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/ 20 February 2008
Classes were still suspended at three Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) campuses on Wednesday amid meetings to resolve matters, said a university spokesperson. The university suspended all lectures on all three campuses on Tuesday following ongoing violent protests over fee hikes and academic exclusion.
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/ 19 February 2008
Classes at all the Tshwane University of Technology’s campuses were suspended amid student protests on Tuesday, authorities said. ”The decision was taken due to the prevailing atmosphere on campus and the potential for violent clashes between striking and non-striking students,” vice-chancellor Errol Tyobeka said.
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/ 19 February 2008
A Pretoria High Court judge ruled on Monday that a murderer and robber did not deserve life imprisonment because of his disadvantaged background. Acting Judge Legodi Phatudi sentenced 35-year-old Jeffrey Mogatla of Mamelodi East to 40 years imprisonment, of which he effectively has to serve about 19 years — for the murder and robbery of Mariana Bothma.
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/ 18 February 2008
The newly established Isivande Women’s Fund is a step towards reducing poverty among women, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Monday. Unveiling the fund logo to business and media at the presidential guest house in Pretoria, the deputy president said it will help mainly black woman entrepreneurs.
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/ 18 February 2008
South African schoolchildren will be taught a Bill of Responsibilities along with the Bill of Rights, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said in Pretoria on Monday. Unveiling the Bill of Responsibilities, Pandor said: ”It is to say how we exercise rights, with the understanding that rights come with responsibility.”
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/ 18 February 2008
South Africa will set up a fully fledged high commission in New-Zealand’s capital, Wellington, by next year, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Monday. Dlamini-Zuma met her visiting New Zealand counterpart, Winston Peters, at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Monday.
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/ 18 February 2008
The South African government is still deciding whether to recognise Kosovo as an independent country, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Monday. It is expected that the decision would have to be taken soon as it would again be discussed by the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday afternoon.
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/ 18 February 2008
The chance of a free and fair election in Zimbabwe is ”good” if all the agreements reached as part of the political facilitation process are implemented, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Monday. Zimbabwe is due to hold joint parliamentary and presidential elections on March 29.
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/ 14 February 2008
The Directorate of Special Operations (Scorpions) did not act improperly as suggested by the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana said on Thursday. The ANCYL lodged a complaint with his office stating that the Scorpions held an ”inappropriate” meeting.
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/ 14 February 2008
Grade progression was poorly linked to actual ability and learning among black high-school pupils, research has found. Economic Research Southern Africa’s survey found evidence of ”significant racial differences” in secondary school grade progression.
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/ 14 February 2008
The African National Congress (ANC) is subscribing to the ”big-lie” theory, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Thursday. ”The ANC subscribes to the theory that if the ”big lie” is repeated often enough, then people will believe it, and reality can be shaped by the ruling party,” the DA’s Gauteng provincial safety spokesperson, James Swart, said.
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/ 13 February 2008
The pledge the government intends having all schoolchildren recite during morning assembly is a good start, but more is needed to instil values in children, experts said on Wednesday. The proposed pledge was unveiled by Education Minister Naledi Pandor on Tuesday.
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/ 12 February 2008
A man trying to outrun police in a stolen tractor was arrested in the Eastern Cape early on Tuesday. East London police spokesperson Superintendent Mtati Tana said police were told the tractor had been stolen from a farm in the Blue Water area outside East London at about 4am.
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/ 11 February 2008
A Pretoria High Court judge ruled on Monday that Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla had failed to exercise her constitutional duties diligently over the applications of 384 prisoners for presidential pardons.
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/ 8 February 2008
Police at the Soshanguve police station, north-east of Pretoria, were unpleasantly surprised on Friday afternoon when a scrap-metal dealer brought a live mortar round into the station. ”He just walked in with the bomb, saying he was suspicious when he found it on a heap of scrap metal that he recently purchased,” said Captain Solly Marindi.
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/ 8 February 2008
The circulation figures of some magazines published by Media 24 were adjusted downwards, the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) said on Friday. This follows an audit the ABC did on all Media24 magazines after it was found that the circulation of some of the company’s women’s magazines were fraudulently inflated between April 2006 and June 2007.
