Cape Town

SA Rugby on Monday confirmed the preliminary South African squads to participate in the 2005 Vodacom Rugby Super 12 competition. Three of the four South African squads — the Cats, Sharks and Stormers — must still add players, while the Bulls have confirmed a full squad of 30 players.

The United States wants to resolve the issue of the debt burden that is crippling the growth of many African countries, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said on Monday. He was addressing journalists in Cape Town, where he is attending a Commission for Africa meeting. Progress in this area, he said, is possible in the next few months.

Temporary shelter and relieve was being arranged on Saturday night for about 8 000 people left homeless after a fire razed about 1 500 shelters in the Joe Slovo informal settlement and parts of Langa. An unnamed infant perished in Saturday’s fire and several people were injured in the conflagration.

An unidentified infant died on Saturday as runaway fires swept through several informal settlement zones in Langa outside Cape Town. Emergency services spokesperson Johann Minnie said 8 000 people were affected when flames ravaged zones 30, 24, 25, 26, 27, 18 and 32. Seven people, including two children, were seriously injured.

Emergency personnel rescued 16 people stranded on a roller coaster that malfunctioned on Friday afternoon at the Ratanga Junction entertainment complex outside Cape Town. Internal investigations are under way after the fun-park ride turned sour — a mechanical failure resulting in the 16 being stuck at the highest point of the ride.

The people of Africa are making it clear that they are no longer willing to be robbed of their right to peace, democracy and development, writes President Thabo Mbeki in his weekly letter. Meanwhile, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon wrote in his letter on Friday that the Middle East seems a more hopeful place than when he last visited in 2002.

Emergency rescue personnel were trying to rescue 20 people stranded high on a roller coaster that malfunctioned on Friday afternoon at the Ratanga Junction entertainment complex outside Cape Town. A strong south-easter blowing at gale-force was complicating the rescue. Metro emergency officials said no injuries were reported.

A gale-force south-easter, blowing at more than 50kph on Friday and predicted to continue over the weekend, threatened to cause flare-ups on the fire-ravaged Table Mountain area above Muizenberg on Friday. Since Thursday, an area from Boyes Drive to Steenberg, Swanswyk and further had been affected by the runaway fire.

South African pop-culture icons have joined the Treatment Action Campaign and jeans manufacturer Levi Strauss in a campaign to limit the spread of HIV/Aids among youth. All money raised by the campaign’s first event, the Rage for the Revolution concert on February 12, will go towards treatment of HIV-positive people.

Mark Thatcher, the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, on Thursday formally pleaded guilty to involvement in last year’s failed Equatorial Guinea coup. He has agreed to a R3-million fine as well as a four-year suspended jail term. The deal will allow Thatcher to leave South Africa.

The leadership of the judiciary is making ”every effort” towards transformation in the institution, Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson said on Wednesday. He welcomed what he called a ”clarifying statement” by the African National Congress supporting the judiciary’s independence.

The policy statement issued at the weekend by the African National Congress neither threatened nor attacked white judges, the party said on Monday. "It is instead an honest assessment of the state of transformation within the judiciary, consistent with … the requirements of the Constitution," the ANC said in a statement.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=177656">DA slams ANC’s ‘judge-bashing'</a>

The African National Congress’s ”judge-bashing” could be a bid to intimidate the Constitutional Court ahead of the medicine-pricing hearing, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. DA justice spokesperson Sheila Camerer said there is a ”strong suspicion” that this is the case. ”This is completely out of line,” she said.

Liberals are engaged in a fight to ensure the dominance of their ideas in the debate about what constitutes political change in South Africa, but African National Congress supporters must fight an ”ideological struggle” to determine the dominant ideas for the transformation of South Africa, says President Thabo Mbeki.

South Africa has many reasons to feel optimistic about 2005, with the economy gaining momentum, society becoming more unified and the country’s politics "returning to open dialogue", says Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon. "However, South Africans at home and abroad have received mixed messages from President Thabo Mbeki."

The Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) is not considering a civil claim against the English cricket fan who scrawled swastikas and racist graffiti on seats at Newlands. ”The less we have to do with this person the better,” WPCA president Norman Arendse said on Thursday after Matthew Weller was fined R4 000 or six months in jail.

In a letter of apology on Thursday to the Western Province Cricket Association, an English fan arrested for scribbling racist graffiti at the Newlands cricket ground said he regrets his actions and promised never to do it again. The racist graffiti cost Newlands cricket authorities more than R15 000 to remove.