African National Congress president Jacob Zuma criticism of the closure of teacher training colleges in the mid-1990s received backing from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Tuesday. An IFP education spokesperson urged Education Minister Naledi Pandor ”to urgently consider the reopening of teacher training colleges”.
South African broadcast journalist Mark Klusener, who was arrested for allegedly operating a pirate radio station, was released from house arrest in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Rafique Gangat, a spokesperson for radio station Ram FM where Klusener is the news director, said: ”The house arrest of the staff was lifted at 10.01am today [Tuesday]. But certain restrictions remain.”
African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma celebrated his 66th birthday on Saturday. Unlike Zuma’s birthday last year, when 1 000 people attended a lavish affair at Durban’s International Convention Centre, no major events have been planned for his 66th birthday.
Deputy Safety and Security Minister Susan Shabangu’s controversial ”shoot to kill” comment has received African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s backing. He was speaking at the KwaZulu-Natal Institute of Local Government and Traditional Leadership’s fund-raising gala dinner on Friday night
Zulu queens spent R533 000 just on clothing between June and October last year, media reports said on Friday. This came as nearly R10-million was needed to avoid the collapse of some of the royal palaces. The spending spree emerged as the royal household appeared before the finance portfolio committee in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature.
The battle for the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) at its December conference in Polokwane should convince foreign investors that the country’s democracy is solid, ANC president Jacob Zuma told the Durban Chamber of Commerce’s 152nd anniversary dinner on Thursday.
South African journalist Mark Klusener was ordered to pay 25 000 shekels (about R53 700) and placed under house arrest by a court in Jerusalem on Tuesday, said his wife, Peroshni Govender. Klusener and other staff members were arrested for operating a pirate radio station.
Seven Durban men who allegedly stabbed a 20-year-old petrol attendant to death were taking revenge and mistook their victim for a robber, police said on Monday The seven — aged between 17 and 20 — were due to face a murder charge in the Chatsworth Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Passengers jumped from a burning bus on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast on Monday, a provincial transport official said. Zinhle Mngomezulu said the Olympic bus was hired by the family of provincial agriculture minister Mtolephi Mthimkulu for his daughter’s wedding and reception.
The Telkom South African National Aquatic Championships came to a thrilling climax at the Kings Park Aquatic Centre in Durban on Sunday evening with an unprecedented 20 swimmers posting Olympic ”A” qualifying times. It was a fitting ending to a sensational Olympic trial for the country’s swimmers.
State secrecy is an important issue in a democracy, especially given our past, but is the draft Protection of Information Bill the answer? Its stated aim is to ”promote the free flow of information within an open and democratic society without compromising the security of the Republic”.
Convicted businessman Schabir Shaik is undergoing tests at a Durban hospital to determine the extent of organ damage, if any, caused by persistent problems with high blood pressure, his brother said on Friday. Mo Shaik said: ”He is undergoing tests in terms of organ damage. It’s a case of seeing what there is and what to do about it.”
Hundreds of international guests and media converged on KwaZulu-Natal on Friday at the start of the Ladysmith Siege Weekend to commemorate historic events that took place during the Anglo-Boer War. Organised by the Emnambithi/Ladysmith municipality, the event is in its fourth year and is expected to attract a crowd of about 5 000.
A 38-year-old man is in a serious condition in a KwaZulu-Natal hospital after both his ears and genitals were ripped off by dogs in Empangeni, paramedics said on Friday. Yusuf Kruger, spokesperson for the privately-owned Mounties Ambulance Service, said the incident took place on Hancock Avenue at 4pm on Thursday.
The case against five men — aged between 18 and 20 — accused of gang-raping a 21-year-old Durban woman was postponed in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) on Thursday. The men allegedly raped the woman in a sugar-cane plantation in Hillcrest on March 2 while they took turns at holding her father at gunpoint nearby.
Northern Tigers swim star Kerri-Leigh Shaw has been provisionally suspended from competition effective from Tuesday April 1 following a positive drugs test during the Fina Swimming World Cup in Belo Horizonte in Brazil on November 25 last year.
