The figures are certainly impressive. According to Statistics South Africa, the country’s tourism industry has experienced growth of more than 100% since the demise of apartheid in 1994. But in a country struggling to overcome the effects of apartheid, these figures do not necessarily add up to a success story.
African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma’s family reacted with shock on Tuesday to reports that his first wife’s name has been used in a 419 scam e-mail. Nephew Michael Zuma, in Nkandla, said: ”What? She doesn’t even have a computer. She has a phone, but she can’t even send SMSs.”
It turned out to be the big gamble that paid off as Dick Muir’s decision to field a completely new look Sharks side — he now has two teams of equal strength at his disposal — was vindicated with a 34-16 triumph over the Pumas in their Absa Currie Cup rugby match in Durban on Friday night.
Two municipal trade unions indicated this week that they have accepted a three-year wage deal put forward by the South African Local Government Bargaining Council. The South African Municipal Workers’ Union announced on Friday that it would accept the deal, while the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union accepted it earlier this week.
The 37-year-old man who allegedly killed his wife before driving into Durban’s harbour in a bid to cover up the crime has claimed he is mentally unstable. Dhanendra Heeralall appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday to face charges of murder and defeating the ends of justice.
South Africa will pledge an additional R1-million this year to the global fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in Durban on Tuesday. ”We further remain committed to supporting the global fund consistent with our potential and ability to do so,” she said.
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Delaying Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial is ”not fair,” Schabir Shaik said on Monday. Shaik, the man described by Judge Hilary Squires last July as having had a ”generally corrupt relationship” with Zuma, said: ”I read it in the weekend papers. I don’t think it’s fair, but it really is up to Zuma and his team to make that call.”
Four men have been arrested in connection with the rape of two foreign missionaries and the shooting of one of them on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast. Captain Vincent Pandarum said the two women — one from Kenya and the other from the United States — were raped on Friday night as they were walking home on the Old Harding Road near Oslo Beach.
A man suspected of murdering his wife and then trying to disguise the crime as a hijacking has confessed to the murder, police in Durban said on Friday. On Wednesday night, the man was fished out of Durban harbour near the landmark sugar terminals after he drove his bakkie through a security boom.
A worker was crushed by a six-ton rubbish truck in Durban on Friday morning. A Netcare 911 spokesperson said it appeared that the 40-year old man had slipped off the side of the moving Durban Solid Waste truck. The truck, weighing nearly six tons when empty and 10 tons when fully laden, drove over him.
Police arrested a man on Thursday who allegedly stabbed his wife 12 times and then tried to disguise the murder as a botched hijacking by driving his bakkie into Durban’s harbour. The 37-year-old husband was arrested at Durban’s St Augustine’s Hospital on Thursday morning.
Police divers have recovered the body of a woman after the bakkie she and her husband were travelling in plunged into the Durban harbour on Wednesday night after an apparent hijacking. Paramedics said the 31-year-old woman had sustained about 12 stab wounds.
South Africa’s municipalities are owed R19,2-billion and do not expect to recover more than 50% of this debt. Municipalities’ failure to effectively collect money for services rendered is severely impacting on service delivery, Auditor General Shauket Fakie said on Monday. Johannesburg alone has made a bad-debt provision of R7,2-billion.
Wing Wylie Human got a hat-trick of tries for the Lions but his side ended up with a single bonus-point reward for their efforts in their opening Absa Currie Cup rugby match in Durban on Friday night as the Natal Sharks claimed the spoils for a 33-22 victory and a bonus point for four tries.
Judgement is expected in the Durban High Court on Thursday in an urgent application by 15 Westville Prison inmates to expedite their access to anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment. Judge Thumba Pillay heard that according to the prison’s operational plan prisoners had to undergo four sessions of counselling before receiving ARV treatment.
Durban is being touted as the next city to host the 2016 Olympic Games. Launching the city’s Durban Beach Africa festival on Wednesday evening, the city’s deputy mayor, Logie Naidoo, said: ”We believe that the 2016 Olympic Games should come to Durban. Cape Town has had its chance. It’s time for Durban to bid for this biggest of events.”
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Only when former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial kicks off on July 31 will the defence teams and the National Prosecuting Authority know who will be the presiding judge. On Monday KwaZulu-Natal Judge President Vuka Tshabalala said: ”You will see when he presides.”
