The Blue Bulls guaranteed themselves a place in the semifinals of the Vodacom Cup with their 51-7 victory over the Lions at Loftus on Friday. The Bulls scored a total of seven tries, five of which came in the first half, and led 36-7 at the interval. The hosts were first to draw blood with a Braam Gerber try in the first minute, followed by a Burton Francis penalty in the eighth minute.
A man who admitted to taking nine Pretoria News advertising staff hostage on April 25 last year was acquitted on Friday on a charge of attempted murder. Lionel George, of Danville, west of Pretoria, earlier pleaded guilty in the city’s regional court to charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and two rounds of ammunition.
A Pretoria magistrate on Friday denied bail to the security guard accused of murdering city dancer Estee van Rensburg. It also emerged on Friday that the guard, Aaron Mashishi, will go on trial in the Pretoria High Court on October 20. The 26-year-old is being charged with murder, robbery with aggravated circumstances and two counts of theft.
The top United States envoy to Africa said on Thursday that Zimbabwe’s opposition leader won his nation’s disputed presidential election and longtime President Robert Mugabe should step down. The opposition has claimed its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, beat Mugabe outright on March 29.
Dozens of Zimbabweans were arrested on Friday outside the Chinese embassy in Pretoria during a protest over a ship that attempted to offload weapons destined for Zimbabwe, police said. "A total of 129 protesters were arrested staging an illegal protest. The police asked them to disperse and they refused so, they were arrested," a police spokesperson said.
Six of the Boeremag treason trialists in C-Max prison will have to put up with warders watching them around the clock, the Pretoria High Court ruled on Thursday. Judge Charl Rabie turned down a bid by six of the 21 accused for an order to allow them to paste paper over windows in their cells.
South Africa is sticking to its target growth rate of 6% by 2010 despite a chronic power crisis and slower global growth, a government official said on Thursday. Alan Hirsch, deputy head of the policy unit in the Presidency, said the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa is unchanged.
A power cut disrupted proceedings at a briefing in Pretoria on Thursday involving possible class action against Eskom. Lights went off at the briefing hosted by trade union Solidarity shortly before 12.30pm. The briefing discussed the possibility of class action against Eskom over possible job losses as a result of the power crisis.
The Pretoria Regional Court on Thursday turned down a new application by the defence team of Ekurhuleni metro chief Robert McBride to force the state to hand over all statements made by three state witnesses, even those not relating to his drunken-driving case.
There has been a clear increase in the number of Zimbabweans trying to cross the border illegally into South Africa since the March 29 election, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Wednesday. The SANDF has three companies, which total more than 500 soldiers, patrolling the border in support of police border operations.
The man who held several Pretoria News employees hostage last year on Tuesday pleaded guilty to 11 of the charges against him. However, he pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempting to kill police Constable David Bapela when he allegedly shot him in the lower leg.
South Africa is honouring her for helping it overcome the legacy of apartheid, but Linda Biehl says she is simply doing what any parent would after the death of a child: trying to find meaning in loss. She was speaking on the eve of a ceremony at which President Thabo Mbeki is to grant her one of the country’s highest honours.
Cold and stormy weather that hit the Eastern Cape on the weekend has claimed three lives so far, police said on Monday. Two men apparently died from the cold near Mthatha on Sunday, while a woman was killed in a storm in the province’s Ngcobo area. By Monday afternoon, snow that had been falling over the province overnight was beginning to clear up.
The Witwatersrand director of public prosecutions will be asked to present legal arguments in the drunken-driving case of metro police chief Robert McBride on witness statements related to other cases under investigation. McBride’s case was postponed to Thursday to give his legal team a chance to serve documents on Charin de Beer.
Legal counsel for Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride on Monday asked the Pretoria Regional Court to compel the state to hand over all documents containing statements made against him. This included a statement not related to the drunken-driving case before the court.
The Pretoria Regional Court on Monday turned down an application by Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride’s legal team for the state to hand over all documents, even those not relating to his drunken-driving charge. Advocate Guido Penzhorn argued that not having the documents affected McBride’s right to adequately prepare a defence.