A 76-year-old man is fighting for his life in a Durban hospital after being stung more than 1 000 times by bees on Wednesday, paramedics said. Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said the man had left his house in KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) Drummond area to go for a walk when he was attacked by the bees.
At least 2 100 volunteers will be recruited and trained in KwaZulu-Natal by police officers from the United Kingdom to build up a front against crime before the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Project coordinator Nhlakanipho Mahlaba said that R35-million had been allocated for the ”volunteer social crime prevention project”.
A scanner costing R43-million — the first of 18 — has been put into operation at Durban harbour’s container terminal, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on Tuesday. Leonard Radebe, head of customs at Sars, said the scanner would improve turnaround times at the congested Durban terminal.
The establishment of a media appeals tribunal as proposed by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) threatens the right to press freedom, the press ombudsman said in Durban on Monday. Ombudsman Joe Thloloe warned that ”once media freedom is threatened, it is an individual’s freedom of expression that is threatened”.
South Africa’s judiciary does not need an uncritical media that is over respectful of the courts, Chief Justice Pius Langa said in Durban on Sunday. He said the judiciary should ”jealously protect” the media and its right to free expression, but at the same time the media’s right was ”not totally unfettered and unrestricted”.
The Sharks moved up to second in the Super 14 after a pair of second-half tries secured a 22-10 victory over the Queensland Reds on Saturday. The South Africans touched down in the 63rd and 67th minutes, breaking a determined Reds defence that was put under relentless pressure.
It is ”distasteful” to tell students that toyi-toying does nothing to improve the country, the Young Communist League (YCL) said on Thursday. It rejected as unfortunate recent remarks to this effect by Education Minister Naledi Pandor. ”The YCL views these remarks as nonsensical and distasteful,” the league said in a statement.
An elderly woman was shot by robbers fleeing from a crime scene in Phoenix, Durban police said on Wednesday. Inspector Michael Read said five men, three of them armed, had entered the Smilesons shop in Phoenix on Tuesday evening and held staff members at gunpoint.
At least 21 drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients — who ran away from a Port Elizabeth hospital last week — returned on the weekend, Eastern Cape health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said on Monday. On Thursday, 33 drug-resistant TB patients forced their way out of the Jose Pearson Hospital.
Lamontville Golden Arrows and Bidvest Wits drew 2-2 in their Premier Soccer League clash at the King Goodwill Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi on Saturday afternoon. Abafana Besithende, as Arrows are known, dominated the first 20 minutes of the game and were rewarded in the 10th minute with a goal.
South Africa’s tertiary education system is operating at close to capacity with limited infrastructure and academic staffing resources available for expansion, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said in Durban on Thursday. Pandor said that the government hoped to achieve a higher education enrolment of 820 000 students by 2010.
South Africa fast bowler Charl Langeveldt withdrew on Tuesday from next month’s tour to India after his selection had caused controversy. Langeveldt, who is black, was included in the squad earlier this month ahead of the white Andre Nel in accordance with Cricket South Africa’s racial transformation policy.
The Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup 2008 qualifier in Durban next week has a vastly different feel to the previous two qualifying tournaments, as the sport goes into its third year of organised competition in Africa. At the World Cup in Rio, Senegal and Nigeria shocked the world by topping their respective groups.
Sharks rugby coach Dick Muir has resolved the issues he had with timekeeper Gabriel Pappas following last Saturday’s Super 14 clash against the Lions at Ellis Park. Muir was involved in an altercation with Pappas after Sharks hooker Bismarck du Plessis was not allowed to return to the game following treatment for a cut to his eye.
At least three protesting students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Pietermaritzburg campus were wounded by police firing rubber bullets on Tuesday, the students’ representative council said. Police spokesperson Inspector Joey Jeevan said officers used rubber bullets to disperse the crowd at 10am.
At least 20 houses were burnt down and two people shot in clashes between two northern KwaZulu-Natal communities, police said on Monday. Captain Charmaine Struwig said fighting broke out between groups from the Mhlwazini area and Magangangozi area at midday on Sunday.