Former police commissioner Johan van der Merwe has rejected allegations by former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock that he is protecting police generals of the apartheid era, it was reported on Thursday. De Kock testified in the amnesty rehearing of Gideon Nieuwoudt and two others regarding the death of the Motherwell Four.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was deep in the red in noon trade on Thursday, in line with world markets. However, gold stocks managed to eke out gains after being hammered earlier in the week. By 11.57am, the all-share index was down 0,96%. Industrials and financials fell 0,69% and 0,42% respectively.
Women with babies strapped to their backs balance their belongings in brightly coloured cloth on their heads as they walk toward the port of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They join hundreds who have been streaming out across Lake Kivu in rickety boats, saying they fear renewed warfare.
The government should not adopt a ”one-size-fits-all” approach to upgrading informal settlements across South Africa, a leading housing development NGO has cautioned ahead of Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu presenting a comprehensive housing plan for informal settlements to the Cabinet.
A Dedicated Banks Bill will be submitted to the South African Parliament in October this year and details of its contents will be released then, says South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. In June, Manuel said new laws would be on the table to create the second tier of commercial banks better equipped to serve millions of South Africans who were largely overlooked by large commercial banks.
The ”sick” people responsible for the death of 21-year-old Leigh Matthews must be tracked down, and nobody can be silent, said African National Congress spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama on Thursday. ”It is very sad and distressing, and it is unbelievable that people can do something like this,” said Ngonyama.
Leigh Matthews is dead
South Africa’s Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin has dismissed speculation that negotiations between South African Airways (SAA) and Nigeria have reached a deadlock. SAA has an ambitious plan of creating a networking hub in Nigeria by acquiring a 30% stake in the country’s newest airline.
Angry Sierra Leoneans are demanding that their government ask Guinea to withdraw its troops from their territory, which they occupied five years ago. Troops from Guinea occupied the eastern border town of Yenga during Sierra Leone’s civil war between the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front and government forces.
The enduring mystery surrounding the demise of Napoleon Bonaparte has just been given another twist. The official verdict, supported by an autopsy, was that l’Empereur died of stomach cancer on May 5, 1821, at the age of 51, while in exile on Britain’s South Atlantic island colony of St Helena.
Israel on Wednesday accused the European Union of ”encouraging Palestinian terrorism” by supporting a United Nations general assembly resolution pressing the Jewish state to obey a world court ruling and tear down the ”anti-terror” barrier under construction through the West Bank.