An off-duty police officer allegedly killed five relatives, including two four-year-old twin girls, in a bloody killing spree in the Cape Town area on Tuesday night, police said. The 48-year-old inspector, who had taken leave, shot each of his victims in the head, execution-style, said a Western Cape police spokesperson.
One man was arrested as protesting members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) clashed with police in central Cape Town on Tuesday. About 2 000 workers marched through the city to voice their opposition to privatisation of basic services such as water and electricity.
Springbok coach Jake White has said his class of 2005 reflects well on transformation and that the balance of youth and experience in the squad is a key factor. Addressing a media conference in Cape Town on Monday, White said he is confident that the squad of 33 will rise to the occasion and represent their country with pride, in spite of the poor showing of South African teams in the Vodacom Super 12.
The African Christian Democratic Party says it hopes that the Constitutional Court will rule in favour of the wishes of the majority of South Africans — and oppose same-sex marriages. ”The ACDP has continually said that we do not support the legalisation of so-called gay marriages,” said ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe.
Four of South Africa’s major clothing retailers — Foschini, Truworths, Woolworths and Edcon — have issued a statement citing their concerns over the state of the local clothing and textile manufacturing industry, but "unequivocally" rejecting calls by unions to sign a code committing them to prescribed local procurement targets.
State-owned Alexkor’s land-based diamond-mining operations have ”collapsed”, an expert witness told the Richtersveld hearing in the Land Claims Court on Monday. The community is claiming the return of more than 84 000ha of land confiscated by the state when diamonds were discovered there in the 1920s.
The Inkatha Freedom Party has cracked the whip following a public debate about its leadership, with its national chairperson swearing allegiance to 76-year-old party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi. There is tension in the party, with persistent talk that Buthelezi is being challenged for his position by the party’s traditionalist guard.
Protests over municipal service delivery and lack of housing in the Eastern Cape has entered its second week, with dissatisfied residents on Monday blockading roads and burning tyres near Port Elizabeth. There were unconfirmed reports of motorists being stoned along the M14 and Uitenhage roads, police said.
Listed shipping and transport group Grindrod has acquired a 50% stake in Sheltam Locomotive and Rail Services for an undisclosed amount, the company announced on Monday. Indications by Grindrod management are that it is the largest acquisition in Grindrod’s land-freight expansion programme to date.
A pipe bomb damaged a house in Manenberg on the Cape Flats on Saturday night, police said on Sunday. A policeman said the motive for the attack, reminiscent of the vigilante violence of People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad), was not immediately known.
The court case against vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath is a distraction from the real work of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), its national chairperson Zackie Achmat, said on Friday. Earlier, Rath’s lawyer argued Rath should have a chance to reply to ”vilifying statements” Achmat and the TAC made against him in their papers.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress on Friday called on South Africans to support the people of Haiti in campaigning for the return of stability, the rule of law and democracy to the Caribbean state. It has also called for the charging or release of a former Haitian prime minister from prison.
Billionaire businessman Mark Shuttleworth has offered to pay for the costs of satirical T-shirt-maker Laugh It Off’s Constitutional Court action, founder Justin Nurse told the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday. Nurse told his audience that he is ”flat broke” after several projects of his company were derailed.
An expert witness in the Richtersveld land claim on Thursday added more than R100-million to the estimated cost of rehabilitation of land ravaged by Alexkor’s diamond mining. An environmental consultant told the Land Claims Court in Cape Town there was an error in the figure he gave the court earlier.
Protests over municipal service delivery went on for a second day in Port Elizabeth, with dissatisfied residents setting tyres alight and blockading roads on Friday. The police’s deputy area commissioner for Port Elizabeth said about 300 to 400 residents were protesting against the slow pace of housing delivery.
An application by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) for an urgent interdict against vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath got under way in the Cape High Court on Friday morning. However, proceedings were disrupted minutes after they started by the noise of demonstrators outside the building.
