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Jacob Zuma’s lawyer could ask that testimony by a top Gauteng police detective be declared inadmissible after he admitted to not following basic police procedure, the Johannesburg High Court heard on Wednesday.
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The investigating officer in the rape allegation against Jacob Zuma will return to the witness box in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday. Police Commissioner Norman Taioe told the court on Tuesday that a statement from Zuma did not refer to the consensual sex that Zuma claims, but mentions enjoying each other’s company ”privately”.
Property in the vicinity of Rosebank, Park and Sandton railway stations will be the first to be expropriated to make way for the Gautrain line, the Gauteng government said on Tuesday. Land in Midrand will also be expropriated for the construction of the maintenance depot and land in Marlboro for the tunnel portal.
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Jacob Zuma’s first statement to police during the rape probe against him made no mention of consensual sex he has claimed he had with his accuser, the court heard on Tuesday. A police officer also testified he forgot to add to his statement Zuma’s reply when asked to point out the crime scene.
The African National Congress announced its candidates for mayor in the 13 municipalities it controls in Gauteng on Tuesday. There will be new mayors for Tshwane, the West Rand, Metsweding, Mogale City, Emfuleni, Kungwini and Nokeng tsa Taemane municipalities. ”Changing a mayor is not a statement on a specific individual,” the ANC said.
A meeting between Transnet unions and Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin yielded progress on Monday after another day of national strikes crippled the transport industry. ”Erwin has agreed that government will facilitate a resolution of certain pension issues related to Metrorail,” said his spokeswoman Gaynor Kast.
Senior police officers were overpaid, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. ”It seems that President Thabo Mbeki’s 2005 State of the Nation commitment to ‘improve the salaries of members of the police service’ has largely only benefited senior police managers, including National Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi,” DA spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said.
Tsotsi director Gavin Hood and lead actor Presley Chweneyagae arrived to screams of applause in the international arrivals hall of Johannesburg International airport on Sunday. As they stood on a balcony overlooking the arrivals hall, they took turns holding up the Oscar statuette Tsotsi won for best foreign film.
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South Africa has taken a giant step towards the goal of gender equality and the emancipation of women in the recent municipal election, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. The election results show the success the African National Congress has achieved to increase the numbers of women in the municipal system, he said.
Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe said on Friday he has no reason to complain about the manner in which police searched for his murdered four-year-old granddaughter Makgabo Matlala. ”I am not in a position to comment on whether they did what they were supposed to,” Ngoepe said.
Total South Africa has decided to develop South Africa’s first ever bullfrog reserve, right behind their newly developed Petroport, north of Johannesburg, soon after it discovered the Petroport had destroyed the frogs’ breeding ground. ”Total decided to work with environmentalists in reducing the negative impacts on the frogs.”
A two-seater light aircraft made an emergency landing on the N12 highway between Lenasia and Westonaria in Gauteng, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said on Thursday. ”We know at the moment that the pilot had engine failure on approach for landing on runway 13 at Baragwanath airfield,” said a CAA accident investigator.
The four-year-old granddaughter of Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe was kidnapped in a robbery in Lenasia on Wednesday, Vaal police said. Preliminary investigations ruled out the possibility of a link between the kidnapping and the Jacob Zuma rape trial, from which Ngoepe had recused himself.
President Thabo Mbeki has opened a new museum complex at the University of the Witwatersrand to showcase the origin of mankind and bushman rock art to the public. Mbeki said the opening of the Origins Centre was timely, following soon after the inauguration of the Southern African Large Telescope and the Cradle of Humankind Maropeng Visitor’s Centre.
The SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union has threatened to make its national strike on Monday next week the launching pad of a second round of downing tools. This follows the union’s claim that Transnet, at the weekend, went ”behind labour’s backs” and signed an agreement to transfer Metrorail to the SA Rail Commuter Corporation by the end of this month.