The case against Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, relating to drunken-driving charges, started briefly in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday before being stood down again. State prosecutors told magistrate Peet Johnson that they were ready to proceed but that McBride’s defence team wanted to bring an application.
The Bulls turned around last week’s shocking form to beat the Otago Highlanders 47-17 in the Super 14 on Saturday. Having lost 50-22 last week to the Wellington Hurricanes, the Bulls scored six tries to two against Otago at Loftus Versfeld, with fullback Zane Kirchner and winger Akona Ndungane each collecting two.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma expressed surprise at the level of poverty among white people during a tour of an informal settlement outside Pretoria on Friday. ”I did not think it was at this level,” he said as he talked with the small, poor white community living at Bethlehem.
Awards will be bestowed on a musician, a judge and a former chief of state of protocol, Billy Modise, during next week’s 11th national orders ceremony. Modise, United States musician and singer Harry Belafonte and Chief Justice Pius Langa are just some of those who will be recognised at the ceremony.
Government departments have generally continued to underspend on their budgets since 2004, the Public Service Commission said on Thursday. Meanwhile, a national government team is to be deployed to help the embattled Eastern Cape housing department fulfil its mandate.
A farmworker who escaped the gallows for murder 23 years ago faces a possible life sentence after pleading guilty in the Pretoria High Court to another charge of murder. Acting Judge Peter Mabuse convicted Amos Zulu (57), of Bapsfontein, on Tuesday of murdering his employer, Johanna Maria Erasmus (76), in February last year.
About 200 people protested outside the Zimbabwe embassy in Pretoria on Wednesday, calling for the release of presidential election results. Gabriel Shumba of the Zimbabwe Exiles’ Forum said the protest was over the delay that had followed the March 29 elections.
While anxiety due to the delay in the announcement of Zimbabwe’s presidential election results is shared, the process has not reached a dead end, the South African facilitation team said on Tuesday. ”The anxiety about the delay is certainly legitimate,” said Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi.
An early four-try scoring blitz fashioned a 50-22 Super 14 triumph for Wellington Hurricanes over title holders Northern Bulls on Saturday. ”We were shocking,” was the blunt assessment of scrumhalf and captain Fourie du Preez as the Bulls returned to their home ground after a dismal four-match Australasia tour.
A bake sale where cake prices were determined by a person’s race was broken up by the University of Pretoria’s campus security on Friday. The Freedom Front Plus student organisation, VF+TAS, said it held the sale to illustrate the unfairness of affirmative action. The organisation asked white, Indian and coloured students to pay significantly more for cake than black students.
President Thabo Mbeki is blatantly violating human rights, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) claimed in a document handed to Amnesty International on Friday. The party’s chief whip, Koos van der Merwe, handed a written complaint against Mbeki to a representative of Amnesty International in Pretoria.
President Thabo Mbeki will attend a Southern African Development Community (SADC) emergency summit this weekend in Zambia on the post-election crisis in Zimbabwe. However, Mbeki’s cherished policy of "quiet diplomacy" on Zimbabwe has been rejected by his own party.
It is possible that the crime-fighting Scorpions may not be incorporated into the South African Police Service by June, African National Congress national executive committee Siphiwe Nyanda said on Thursday. He was speaking at a seminar hosted by the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria.
A security guard accused of murdering Pretoria dancer Estée van Rensburg appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, wearing shackles around his ankles. State prosecutor Lucas Choma told the court the investigation against Aaron Mashishi (25) was almost complete.
South Africa will work with other countries in the region to ensure the will of the Zimbabwean people is reflected, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Thursday. The country has joined the chorus of international calls for Zimbabwe to release the results of its March 29 presidential election as soon as possible.
South Africa’s transport services are ”sure to improve dramatically” in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Wednesday. ”It will be a defining moment for our transport system,” he told reporters in Pretoria. The tournament will not be a world-class event if the majority of journeys by visitors are not completed efficiently, he said.