Two buses were set on fire by a mob and about eight others damaged by stone throwing in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha before dawn on Thursday as the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ national strike got under way. Golden Arrow Bus Services spokesperson Vuyisile Mdoda said the incidents were reported to the company at 6am.
Two Johannesburg Metro police officers were released on R2 000 bail on Tuesday after they were arrested for taking explicit photographs of a 16-year-old girl from Eldorado Park, Soweto, police said. The policemen were arrested for contravening the Films and Publications Act at the beginning of May after the girl’s mother discovered the explicit photographs on her daughter’s cellphone.
Surveillance cameras have led to an 80% drop in fraud at First National Bank’s (FNB) ATMs, the bank said on Monday. FNB ATM chief executive officer Mike Arnold said cameras had been installed at 75 FNB ATMs countrywide. ”FNB’s investment in this system has saved customers and the bank large sums of money,” said Arnold.
The Gauteng Rapid Rail team on Thursday unveiled a complex plan of street closures, demolitions and expropriations — set to begin mid-May — for the construction of the new Gautrain link between Johannesburg and Pretoria. Digging will start "within weeks" for the first preparations, said project leader Jack van der Merwe.
Gases and welding products group African Oxygen (Afrox) is to invest approximately R350-millionin several major new gas production facilities around South Africa during the year. Craig Falconer, Afrox’s general manager process gas solutions, says this expenditure results from increased demand from the company’s existing customer base as well as by new business wins.
The cause of former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Pule Patrick ”Ace” Ntsoelengoe’s death is still unknown, Gauteng police said on Wednesday. Ntsoelengoe (54) was found dead by a Chiefs fan in his car at a hotel in Lenasia, southern Johannesburg, on Monday.
The public is worried about how the judiciary operates and the impartiality of judges, a survey released on Wednesday has found. Seventy-three percent of those polled felt it was easy to bribe justice officials and 85% thought that the crime-to-punishment process took too long, said Research Surveys, which released the poll.
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Former deputy president Jacob Zuma was found not guilty in the Johannesburg High Court on Monday of raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive woman at his Johannesburg home in November last year. Judge Willem van der Merwe found that Zuma and his accuser had consensual sex in Zuma’s main bedroom.
The proclamation and expropriation of land for the Gautrain Project has begun, the Gauteng Provincial Government said in a statement late on Thursday. The proclamation of properties needed for the first phases of construction will be published in the <i>Provincial Gazette</i> on Friday.
The definition of the word ”shebeen” will be discussed in the Constitutional Court on Wednesday, court registrar Martie Stander said. ”The court will hear an application for the confirmation of an order of constitutional invalidity made by the Pretoria High Court in respect of the definition of shebeen contained in section 1 of the Gauteng Liquor Act, 2003,” Stander said.
The nine provinces spent on average 98% or R214,8-billion of their adjusted budgets of R219,2-billion in 2005/06, the National Treasury said on Tuesday. This was a significant spending increase year-on-year of 13,5% or R25,5-billion over the audited R189,2-billion spent in 2004/05.
A new lane will be added to the N1 freeway between the Allendale and Buccleuch interchanges to alleviate congestion, the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) said recently. ”As of October 2 there will be a full additional lane between the two interchanges open to all road users in congested periods,” said Sanral project manager Alex van Niekerk.
United States rapper, producer and actor Snoop Dogg will not perform at Thursday’s People’s Celebration concert in Johannesburg after being detained in London following an incident at Heathrow International airport on Wednesday night, radio station 5fm reported.
The retail price of all grades of petrol will be increased by 39 cents per litre (c/l) on Wednesday May 3, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Wednesday. The latest changes bring the retail price of a litre of 95-octane unleaded petrol in Gauteng to R6,12 a litre and to R5,88 a litre at the coast.
The union representing striking security guards and their employers need to resolve their wage dispute without the Minister of Labour’s intervention, he said on Tuesday. Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said that both parties — and not himself — held the key to an amicable solution, he said in a statement sent from Cairo, where he was attending a labour summit.
