The prevalence of HIV/Aids appears to be dropping, prompting the Department of Health to express optimism on Wednesday about its prevention programmes. Preliminary results from a 2006 survey show a statistically significant decrease in the prevalence of HIV among pregnant women using public hospitals, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said.
Entertainer Taliep Petersen died only after two previous murder bids planned by his wife, Najwa, went awry, Cape Town’s Wynberg Regional Court heard on Tuesday. The claim emerged during a bail application by Najwa and Abdoer Emjedi, one of her three co-accused, in a courtroom packed with about 150 family and members of the public.
The latest crime statistics released on Tuesday prove crime is out of control despite government assurances to the contrary, opposition parties said. ”We are alarmed at the increase in murder [2,4%], the 118% increase in bank robberies … and the sharp increase in robberies at residential premises,” Inkatha Freedom Party spokesperson Velaphi Ndlovu said.
The African National Congress (ANC) is to contest the legality of the decision to reinstate Truman Prince as municipal manager of the Central Karoo district municipality. Western Cape ANC secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha described the move as ”improper and wrong”.
Child Welfare South Africa on Tuesday welcomed the implementation of some sections of the Children’s Act from last Sunday, but also expressed concern about giving young children access to contraceptives. This section stipulates that no person may refuse to sell or distribute free condoms to a child over the age of 12 years.
Najwa Petersen stabbed her husband, Taliep, in the neck the day after she was discharged from psychiatric treatment, the Wynberg Regional Court heard on Tuesday. Najwa, who is appearing with Abdoer Emjedi, Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders in connection with Taliep’s murder in December last year, is seeking bail.
The Gauteng government’s attempt to negotiate with violent taxi organisations sent out the wrong message about crime, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Tuesday. The DA’s Gauteng transport spokesperson, James Swart, said bus drivers in Alexandra in Johannesburg had been attacked recently.
Both Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana and his deputy, Mamiki Shai, have vowed to continue their legal tussle until one or the other apologises. In a statement issued by his office on Monday, Mushwana said he had been approached by Kader Asmal ”with a view to encourage a settlement of the court action”.
A Paarl local councillor was stabbed in the cheek with a screwdriver on Monday after cornering an alleged cellphone thief, the Independent Democrats said. Conrad Poole, newly elected ID councillor for Amstelhof, chased the man through the streets of his ward, the party said in a statement.
Six more youths have lost their penises as a result of bungled circumcisions in the Eastern Cape, the provincial health department said on Monday. Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said 18 would-be initiates were admitted to hospital in Port St Johns last week, of whom four had to have their septic penises amputated.
Climate change in South Africa could drive thousands of species to extinction in the next 50 to 80 years, Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena said in Port Elizabeth on Monday. Mangena was opening the annual conference of the Society for Conservation Biology, an organisation that advances the science and practice of conserving biological diversity.
The Western Cape’s newest — and potentially second largest — cycle race, Die Burger Fietstoer, was unveiled on Friday and will take place on Sunday December 2. This road race will take place in and around Stellenbosch and is an official seeding event for the Cape Argus Pick ‘n Pay Cycle Tour.
The Children’s Act is set to come into force on Sunday, except for those sections still needing regulations, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya said on Friday. ”The bulk of the Act deals with matters that must be implemented on a practical level, which means that regulations will be required before these matters can be operationalised,” he said in a statement.
One solution to South Africa’s land-reform problem is to make available some of the ”huge tracts” of state-owned land around the country, says Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille. ”This land is currently unproductive, under-utilised and under-resourced,” she said in her weekly newsletter, published on the DA’s SA Today website on Friday.
Independent market research has found that more than two-thirds of Capetonians are in favour of the Green Point Stadium, City of Cape Town officials said on Thursday. ”These are exciting and gratifying scientific results, and it shows a growing excitement in Cape Town,” said the city’s director of service-delivery integration.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is exploring the possibility of entering into a coalition with other parties in Parliament. The leader of the official opposition in the National Assembly, Sandra Botha, told the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday that a coalition brings ”more weight” to bear on important issues.
