Gauteng

More than 3 500kg of toxic waste has been illegally dumped in a landfill site in Walkerville, south of Johannesburg, since late December. Working in the scorching heat at the Walkerville de Deur landfill site on Tuesday, the IFRT Spill Response team had to plough through metres of stinking garbage to locate two bags, weighing about 50kg each.

A 44-year-old man was arrested on Saturday in connection with the fatal shooting of his wife and the wounding of two of her colleagues at an Absa bank on Friday, said Gauteng police. Director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said the man was arrested at a flat in Turffontein, south of Johannesburg, at 4.30pm.

The plight of grade 11 pupils who failed last year is the biggest challenge facing education in South Africa in 2007, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said on Wednesday. Sadtu president Willie Madisha told a media conference in Johannesburg the Department of Education will have to give clear directions on how to deal with grade 11s who failed.

All Gauteng schools opened on Wednesday for the start of the 2007 school year with a few minor hitches reported, the provincial education department said. ”All our schools opened today [Wednesday],” said spokesperson Panyaza Lesufi. ”From our side we are quite excited that everything went smoothly.”

Gauteng provincial minister of community safety Firoz Cachalia will provide feedback on the crime operation he launched six months ago at the end of January, his spokesperson said on Monday. ”A detailed evaluation will be undertaken later this week to identify the successes of Operation Iron Fist and to establish what challenges still need to be overcome,” said Phumla Sekhonyane.

Confusion reigned at the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday when a Pretoria High Court judge arrested for drunken driving failed to appear at the court. After waiting outside the court for about half an hour, journalists learnt that Judge Nkola Motata, who was arrested on Friday, had already been released on bail. He will appear at the Hillbrow Magistrate’s Court on February 27.

The Gauteng department of education has threatened to close down 200 badly performing schools, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. Spokesperson for the department Panyaza Lesufi said the department has given principals until the end of January to present plans to turn their schools around.

President Thabo Mbeki should appoint a judicial commission to investigate the 1999 arms deal, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Sunday in the wake of new revelations on the affair. The media reported on the weekend that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office is investigating alleged ”substantial payments” from BAE Systems to a senior South African Defence Ministry official.

The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) is investigating charges of defeating the ends of justice after claims of a cover-up in the Robert McBride car-crash investigation, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Sunday. Witnesses said McBride appeared to be drunk, and that they were intimidated and assaulted.

Gauteng police Commissioner Perumal Naidoo has said that 2007 should be dedicated to a no-nonsense approach to fighting crime. Naidoo was speaking at a handing-over ceremony of 250 police vehicles on Thursday in Aeroton, Diepkloof, outside Johannesburg.

Rescue workers are searching for two men who were washed down a crevice along a Port St Johns beach on Tuesday, the National Sea Rescue Institute said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, two men drowned in separate incidents while swimming in Parys and Heidelberg, and a man drowned when a boat capsized at the Vaal Dam.

Two relatives are among the six suspects arrested in connection with the murder of Avhatakali Netshisaulu, son of City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu, reported the newspaper at the weekend. City Press said a suspect arrested on Friday was a relative and was allegedly the ”mastermind, financier and recruiter of Netshisaulu’s killers”.