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/ 8 February 2008
The Confederation of African Football and the Ghanaian local organising committee should apologise for using the old South African flag on Africa Cup of Nations posters, the Young Communist League (YCL) said on Friday. The YCL said it was ”flabbergasted” and ”despises” the posters put up in Ghana, symbolising South Africa but sporting the old flag.
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/ 8 February 2008
German arms group Rheinmetall on Friday signed an agreement with state-owned Denel, indicating its intention to take a majority equity stake in Denel Munitions. The agreement, signed in Pretoria, would see the German firm take a 51% stake in the South African munitions entity.
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/ 7 February 2008
The Young Communist League (YCL) on Thursday blamed the media for ”wittingly or unwittingly” misleading the public on comments made by South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni. The league held a teleconference with Mboweni on Thursday during which his comments about certain African National Congress members and inflation-targeting were discussed.
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/ 7 February 2008
A top Pretoria matriculant who was shot and injured during a robbery was in a stable condition in hospital on Thursday. Razelle Botha was under intensive care and more X-rays were planned for Thursday to check the damage in her spine, Ronel Leyds, spokesperson for Pretoria East Hospital said.
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/ 7 February 2008
The case of a doctor who allegedly falsified a medical certificate for Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride was postponed in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. Dr Joseph Morolong Moratioa appeared briefly in the court to hear that his case was postponed to March 12.
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/ 6 February 2008
All traffic lights at the 788 controlled intersections in Pretoria are to be retrofitted with light-emitting diodes and later backed up to solar power, the Tshwane metropolitan council said on Wednesday. This followed meetings between mayor Gwen Ramokgopa and big business outlining the council’s plans to deal with the electricity crisis.
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/ 6 February 2008
About 300 police reservists handed over a memorandum of grievances to the Presidency in Pretoria on Wednesday. The two-page memorandum called for the ”immediate and unconditional” integration of 8 000 reservists into the South African Police Service (SAPS). It also called for the remuneration of reservists.
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/ 5 February 2008
A Baviaanspoort prisoner who allegedly attacked and almost killed two nurses at the jail three years ago had acted rationally at the time of the offence, a psychiatrist told the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday. Dr Herman Pretorius told acting Judge Solly Sithole there were no signs that Thabo Masinga had suffered from psychosis.
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/ 5 February 2008
Negotiations to address Zimbabwe’s political crisis were no longer needed as it was only procedural issues that remained to be solved, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday.
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/ 5 February 2008
It is hoped that four more South Africans will be airlifted from Chad to Gabon on Tuesday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. The four South Africans were already at the French military base in Chad’s capital Ndjamena. Three other South Africans remained stranded and were still hoping to fly out of the country.
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/ 5 February 2008
A second member of an international nuclear smuggling ring, Swiss engineer Daniel Geiges, was given a suspended sentence by the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday. Judge Willie van der Merwe sentenced Geiges, who is gravely ill with cancer, to a total of 13 years’ imprisonment but suspended the sentence for five years in terms of a plea-bargain agreement.
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/ 4 February 2008
Five South Africans will be evacuated from Chad on Monday night, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. The French Military will fly the South Africans to Libreville in Gabon where they will be met by the South African ambassador to that country, Jomo Khasu.
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/ 4 February 2008
Two men have been arrested in connection with the burning of six Pretoria Metrorail trains, the South African Rail Commuter Corporation announced on Monday. Six trains were torched at the Pretoria North, Winternest, Acacia Boom and Wolmerton stations on January 18 after they had been delayed due to a power failure.
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/ 4 February 2008
Sales of new vehicles were down by 9,4% in the first month of the year to 47 296 sold compared with the 52 212 sold in January last year, the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa said on Monday. New car sales were down to 30 483, or 14,6%, in January this year compared with 35 687 sold in the same month last year.
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/ 4 February 2008
The attempted murder case against former Springbok rugby player James Dalton was struck from a Pretoria court roll on Monday. He can now only be prosecuted again for this alleged offence once the state is issued with a certificate from the National Director of Public Prosecutions.
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/ 3 February 2008
South Africa’s national Under-23 soccer team beat their Danish counterparts 2-0 at a packed Caledonian Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday. A much-improved performance by Steve Komphela’s side saw the hosts comfortably win the second game of this two-match international friendly series.