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/ 21 October 2007
Several weeks ago the Constitutional Court ruled in a landmark case on religious and cultural expression in public schools. In 2004, Sunali Pillay, then a learner at Durban Girls’ High School, pierced her nose and inserted a small gold stud. The school objected to the stud on the basis that it contravened the school’s code of conduct.
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/ 18 October 2007
The Department of Transport has adopted a plan of action to improve regional and national road integration, Jeff Radebe, the Minister of Transport, said on Thursday. Radebe was speaking at an African Union conference at KwaZulu-Natal’s Sibaya Casino and said the effort was part of the AU’s call to eliminate missing infrastructure links on roads.
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/ 18 October 2007
South Africa is being used as a destination and transit point, as well as a source, for human trafficking, the International Association of Women Judges was told at a conference in Boksburg on Thursday. Public prosecutions director advocate Thoko Majokweni said: ”Malawian women are sold by Nigerian syndicates … to Germany, Italy and Belgium, and this all happens via South Africa.”
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/ 18 October 2007
A tipper lorry driver who crashed his vehicle into a KwaZulu-Natal school on Wednesday has been arrested, police said on Thursday. KwaMashu police spokesperson Constable Siwe Nxumalo said the man faced charges of reckless and negligent driving, and drunken driving.
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/ 17 October 2007
The head of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provincial health department was officially suspended from her post on Wednesday. A statement released by the KwaZulu-Natal premier’s office said the ”cabinet endorsed the decision to suspend” the superintendent general of the department Dr Ruth Nyembezi.
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/ 14 October 2007
Following a tip-off from a member of the public, about 100Â 000 unused defective condoms were found scattered at an illegal dumping site in the Ntande area near Etafuleni in Inanda, north of Durban, on Saturday, the provincial department of agriculture and environmental affairs said.
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/ 14 October 2007
Several KwaZulu-Natal organisations were honoured for their role in heritage restoration, a conservation agency said on Saturday. Amafa Heritage KZN spokesperson Barry Marshall said the fifth annual Amafa Heritage Awards, held on Friday, were to honour everyone who had worked to protect the heritage of the province.
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/ 12 October 2007
Police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi has pledged his full cooperation with a panel of experts named on Friday to review a criminal probe against him. ”As an individual, I will fully cooperate with the members of the panel as announced … by the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority],” Selebi said in a statement.
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/ 12 October 2007
The names of the panel expected to review the case against police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi were released on Friday. The Acting National Director of Public Prosecutions, advocate Moktedi Mpshe, said the panel would be made up of Frank Dutton, advocate Mbuyiseli Madlanga, Peter Goss and advocate Shamila Batohi.
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/ 11 October 2007
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President Thabo Mbeki’s chances of staying on as leader of South Africa’s ruling party improved on Thursday when the party said the biggest share of regional votes in a leadership contest would go to his stronghold. Mbeki, barred from seeking re-election as national president in 2009, has signalled he intends to stand for a third term as African National Congress (ANC) leader.
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/ 11 October 2007
Polokwane will be a busy town come December with an expected 4Â 500 delegates, both voting and non-voting, attending the African National Congress’s (ANC) 52nd national conference. Smuts Ngonyama, head of the presidency of the ANC, on Thursday updated the media in Johannesburg on preparations for the conference.
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/ 11 October 2007
Two warring taxi organisations in the Empangeni area have been barred from operating following violent clashes over routes, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provincial minister of transport Bheki Cele announced on Thursday. ”As from midnight on Friday, not even a single taxi from the rival associations will operate, failing which they will face the full might of the law,” Cele said.
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/ 10 October 2007
Eskom has been caught napping again and has caused massive disruption to the public and the economy, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. ”Eskom has informed the public too late about load shedding and has caused massive disruptions,” said DA spokesperson on Minerals and Energy Affairs, Hendrik Schmidt.
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/ 10 October 2007
Charges against a man accused of participating in the murder of ten KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) women were withdrawn in the Umzinto Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. The state has withdrawn its charges against Zandisile Bhadla Somanikiniki (28), who resides in the Majola, Port St Johns, area but no reasons were given for the withdrawal.
Chief Justice Pius Langa steered clear on Tuesday of the controversy around Cape Judge President John Hlophe and suspended National Director of Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli. He told students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban that he knew there were many who wanted him to speak on President Thabo Mbeki’s decision to suspend Pikoli.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has apparently thrown her weight behind leading businessman Tokyo Sexwale for the African National Congress presidency. Meanwhile, audited ANC membership figures have confirmed the Eastern Cape as the party’s strongest province, media reports said on Tuesday.