Security officers were due to meet Gauteng safety provincial minister Firoz Cachalia on Monday in an attempt to find a solution to their wage dispute with employers. South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) spokesperson Ronnie Mamba said Cachalia agreed to meet the guards who were holding a vigil outside his office in Fox street, Johannesburg.
The family of former Zimbabwean opposition MP Roy Bennett has confirmed that he has applied for asylum in South Africa, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Friday. The Witness earlier reported that Bennett had claimed his life was in danger from state security forces.
Protesting security guards have threatened to disrupt next week’s Freedom Day celebrations at Pretoria’s Union Buildings if their 11% wage demand is not met. ”We are saying there can be no Freedom Day celebrations while there are people who are oppressed,” said Jackson Simon, security coordinator at the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu).
Police opened fire with rubber bullets on protesters against municipal boundary changes who had broken away from a dispersing crowd at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Friday. Earlier, about five or six small groups, from a few hundred protesters, set patches of the Union Buildings’ lawns alight.
It was a night of emphatic victories on day three of the Telkom South African National Swimming Championships in Durban on Thursday. Jean Basson came within just one-100th of a second of his best time as he cruised to victory in the 200m freestyle. The 18-year-old had little trouble from his rivals throughout the race.
Soweto’s Diepkloof hostel is to be demolished, the Gauteng provincial government confirmed in a statement on Thursday. This follows the announcement by Gauteng minister of housing Nomvula Mokonyane last week that the hostel would be torn down and that 1 086 family units would be built in its place.
South Africa has seen a ”phenomenal increase” in the number of asylum seekers in the past few years, the Department of Home Affairs said on Thursday. Although there are only 29 000 people with refugee status living in the country, there are 103 410 outstanding asylum applications.
Criminal charges have been laid against five Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital employees as the Gauteng department of health moves to clamp down on irregular practices in hospitals, the department said in a statement on Thursday. ”The employees have also been suspended with immediate effect,” the statement said.
Ryk Neethling made a token appearance on the opening day of the Telkom South African National Swimming Championships in Durban on Tuesday, but explained afterwards that he will now be taking a break from all competition and training for the next month-and-a-half.
First National Bank (FNB) on Wednesday announced a joint commercial-property and housing-finance deal that will see the provision of over 3 000 houses in Protea Glen, Soweto, over the next two years. The suburb of Protea Glen to be developed will be called Glen Ridge. The first batch of houses is expected to be available for occupation in September or October this year.
Five people were arrested on Monday in connection with the murders of Crazy Monkey — Straight Outta Benoni actor Brett Goldin and a friend Richard Bloom. Their bodies were found in a field next to the off-ramp from the M5 freeway to Klipfontein road in Mowbray, Cape Town, early on Monday, Superintendent Billy Jones said.
The South African government needs to wake up to the reality and brutality of crime, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. The opposition party’s call came after Afrikaans newspaper Rapport, reported that 52 people are killed daily, 1Â 566 per month and 18Â 793 annually in South Africa.
"The educational system in this country should be Africanised," proclaimed Dr Mathole Motshekga this week at a seminar on cultural values within the human rights framework. "Our judgement is biased to the West and does not do justice to African culture and religion that is based on spirituality." Motshekga told an audience of commissioners and human rights workers.
”The only South African representation at the Soccer World Cup will be the street-football team in the [Streetfootball] World Cup,” said Klemens Hubert, South African director of the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ). An invitation to participate in the first-ever Streetfootball World Cup was extended to the Gauteng North Sport Council (GNSC) last month, in collaboration with GTZ.
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A church pastor told the Johannesburg High Court on Monday how he was expelled from college after a false rape accusation by Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser. Pastor Sithembile Masoka told the court that he and the woman, who alleges Zuma raped her on November 2 last year, studied together in Vereeniging in 1995.
Life insurers saved R347-million in 2005 by preventing dishonest policy holders and financial advisers, as well as crime syndicates, from making fraudulent claims. This was an increase of nearly 40% on the previous year, Gerhard Joubert, chief executive of the Life Offices’ Association said on Thursday.
A man was seriously injured when he was assaulted by a group of striking security guards in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The strikers had accused him of going to work while they were on strike. Striking guards handed over a memorandum to employers and insurers and marched to Johannesburg’s Park station.