Old Mutual, South Africa’s largest financial services group, is in preliminary talks to acquire Skandia Insurance Company of Sweden, Old Mutual confirmed on Friday. In a statement, Old Mutual said discussions are at an early stage and may or may not lead to it making an offer for Skandia.
The government denies it has ”ring-fenced” Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in an effort to limit her controversial pronouncements on HIV and Aids, and on treatment for victims of the disease. According to a Business Day report on Thursday, the government has ”thrown a ring” around Tshabalala-Msimang.
The Eastern Cape health department vowed on Thursday to prosecute officials responsible for letting clinics in the East London area run out of chronic medicines. ”We view this as gross negligence,” a departmental spokesperson said. ”We are going to charge people. There are people that are going to face the music.”
The Cabinet has welcomed the progress made in finalising the deal between Britain’s Barclays and South Africa’s Absa. However, activist group Jubilee South Africa on Thursday urged the government to withdraw its approval of Barclays’ bid to buy a 60% stake in Absa, as the British bank supported the apartheid government.
The Inkatha Freedom Party says it is ”shocked” by the government’s call on universities to reduce student numbers, and refuse readmission to those who fail their first year. Earlier this week, the government identified the high drop-out rate among first-year students as a big financial drain on universities and other higher-learning institutions.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance is alarmed at reports of a proposal being discussed in the South African Cabinet for a "super-ministry" to oversee the economy, calling it an "outdated idea that will result in the overcentralisation of power and more bureaucratic red tape".
Even developed countries are not prepared for the possibility that the virulent avian flu could develop into a full-scale pandemic, the director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Professor Barry Schoub, said on Tuesday. He said the question is not if, but when, the next flu pandemic will hit the world.
The Medicines Control Council and the Department of Health confirmed on Wednesday that they are investigating the South African activities of the Dr Rath Health Foundation. Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been criticised for not condemning vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath’s activities.
Two Harvard researchers have accused vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath of deliberately misinterpreting their findings to bolster his campaign against anti-retrovirals. In his publicity material, Rath has repeatedly quoted a study carried out in Tanzania by these researchers.
Eskom has lit up the night, albeit with only a ”dim flicker”, at a farm dam in the Western Cape’s Overberg in a bid to stop blue cranes flying into nearby power lines. The power lines, on the farm Hillside near Caledon, have been responsible for the deaths of at least 30 of the elegant birds in the past eight years.
The Department of Correctional Services says it is sure an amicable solution will be found to the issue of a Muslim staffer suspended for wearing a headscarf. A spokesperson said on Tuesday that the department’s Western Cape office has been instructed to meet with the suspended staffer and Worcester prison management.
The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) will not appeal against the Cape High Court’s dismissal last month of Idasa’s application for political parties to disclose their funding sources. At a press conference on Monday, Idasa’s Richard Calland said his organisation will not be ”pursuing the legal route any further at this point”.
Global mining giant Anglo American will show a very small decline of nine United States cents in its basic headline earnings per share for the year to the end of December 2004, to $1,79 from $1,88, as it converts to the use of the new European Union standard International Financial Reporting Standards, the company said on Monday.
Santos made certain of remaining in the Premier Soccer League when they drew their match with Silver Stars 1-1 in a game played at the Athlone Stadium on Sunday night. Santos took the lead in the 39th minute when a Marawaan Bantam free kick from 30m out hit the underside of the crossbar and went in.
State diamond-mining company Alexkor was only partly responsible for the degradation of the wetland at the mouth of the Orange River, the Land Claims Court heard on Friday. The court is hearing a claim by the Richtersveld community for up to R2,5-billion in compensation, and the return of more than 84 000ha of land.
The government’s proposed laws restricting the speech of civil servants, NGOs and journalists may be the thin edge of the wedge that threatens freedom in general, says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon, adding it is ”well past time” the African National Congress and President Thabo Mbeki learn to deal with vociferous criticism.