Police have rejected as a hoax an email detailing how women are raped in mall toilets, Superintendent Eugene Opperman said on Tuesday. He said the email claims that women are being raped and robbed of their valuables and clothing while in mall restrooms in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
The number of deaths in police custody or as a result of police action increased by 11% compared with the same period last year, a report by the Independent Complaints Directorate revealed on Monday. A total of 698 deaths occurred between April 2006 and March 2007, compared with 621 casualties in 2005/06.
A woman has been arrested with human tissue in her possession at a Durban hospital, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Sunday. Superintendent Muzi Mngomezulu said the 33-year-old assistant nurse was caught with a baby’s umbilical cord in the hospital’s parking lot at 2.15pm.
Another decomposed body of a woman was found in the sugar-cane fields surrounding Umzinto’s Shayamoya township, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Sunday. Superintendent Zandra Hechter said the body was discovered on Saturday when police were busy with their investigations in the area.
It started off as no more than a stroll in the park for the Sharks at the Absa Stadium in Durban on Saturday. But in the end it became a struggle for the weakened KwaZulu-Natal side to overcome a determined bottom-placed Valke in their final round-robin Absa Currie Cup rugby match.
African National Congress (ANC) succession battles are unlikely to be a feature of President Thabo Mbeki’s imbizo (meeting) in the Ladysmith this weekend, according to local party bosses and analysts. Mbeki’s visit will be the first presidential imbizo in the province since allegations that certain ANC members were trying to make the province a no-go area for Mbeki.
Even with a new man at the helm in acclaimed former Platinum Stars coach Owen de Gama, the Orlando Pirates ship continued to flounder at Ellis Park on Wednesday night as the Buccaneers slumped to a 5-4 penalty shoot-out defeat against Benoni Premier United after a dramatic Telkom Knockout game finished 1-1 after extra-time.
South African police said on Wednesday they believed a serial killer was responsible for the deaths of eight women whose bodies were found dumped in sugar-cane fields on the KwaZulu-Natal. A police spokesperson for the Umzinto area said that while a forensics expert had not yet made his findings public, the most recent discovery of three bodies suggested a serial killer was at work.
Most of us barely cope with the day-to-day onslaught that technology brings. Everything is faster, but not necessarily better. The inaugural, 2007 Flux Trend Review was held in Jo’burg recently and offered delegates an opportunity to hit the pause button and get a sense of "the state we’re in" by editing out the barrage of information flung at us.
Petite Lize-Marie Retief (20) of Pretoria again rose to the occasion on the fourth and last day of finals at the Telkom South African National Short-Course Championships in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday, shattering the African and South African records for the women’s 100m butterfly.
There was still no word on whether Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) veterans would get voting rights at the upcoming African National Congress (ANC) national conference, the MK Military Veterans’ Association (MKVA) said on Tuesday. ”We are trying to get representation at the conference,” said newly elected MKVA president Kebby Maphatsoe.
Schabir Shaik, former financial adviser to Jacob Zuma, on Tuesday lost his final appeal against fraud and corruption charges and a 15-year prison sentence. Shaik’s appeal to bring new evidence was dismissed and the court ruled that his trial was not unfair.
A five-year-old boy stabbed by his father in KwaZulu-Natal’s Umlazi suburb on Sunday night died in hospital shortly after midday on Monday, Umlazi police said. The 40-year-old man told police he believed his son was ”an animal” and that he was defending himself when he attacked his son.
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/ 28 September 2007
Another two bodies have been found in the sugar-cane fields near the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) town of Umzinto, police confirmed on Friday. Spokesperson Superintendent Zandra Hechter said the bodies were discovered in the early hours of Friday morning adjacent to the Shayamoya township of Umzinto. Their identities were not known yet.
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/ 28 September 2007
AltX-listed independent power producer the Ispa Group on Friday said it intends to bring its 1 600MW combined cycle gas turbine power plant in Coega on stream as fast as possible "to meet the desperate need for power in South Africa".
The United Kingdom-based company is expected to spend more than R2-billion on the plant.
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/ 27 September 2007
Unsustainable human settlements were part of apartheid planning, the KwaZulu-Natal local government department said on Thursday at the start of a two-day housing summit in Durban. ”We can no longer romanticise about human settlements …,” said provincial minister of local government Mike Mabuyakhulu.