A court application for the reinstatement of health workers dismissed during the public-service strike sought to punish a government that was trying to restore order, the state argued in the Cape High Court on Thursday. ”We have been berated for taking action in a chaotic situation,” said an advocate for the Western Cape government, Dumisa Ntsebeza.
Taliep Petersen’s wife, Najwa, received electric shock therapy before his murder last year and could relapse into psychosis if she remained in custody, the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday. She also made an apparent suicide attempt some years ago, her psychiatrist said.
Irreparable harm had been caused by dismissing health workers in Khayelitsha clinics during the public-service strike, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) argued in the Cape High Court on Thursday. Last week, the TAC and seven Khayelitsha residents lodged an application to reverse the health workers’ dismissal.
The wife of slain theatre personality Taliep Petersen appeared with three men in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, charged with his murder. Petersen was shot in his Cape Town home in December last year. In the dock were his wife, Najwa, as well as Abdoer Emjedi, Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders.
The Cape Town Book Fair has achieved much in its second year, writes Darryl Accone.
Jane Rosenthal reports on the winners of the M-Net Literary Awards for 2007.
South Africa’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is to lead an African Union (AU) fact-finding team to the Comoros after elections in the rebel Anjouan island. An AU ministerial committee has rejected the outcome of the Anjouan poll.
While holding elections in Côte d’Ivoire is a priority, this should not be done at the expense of peace in the country, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. Briefing the media following discussions with the Ivorian prime minister, Mbeki said the unification and disarmament process currently under way in the West African country was the main priority.
Cape Town’s renaming panel has recommended that slain musician Taliep Petersen be remembered in a street name, and that a clutch of apartheid-era prime ministers drop off the map. A total of 46 changes suggested by the panel of experts were released on Wednesday.
South Africa has no copper mines, but copper exports to China are booming: the result of a cable-theft epidemic that regularly plunges whole suburbs into darkness, strands thousands of train passengers and is wreaking havoc with the national economy.
Dina Rodrigues’s advocate, Johan Van der Berg, called on Wednesday for a fair and balanced sentence for her for the premeditated murder of baby Jordan-Leigh Norton. He delivered his closing argument in the Cape High Court concerning an appropriate sentence for his 26-year-old client.
Twelve people were arrested after a second night of vigilantism against suspected drug dealers at Mitchells Plain in Cape Town, police said on Wednesday. Captain Randall Stoffels said about 1Â 000 people marched to three homes of suspected drug dealers. The top floor of a double-storey house was burnt down.
A man has been arrested and is being questioned by police after causing a disturbance in the public gallery of the National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon. Shortly after proceedings began, the man began shouting at bemused MPs sitting below. Deputy Speaker Gwen Mahlangu, who was in the chair at the time, repeatedly told the man to stop.
The National Assembly on Wednesday approved the controversial Public Service Amendment Bill, despite the objections of most opposition parties. Essentially, the Bill provides for a single public service at national and provincial levels and allows for secondment of employees.
Biotech crops giant Monsanto has been ordered to withdraw an advertising claim that no negative reactions have ever been reported to genetically modified foods. The Advertising Standards Authority made the ruling this week in response to a consumer complaint lodged against a Monsanto South Africa print ad.
Investment opportunities for South African business abound in the under-developed mountain kingdom of Lesotho, the South African-Lesotho business forum heard on Wednesday. Lesotho Prime Minister Phakalitha Mosisili told the forum the challenge was to see the opportunities available and ”make good use of them while they last”.
Three suspects will appear in court on Thursday in connection with the murder of Cape Town theatre personality Taliep Petersen, police said. Superintendent Billy Jones said a third suspect was arrested on Tuesday afternoon after hours of being held for questioning. The suspect is a 34-year-old man from the Athlone area of Cape Town.
The youngest of the five baby Jordan-Leigh Norton killers was ”more interested in immediate pleasures than his future”, the Cape High Court heard on Tuesday. Probation officer Joel Ntuli told the court Bonginkosi Sigenu (18) came from a poor background and his late father had declined to buy him fancy clothing.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter on Tuesday expressed his full confidence in South Africa’s preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. ”I am a happy Fifa president,” he told journalists after meeting President Thabo Mbeki at Tuynhuys. ”Everything is on track.”
The Lesotho government will relax the restrictions of the curfew it imposed after a spate of attacks on Cabinet ministers, Prime Minister Phakalitha Mosisili said on Tuesday. Briefing the media in Cape Town after meeting South African President Thabo Mbeki at Tuynhuys, Mosisili said the curfew, which was imposed on Saturday, will now be modified.
The multiparty committee that will inquire into whether Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool misled the legislature will hold open hearings next Monday, its chairperson said. Since its April 20 appointment, the committee has held closed meetings to finalise procedure and fine-tune the timetable.
The absence of regulations controlling the manufacture and distribution of medical products was endangering the lives of South Africans, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. Briefing the media in Cape Town, DA spokesperson on health Gareth Morgan blamed Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for holding back legislation to protect consumers.
Police forensic-science laboratories have a backlog of 6Â 086 samples, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Monday. Crime investigating officers have to wait an average of 54 days for results of samples sent in. He said the largest backlog was in the Western Cape’s chemistry laboratory.
The youngest of the five killers facing sentence for the murder of baby Jordan-Leigh Norton on Monday asked the Norton family to forgive him. Bonginkosi Sigenu (18) was the only one of the five to testify in the Cape High Court in mitigation of sentence. The others’ lawyers will instead address the court on their behalf.
The murder case of baby Jordan resumed in its usual start-stop fashion on Monday with the court having to adjourn until noon to obtain two missing pre-sentencing reports. The Cape High Court also heard that an unnamed, privately engaged probation officer had shown no interest in interviewing Dina Rodrigues at Pollsmoor Prison.
Replacement back Francois Steyn knocked over two late drop goals to give South Africa a nail-biting 22-19 win over Australia at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday in the Tri-Nations opener of 2007. Trailing 10-19 after 44 minutes, the Springboks rallied to score 12 unanswered points in the second half.
Claims that African National Congress (ANC) Western Cape provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha used his influence to steer a land deal to party cronies were scurrilous and untrue, the party said on Friday. It was reacting to an article in Friday’s Mail and Guardian. Nic Dawes, associate deputy editor of the M&G, said that the newspaper stands by its article.
South African electricity tariffs are likely to keep rising steeply as the country tries to fund a massive spending programme to upgrade its power network, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Friday. Africa’s largest economy has suffered a series of power failures over the past couple of years as it struggles to keep up with faster economic growth.
Business and political leaders attending an annual conference meant to focus entrepreneurial attention on Africa hailed China’s and India’s huge appetite for raw materials as a powerful driving force to move the African economy up a gear. But the discussion at the World Economic Forum’s annual conference on Africa was tinged with anxiety.
The Springboks will draw on inspiration from former president Nelson Mandela when they meet Australia at Newlands on Saturday. The sides meet in a Mandela Challenge Plate match which doubles as the first Tri-Nations game of the 2007 season.
The government’s plans to centralise the public service, purportedly in the interests of improving ”delivery”, set alarm bells ringing, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday. ”The real aim must be bluntly stated: it is to centralise the African National Congress’s power, to erode the opposition’s chances of setting up alternative models of ‘delivery’,” she said.
A gala on Friday marks the official opening of a book fair hailed as Africa’s largest by organisers. With the theme of ”More than Black on White”, the fair opens to the public on Saturday, starting four days of authors’ readings, book launches, panel discussions and seminars. Those attending include African, German, Indian, Swiss and Dutch authors and publishers.