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The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) has called for a multi-party governance system in the Western Cape after Wednesday’s local government elections. The party’s leadership made the call on Friday after no single party won an absolute majority in Cape Town, paving the way for political parties to form coalitions.
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Judge Willem van der Merwe will preside over former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s rape trial on Monday. This comes after Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe acceded to a request that he recuse himself at the start of the trial in February.
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The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) hopes to have posted 90% of the local government election results by sunset, its chairperson Brigalia Bam said on Thursday. A 47% voter turnout had been recorded by 10.45am, Bam said in a briefing at the IEC’s national operations centre in Pretoria.
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Provisional results show a 46,72% poll with just more than 14-million votes cast from a pool of 21Â 054Â 957 registered voters. The African National Congress had swept the board in the Northern Cape by 9.45am on Thursday, and the DA’s worst fear seemed to have come true in the Western Cape.
Rain hammers down on a Johannesburg night as a woman pulls up outside a suburban house, steps from her car, the engine running, and rings the bell. A man breaks cover from bushes across the street. He slides into the vehicle and begins to reverse. The woman whirls around and screams.
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The Democratic Alliance was trailing the African National Congress in most wards as municipal election results were trickling in on Thursday morning. The African National Congress had captured 14 of the 20 counted Western Cape municipalities by 8am on Thursday.
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The Democratic Alliance and the African National Congress were neck and neck in the local government election race in the Western Cape with the Independent Democrats trailing in third place on Thursday morning. Only 232 people voted for municipal ward candidates in the troubled Khutsong township in Merafong City on Wednesday.
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South Africa’s third local government election since the advent of democracy in 1994 took place in a low key and peaceful manner on Wednesday. ”The voting process has proceeded smoothly throughout the country,” the Independent Electoral Commission said in a brief statement.
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South Africans have become used to voting, a political analyst said about Wednesday’s quiet and uneventful local government elections. ”We are used to voting by now and local elections have always been ‘lower temperature’ elections than national elections,” political analyst Hennie Kotze said on Wednesday.
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A holiday atmosphere took hold of strife-torn Khutsong early on Wednesday afternoon as residents opted for soccer instead of voting. However, Khutsong voters make up only a fraction of 1% of the country’s 21-million voters and should not be concentrated on to the detriment of the others, President Thabo Mbeki said.
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Voting got off to a good start despite a few problems, including flooding, at some voting stations, the Independent Electoral Commission said on Wednesday. By 9am, 99% of voting stations were open. Police used rubber bullets to disperse youths in Khutsong and extinguished burning tyres with a water cannon.
Nelson Mandela, the country’s first democratically elected president, voted in Houghton, Johannesburg, on Wednesday.
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Khutsong community stalwart Jomo Mogale on Wednesday called for a by-election in the troubled township where residents are boycotting the local government poll. He said the few voters who had trickled in to cast their ballots were mainly candidate councillors themselves.
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Voters were streaming to polling stations in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning. In Hyde Park, parking was a battle with cars stretching up and down the streets around voting stations. A woman who refused to be named had only one request: ”Politicians should just learn to apologise and admit when they are wrong or else they will discourage people from voting for them”.
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/ 28 February 2006
The Pretoria High Court on Tuesday dismissed urgent applications by four municipalities to stop the transfer of their assets and services to other provinces. The Merafong Demarcation Forum applied to restrain government from handing over at midnight on Tuesday their assets and service duties from Gauteng to the North West province.
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/ 28 February 2006
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The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in the Western Cape is planning to conduct Wednesday’s municipal election as if there will be no power available in the province. ”We are planning for no electricity. That is the safest,” provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson told a media briefing in Bellville on Tuesday afternoon.
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/ 28 February 2006
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The Merafong municipality, which includes Khutsong, says it is pleased that elections will take place there and hopes law enforcers will protect voters during and after elections. Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi has urged voters in the Merafong municipality to vote for the party of their choice on Wednesday.