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Jacob Zuma was told by a lawyer not to say in a statement to police he had sex with the woman who accuses him of rape, the Johannesburg High Court heard on Monday. He testified that his lawyer Michael Hulley had told him instead to write in the statement ”after we shared each other’s company privately”.
Vehicles allocated by the KwaZulu-Natal government to Zulu royal households are not fit for queens, according to Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini. South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Monday that the Zulu monarch complained that the provincial government is not giving the monarchy the necessary support.
The fire in which 12 people died in Johannesburg’s CBD last week has highlighted the dangers faced daily by residents of the city’s numerous condemned buildings, who live without electricity or sanitation and are forced to cook on primus stoves and open fires.
Reasons given by Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi for Matatiele’s incorporation into the Eastern Cape from KwaZulu-Natal were wrong, the Constitutional Court heard on Thursday. ”The minister’s facts are wrong geographically, ethnically, culturally … And his wrong facts are compounded by the fact that nobody has spoken to these people,” said lawyer Alastair Dickson.
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The Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday denied former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s application to be discharged on a rape count. Judge Willem van der Merwe said he could not agree that evidence led by the state was of such a poor quality that it could not be accepted. ”The accused is not entitled to his discharge,” he said.
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The medical report of Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser contained no proof of rape, his lawyer Kemp J Kemp told the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday. ”She reported the incident in terms which clearly did not describe it as rape,” Kemp submitted in final argument during his application for his client’s discharge.
Vitamin salesman Matthias Rath has dropped his defamation claims against the South African Press Association (Sapa) and other media organisations. However, he was still suing the Democratic Alliance, its leader Tony Leon, its health spokesperson Diane Kohler-Barnard, and African National Congress MP Kader Asmal, said his lawyer.
The government plans to improve staff and management of tuberculosis (TB) services and to improve access to laboratory services where it is poor. This forms part of the TB crisis plan launched by Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Friday, World Tuberculosis Day, at Durban’s King George V hospital.
Phil Naledi has changed the lives of residents along a leafy street in the north-eastern Johannesburg suburb of Sydenham. He earns R900 a month for guarding the houses in the relatively affluent suburb, working 12-hour shifts. ”No one can make a life if they spend so much time working for this little money,” he explains.
Police were keeping an eye on striking private security guards in the Johannesburg city centre on Friday. About 100 guards had gathered at Beyers Naude Square by 9am, police said. In other centres, striking security workers were also expected to march in support of their demands for better wages and working conditions.
Protesting security guards in Pretoria began to disperse on Thursday afternoon after their strike turned violent earlier, with a security vehicle set alight and rubbish strewn in the inner city. At one stage police fired rubber bullets at the protesting guards in an effort to calm the situation.
Police fired rubber bullets at protesting guards after they apparently set alight a security van in Pretoria on Thursday afternoon. Guards made their way to Church Square, trashing rubbish bins and causing havoc in the city centre. Shops were also set alight. The violence came on the first day of a security-guard strike in seven provinces.
Security-guard employers were reporting little absenteeism in Johannesburg and the East and West Rand on Thursday, the first day of a two-day security-industry strike in six provinces. In the Cape and Pretoria, however, some companies experienced 80% absenteeism, and cases of intimidation were reported.
An estimated 90 000 security guards from 13 unions will strike for two days from Thursday, South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) security industry coordinator Jackson Simon said on Thursday. The figure is down from the 150 000 mooted on Wednesday.
Photographs of the gruesome scene where a Soweto woman died in an explosion allegedly forming part of the Boeremag’s violent coup plot were shown to the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday. Colour photos of the scene where Claudia Mokone died on October 29 2002 formed part of a bundle of photos handed in by the state.
Calls for abortion laws across Africa to be revised have dominated the first days of a meeting in Ethiopia — the Regional Consultation on Unsafe Abortion in Africa. More than 140 researchers, key government officials and health practitioners from 16 African countries have gathered in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
Thirteen security guard unions will embark on a two-day strike in six provinces on Thursday and Friday, in support of higher wages and better working conditions — including the right to lunch breaks and using a toilet without being charged for deserting a position of duty.
KwaZulu-Natal arts, culture and tourism provincial minister Narend Singh resigned on Tuesday amid a scandal over a DVD allegedly depicting sex between him and a married Durban socialite. ”Continued negative exposure in the media in recent days has put me under a strain that in my opinion goes beyond the call of duty,” he said.
”As I write this, I’m sitting in Centane, a rural town in the Eastern Cape and a world apart from my office in Houghton, Johannesburg. Centane, along with Butterworth and Ngqamakwe, forms part of the Mnquma local municipality — home to about 300 000 people,” writes Gloria Serobe, CEO of Wiphold.
A decision not to prosecute the maker of a herbal medication said to cure Aids will be referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in KwaZulu-Natal, the Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday. A Pinetown public prosecutor decided not to prosecute Zeblon Gwala, who makes and sells a herbal concoction said to cure HIV/Aids.
The regional leadership structure of the African National Congress in the Greater Pietermaritzburg region has been dissolved, the party said on Tuesday. The ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal secretary, Senzo Mchunu, said in a statement that the decision was taken after an intensive assessment of the regional leadership’s state.
A KwaZulu-Natal provincial minister, Narend Singh, has been granted 10 days’ leave after reports of a sex DVD — in which he was shown — appeared in weekend newspapers. Singh’s spokesperson Keshika Singh said on Monday he had requested a leave of absence from KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele.
Chatsworth residents say they ”don’t feel safe” any more and are ruled by fear because of the recent wave of robberies and violent crimes in the area. According to the police, Chatsworth has been experiencing an alarming number of robberies in the past three weeks and residents are now fed up.
Pietermaritzburg is heading in the same direction as Cape Town with the possibility of ongoing power failures — only this time it is not Eskom to blame, but the city’s own internal system, the Witness website reported on Monday. The KwaZulu-Natal provincial capital has an electricity department ”with hardly any electricians”.
Steamy footage of KwaZulu-Natal Tourism MEC Narend Singh with a married Durban socialite was not in the public interest, Singh said in a statement on Sunday. ”I am most concerned by the recent publications in the media involving myself which relates to a personal and private matter, and in respect of which I have not waived any of my rights to privacy.
Research on a traditional medicine claimed to treat HIV/Aids at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has not found any benefit for Aids patients. ”The university has not conducted any clinical trial research on patients with Ubhejane and refutes claims that research at the university has found any benefit for Aids patients” said Professor Nceba Gqaleni, UKZN’s head of traditional medicines research.
A DVD purporting to show a married KwaZulu-Natal politician in a compromising position with an attractive young woman has reared its head, the Daily News reported on Friday. Its website said the DVD is being widely distributed in certain areas of the province.
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The state will use a one-week adjournment to mull over developments in axed deputy president Jacob Zuma’s rape trial and decide how to proceed. Outside the court, Zuma’s supporters huddled together on Thursday as this was explained to them through a megaphone.
Global positioning systems units in South Africa are retailing for twice as much as they sell for in the United States, bringing into question the markup on the latest technologies that are imported into South Africa. A Garmin E-trex Yellow GPS unit retails in the US for about $100 (R617).
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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”.
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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.