Springbok captain John Smit confirmed on Wednesday that he is to join French club Clermont-Ferrand following the Rugby World Cup. A statement from the South African Rugby Union said that Smit had signed a two-year contract from 2008 to June 2009. Smit (29) has led the Springboks a record 42 times in his 67 caps and will lead South Africa at the Rugby World Cup.
As the wife of the United States president tours Africa, she will be shining a spotlight on malaria as well as Aids. While the former does not grab the same headlines, it far outstrips Aids as the continent’s biggest child killer, claiming one young life every 30 seconds.
Severe cold and more snow is to hit large parts of the country later on Tuesday and Wednesday, the South African Weather Service has warned. It said temperatures will drop as low as minus nine degrees Celsius in places such as Sutherland in the Northern Cape. The town was blanketed in snow on Monday.
A Cape Town woman on Tuesday continued her testimony about her horror taxi ride at the hands of a ”taxi conductor”. One of the two women named in the case, Lorraine Pindela, told the Cape Town Regional Court the shock of the ordeal caused her to menstruate in the taxi.
The Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town was packed to capacity on Tuesday during the bail application of Najwa Petersen, who is alleged to have murdered her husband, popular entertainer Taliep Petersen. Magistrate Jackie Redelinghuys postponed the combined bail application of Petersen and her three alleged accomplices.
A fire that destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest in and around the Tsitsikamma National Park in the Eastern Cape has finally been brought under control, South African National Parks (SANParks) said on Tuesday. A SANParks spokesperson said he was not sure about the extent of the damage caused by the raging fire.
Severe cold is to hit large parts of the country later on Tuesday and Wednesday, the South African Weather Service has warned. It said temperatures would drop as low as minus nine degrees Celsius in places such as Sutherland in the Northern Cape. The town was blanketed in snow on Monday.
The Cape High Court has ordered the Western Cape government to ensure that health services in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha area are fully reinstated with immediate effect. Handing down judgement in an application for the reinstatement of 41 sacked Khayelitsha health workers on Tuesday, Judge Siraj Desai said the court was not the right forum to rule on their dismissal.
A committee of the Western Cape legislature has cleared former provincial transport and public works minister Mcebisi Skwatsha of claims that he failed to disclose an interest in two companies. Skwatsha is the African National Congress’s Western Cape provincial secretary.
The African National Congress (ANC) is set to confront growing disquiet about the gap between rich and poor at a policy conference this week amid the biggest bout of worker unrest since apartheid. With the ANC due to elect a new leader at the end of the year, the four-day meeting will be partly seen as a test of strength between left-wing and pro-business elements.
Lawyers for Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool on Monday called for the recusal of most of the members of a special committee probing whether he misled his legislature. The committee, which was to have begun formal hearings on Monday morning, was postponed indefinitely following the application.
Judgement has been reserved on a Treatment Action Campaign application for the reinstatement of 41 dismissed Khayelitsha health workers. Cape High Court’s Justice Siraj Desai said at the end of an afternoon of legal argument on Friday that he would give a ruling ”with or without reasons” at 10am on Tuesday.
The Proudly South African campaign has dismissed media reports it has been ”disowned” by the government and the Department of Trade and Industry. The seed funding provided for the campaign’s founding period was suspended in 2004, it said in a statement on Friday.
The African National Congress’s (ANC) national policy conference in Gauteng next week should remain loyal to principle and continuity, but also respond to changing circumstances, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. The four-day conference, which starts on Wednesday, will assess the party’s major policy positions.
Two boys have been rescued from a Transkei initiation school after a so-called traditional surgeon cut off the ends of their penises, the Eastern Cape health department said on Friday. Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the boys, plus a third youth, were found at the village of Swazini near Port St Johns.
One of President Thabo Mbeki’s VIP protection-unit bodyguards has appeared in court in Cape Town after allegedly shooting a man dead in a shebeen on the weekend. The Western Cape head of the Independent Complaints Directorate, Thabo Leholo, confirmed on Friday that Sergeant Sabata Vula faced charges of murder and attempted murder.