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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.
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/ 1 February 2008
Value-Added Tax (VAT) registration would be easier from this month, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on Friday. Sars said the new VAT-registration process reduced the paperwork required for registration and provided for the instant issuing of VAT registration numbers over the counter at Sars branches.
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/ 1 February 2008
The Department of Health has introduced a new anti-tetanus vaccine for children, it was announced on Friday. The department’s Fidel Hadebe said the vaccine was introduced to clinics and hospitals as of February 1. ”Diftavax Td is to be administered to children at the age of six and 12 years.”
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/ 31 January 2008
Press photographers were again barred from attending a press conference where South African Reserve Bank (SARB) Governor Tito Mboweni announced the latest repo-rate decision on Thursday. It is the second time that photographers have been barred from taking pictures of Mboweni at the SARB press conference.
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/ 31 January 2008
It will likely be a short first appearance for police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi in the Randburg Regional Court on Friday, a member of his legal team said. Selebi would be present at the court but it was likely that his case was going to be postponed, advocate Fanus Coetzee said on Thursday.
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/ 31 January 2008
A one-month delay to consider a new United Nations Security Council draft resolution that would punish Iran for moving ahead with its nuclear programme would not be a disaster, a South African official said on Thursday. The Security Council’s five permanent members, along with Germany, have circulated a draft that would toughen existing sanctions on Iran.
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/ 31 January 2008
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe may have dealt a fatal blow to Pretoria’s "quiet diplomacy" by calling an election in the middle of mediation efforts by his South African counterpart, say analysts. President Mbeki was handed the poisoned chalice of mediating between Mugabe and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change last April.
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/ 30 January 2008
Trade union Solidarity on Wednesday demanded that the Department of Labour publish a detailed report about an explosion at Sasol in which 10 people were killed. ”Solidarity demands publication about the 2004 Sasol explosion within 48 hours,” said union spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans.
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/ 30 January 2008
The African National Congress’s (ANC) drive to close the Scorpions is ”myopic and dangerous”, political analyst Professor Adam Habib said on Wednesday. Speaking at the University of Pretoria’s African Dialogue Lecture series, both Habib and fellow academic and analyst Professor Stephen Friedman said the move sent out the wrong signals.
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/ 30 January 2008
The Pretoria High Court refused bail on Wednesday to one of the accused in the Boeremag treason trial, Kobus Pretorius. Pretorius (34), whose father and brother are on trial with him along with 17 other accused on 42 charges including high treason, terrorism and murder, said he had experienced a religious conversion while in jail.
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/ 29 January 2008
South Africa believes that no political ambition could justify the current cycle of violence in Kenya, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. Speaking at the Union Buildings, Pahad called on Kenyan political parties to rise above ”narrow political interests” and settle the conflict through dialogue.
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/ 29 January 2008
The mandate of about 1 000 South African soldiers deployed in Burundi under an African Union mandate is to be extended as efforts to get the last remaining rebel group to re-join the peace process gain momentum, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday.
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/ 28 January 2008
President Thabo Mbeki has taken opposition leader Helen Zille into his confidence on the case of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi and on other contentious issues, she said on Monday. She met Mbeki at the Union Buildings in Pretoria for talks that lasted for longer than two hours.
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/ 28 January 2008
A protest held by the Biafra National Congress outside the Nigerian high commission in Pretoria on Monday called for the for ”immediate and unconditional” release of Ralph Uwazuruike, leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra. This was in addition to a call for recognition of the independent state of Biafra.
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/ 28 January 2008
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille arrived for a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki at the Union Buildings just before 2pm on Monday. The electricity supply crisis, the indictment of African National Congress president Jacob Zuma and the prosecution of police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi were some of the agenda points for the talks.
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/ 25 January 2008
Boeremag accused Kobus Pretorius was a changed man after ”meeting Christ” while being held in jail, the Pretoria High Court heard on Friday. Counsel for Pretorius, Annelie Van der Walt, argued before Judge Khami Makhafola that Pretorius should be released on bail so that he could become involved in church and school activities.