A Pretoria Correctional Services official was arrested following a high-speed chase during which traffic officers reported speeds topping 200kph, the KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) said on Saturday. RTI spokesperson Rajen Govender said the Correctional Services assistant director was initially flagged down by RTI officers after he went through a speed trap at 168kph on the N3 near Cedara, north of Pietermaritzburg.
Spy bosses, rugby bosses, political bosses, diplomats and former deputy president Jacob Zuma were all on stage at the Absa Stadium in Durban in front of nearly 50Â 000 people for the Youth Day celebrations on Friday. Zuma’s message was one which stressed the unity of the ruling African National Congress and attacked ”analysts” who predicted the downfall of the party.
A new stadium, that will host one of the World Cup semifinal matches in 2010, was unveiled in Durban on Thursday. Named after King Shaka’s father, the King Senzangakhona Stadium will cost R1,6-billion to build and will seat a crowd of up to 80Â 000 soccer fans.
The anti-Aids ABC message — abstain, be faithful and use condoms — has left many of the continent’s youth confused, an Aids conference in Durban heard on Wednesday. In a survey of 1Â 766 pupils conducted in the Valley of a Thousand Hills near Durban, only one schoolgirl said abstinence is ”not having sex until one is married”.
Aids-treatment programmes need to expand dramatically in Africa, an expert said on Tuesday, suggesting nurses do some of the work of doctors and more people be trained as counsellors in order to meet the enormous need. ”We need to expand four- or fivefold from where we are now,” said Dr Mark Dybul, the United States State Department’s deputy global Aids coordinator.
The South African government on Monday demanded a greater say over the way millions in United States HIV/Aids funding is spent in the country, arguing that giving the money directly to local programmes created a coordination problem. The Bush administration has pledged -billion to combat HIV/Aids over five years in 15 of the world’s worst-hit countries.
After 100 years in existence, the Springboks celebrated with a clinical 36-16 victory over Scotland at King’s Park Stadium in Durban on Saturday. A revamped Bok outfit outscored their northern-hemisphere counterparts by four tries to none and also scored four penalties and two conversions.
Put aside tactics, history and sentiment and just carve out a win. That seems to have been Springbok coach Jake White’s message to his team ahead of their season-opening Test against Scotland in Durban on Saturday. With much fanfare being made by the Scottish contingent about how they will take on the Bok forward challenge, White’s chief priority is victory.
To some, it’s the symbol of one of the most powerful rugby-playing nations in the world, united by former South African president Nelson Mandela. Others remember it as an icon of racial oppression and exclusivity based on skin colour. There is even a drink named after it.
A 33-year-old man was seriously injured when chemicals at a packaging factory near Durban ignited on Wednesday. Netcare spokesperson Chris Botha said the man had burns to 60% of his body and was airlifted to St Augustine’s hospital. The blast occurred at a division of the packaging conglomerate Nampak.
The Springboks will field one of their most-experienced sides when they line up against Scotland in the first of two rugby Test matches against the British side on Saturday. The team was named on Wednesday morning, while Scotland are expected to name their team later in the day.
South Africa will officially unveil its Soccer World Cup 2010 emblem in Berlin on July 7. Significantly, this will be before the end of the World Cup in Germany and, as such, is a first in the history of the tournament. This was announced on Thursday by Danny Jordaan, CEO of the South African World Cup committee.
A South African court on Tuesday began hearing an appeal from 13 HIV-positive prisoners demanding access to free anti-retroviral treatment in line with a government scheme launched in 2003. Lawyers representing the prisoners from Westville jail are arguing before the High Court in Durban that a series of bureaucratic hurdles are preventing them from accessing free ARVs.
Kaizer Chiefs salvaged some silverware from a season that almost went horribly wrong when they were crowned champions of the lucrative Absa Cup beating Orlando Pirates 5-3 in a penalty shootout in an epic battle played at King’s Park Stadium on Saturday.
Urgent blood donations are needed after 62 people were injured when a bus overturned outside Durban on Monday morning, Durban metro police said. Four people were hospitalised in critical condition and two of them lost their limbs on the scene. Fifty-eight were in a serious condition.