presidential elections in that country. Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said Mbeki was aware of the announcement of the provisional results, which make President Joseph Kabila the winner.

No image available
/ 16 November 2006

Govt considers pardons for ‘political prisoners’

The government is considering applications for the pardoning over 1 000 prisoners who claim their crimes were politically motivated, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla said on Thursday. Briefing the media at Parliament, she referred to repeated appeals by the Inkatha Freedom Party and Pan Africanist Congress for the release of what they called ”political prisoners”.

No image available
/ 16 November 2006

R2bn in gold stolen from SA mines

Gold theft from mines was estimated at R2-billion rand annually, the Chamber of Mines said on Thursday. Chamber of Mines deputy legal adviser Anton van Achterbergh said that a report, compiled by the Institute of Security Studies, ”confirmed … that about R1,8-billion- to R2-billion-worth of gold is stolen every year”.

No image available
/ 16 November 2006

Annan kicks off talks on Darfur crisis

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan opened high-level talks in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Thursday with senior African Union officials to seek solutions to the crisis in Sudan’s troubled western Darfur region. But prospects for the meeting reaching consensus on a way forward remained unclear.

No image available
/ 16 November 2006

All Blacks braced for French backlash

The All Blacks are braced for a backlash from France in Paris on Saturday after the 47-3 pasting the tourists handed the home side in the first autumn Test match last week. Assistant coach Wayne Smith said France boss Bernard Laporte had been right to ring the changes after his side suffered their largest home defeat in Lyon, which saw the French players roundly booed and whistled off the pitch.

No image available
/ 16 November 2006

Goniwe placed on extended ‘leave of absence’

African National Congress (ANC) chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe has been placed on an extended ”leave of absence” pending a party disciplinary inquiry into allegations of sexual harassment made against him. ”There is strong prima facie evidence that warrants a disciplinary hearing,” the chair of the ANC’s national disciplinary committee, Kader Asmal, said on Thursday.