Cape Town

A loan allegedly made by Imvume Management head Sandi Majali to the wife of a Cabinet minister should be probed by the police as it might be a criminal offence, the Public Protector said on Tuesday. He did not have the powers to conduct criminal investigations or prosecute guilty parties, the office of the protector, Lawrence Mushwana, said in a statement.

Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana has decided to probe Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s holiday trip to the United Arab Emirates last December, despite a public explanation by President Thabo Mbeki. Mlambo-Ngcuka used a South African Air Force plane on her trip, reportedly at a cost of R700 000.

Baby Jordan Leigh Norton’s biological father, Neil Wilson, burst out in tears when he heard that the child had been murdered, a former friend of his told the Cape High Court on Monday. Arendene Fourie said she had been good friends with Wilson, his then girlfriend, Dina Rodrigues, who is now on trial for the murder, and the infant’s mother, Natasha Norton.

President Thabo Mbeki has appointed a commission of inquiry into the alleged illicit activities of certain South African companies or individuals relating to the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq. The commission will be chaired by advocate Michael Donen.

Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Anton Rupert, who died in January, has been described as ”a man of worth” by President Thabo Mbeki. In his regular internet column on Friday, ANC Today, Mbeki described Rupert as ”as an outstanding son of our people”.

A probe into alleged hoax e-mails aimed at discrediting senior ruling party figures could be completed by the end of the month, Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils said on Thursday. ”That is the hope and the expectation,” he told reporters at Parliament.

The sound of Muslims singing praises reverberated in Cape Town on Thursday, as an estimated 30 000 people marched in protest and called for a boycott of Danish products. It was the first mass South African response as worldwide condemnation of Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad gathered momentum.

After the death of baby Jordan Leigh Norton, murder accused Dina Rodrigues told her boyfriend at the time that she paid R10 000 ”for all of it to go away”, the Cape High Court heard on Wednesday. Rodrigues is accused of hiring four men to slit the throat of the infant in June last year.

Opposition political parties have questioned President Thabo Mbeki’s fleeting reference to HIV/Aids in his State of the Nation address on Friday. In mentioning HIV and Aids only once, the president had failed to deal with the pandemic as a national priority, said African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe.

Independent Newspapers has offered to publish an apology for any offence a weekend article caused to Muslims, already in uproar over a series of cartoons lampooning the prophet Muhammad. ”[The] decision to apologise by the Cape Argus was an acknowledgement of an error in judgement,” said Chris Whitfield, editor of the Cape Times.

A government study of the health department has found that public hospitals are ”highly stressed institutions” owing to staff shortages, unmanageable workloads and management failures, says South African Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.