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/ 25 January 2008
Switch off your lights is what the government is urging South Africans to do to immediately address what it calls a ”national electricity emergency”. On Friday, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin and Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica outlined several plans to alleviate the country’s electricity shortage.
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/ 25 January 2008
Long queues of vehicles at traffic lights knocked out by power cuts may soon be a thing of the past. ”All traffic lights and public lights will be converted to solar power, with battery back-up,” Minerals and Energy Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said in Pretoria on Friday.
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/ 25 January 2008
Investigations into the incident at the South African Army Combat Training Centre in Lohatla in which nine soldiers were killed have revealed that the tragedy was caused by a mechanical failure, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Friday. The nine soldiers died when a 35mm Oerlikon GDF MK-5 gun malfunctioned at the training centre on October 12 last year.
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/ 24 January 2008
President Thabo Mbeki congratulated the country’s top matric students of 2007 — 18 pupils from the nine provinces — at the presidential guest house in Pretoria on Thursday. The pupils had received scholarships through the Thabo Mbeki Matric Merit Awards programme, which is administered by the Thabo Mbeki Education Trust.
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/ 24 January 2008
HIV/Aids prevalence in the private security industry is at 15,9% and in the legal services industry it is at 13,8%, a study compiled by the Human Sciences Research Council has shown. Research was carried out among 2Â 787 participants from private security services in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
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/ 24 January 2008
The government is expected to outline its plans to deal with the country’s electricity crisis on Friday. Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica and Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin have called a media briefing for Friday on ”plans for electricity generation in South Africa”.
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/ 24 January 2008
South Africa will have a second opportunity this year to head the United Nations Security Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday. South Africa, a non-permanent member of the 15-nation Security Council, will take over the presidency of the UN-decision making body in April again.
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/ 24 January 2008
A multi-disciplinary team of international counter-terrorism experts will visit South Africa later this year, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday. The United Nations Security Council’s counter-terrorism executive directorate will assess South Africa’s counter-terrorism efforts during a visit this year.
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/ 23 January 2008
The Tshwane metropolitan council has activated its disaster operations centre as several parts of Pretoria experienced flooding due to heavy rains in the city. ”The centre operates 24 hours a day and includes emergency services and other personnel who will monitor the situation,” council spokesperson Console Tleane said on Wednesday.
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/ 23 January 2008
Treason trial accused Kobus Pretorius was a danger to society and would commit further acts of violence if released on bail, the chief investigating officer told the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday. Pretorius this week, for the first time since his arrest in December 2002, applied for bail.
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/ 23 January 2008
The South African Rail Commuter Corporation will reintroduce trains on the Mabopane-Pretoria and De Welt-Pretoria lines in two weeks’ time, it announced on Wednesday. Six Metrorail motor coaches and 18 trailer coaches were destroyed last Friday after they were torched by angry commuters at four stations.
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/ 22 January 2008
The mother of three of the Boeremag treason-trial accused, whose husband is also on trial, on Tuesday told the Pretoria High Court she knew nothing about evidence that one of her sons had built a bomb to kill former president Nelson Mandela. Minnie Pretorius testified in the bail application of her son, Kobus.
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/ 22 January 2008
The government will look at ways in which members of the Scorpions performing police functions can be absorbed into the police, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. The African National Congress has decided that such members of the Directorate of Special Operations should be absorbed into the South African Police Service.
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/ 22 January 2008
South Africa’s government said on Tuesday it remained firmly under the control of President Thabo Mbeki, dismissing concerns that his defeat in the battle to lead the party had made him a lame duck. Mbeki lost control of the African National Congress last month when delegates chose Jacob Zuma as the party’s new leader.
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/ 22 January 2008
The Cabinet has cracked down on departments that persistently receive poor audit reports and given them six weeks to sort out their problems. Briefing the media on Tuesday, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said the Cabinet had noted the Auditor General’s report on the audit outcomes of national and provincial government departments.