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/ 7 December 2007
”Unfortunate and regrettable” was how Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya on Friday described the publication of a letter in which he criticised Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota. ”I wish to state that the letter was intended for internal discussion within the African National Congress, and not for public consumption,” he said.
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/ 7 December 2007
Much still needs to be done to clean up the Home Affairs Department, Director General Mavuso Msimang said on Friday. He was reacting to the arrests of five home affairs officials and a former official at the Watloo home affairs office in Pretoria on Friday. The six were arrested following months of investigation.
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/ 7 December 2007
The Pretoria High Court has reversed a temporary ban on the book White Power: The Rise and Fall of the National Party. Judge Willie Seriti on Friday discharged an interim court order granted last month to Eugene de Kock to recall the book and stop its further publication, distribution and sale.
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/ 6 December 2007
The South African Police Service (SAPS) was not involved in reviewing the arrest warrant for its National Commissioner, Jackie Selebi, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Thursday. However, he confirmed that the warrant was indeed the subject of review.
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/ 6 December 2007
The so-called ”boot killer”, Daniel van der Walt, was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years’ imprisonment for brutally beating and strangling a frail young prospective employee. Van der Walt, a powerfully built blockman who used to work at a butchery, admitted that he had in February last year murdered petite Marlene Mauer (20).
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/ 6 December 2007
House robbery, business robbery and truck hijacking increased between April and September this year, the police announced in Pretoria on Thursday. House robbery rose by 7%, business robbery by 29,3%, and truck hijacking by 53,3%. There were 6Â 711 house robberies in the six months from April to September, up from 6Â 271 over the same period last year.
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/ 6 December 2007
President Thabo Mbeki took issue with the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) report on South Africa, which suggested that there was an unacceptably high level of violent crime in the country. This emerged when the APRM report was unceremoniously released as part of a post-Cabinet media briefing at the Union Buildings on Thursday.
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/ 5 December 2007
Hundreds of men and women, including Cabinet ministers, marched in Pretoria on Wednesday in support of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign. The crowd marched from Sammy Marks Square to the Union Buildings to hand over a memorandum calling for more to be done for gender equality.
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/ 5 December 2007
South Africa said on Wednesday it would not sign a new trade pact with the European Union until its concerns over possible "detrimental impacts" new accords could have on Africa had been addressed. "South Africa is very much opposed to the inclusion of certain trade and services clauses," Foreign Ministry Deputy Director General Gert Grobler told journalists.
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/ 5 December 2007
Africa cannot stop the European Union (EU) if it wants to discuss the issue of Zimbabwe during the weekend’s European-African summit in Lisbon, Portugal, South African Foreign Affairs Deputy-Director General Gert Grobler said on Wednesday. He said that Zimbabwe was not part of the agreed agenda.
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/ 4 December 2007
The City of Tshwane will be ready to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup spectacle, mayor Gwen Ramakgopa said on Tuesday. ”We are confident that we are on track,” she said. She was addressing journalists at a press-club briefing in Pretoria about the city’s readiness to host the event.
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/ 3 December 2007
The South African Police Service (SAPS) has declined to discuss the withdrawal of its protection services for South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande. ”It’s not something we can discuss in the public domain,” said national police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Vish Naidoo on Monday.
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/ 3 December 2007
Muziwendoda Kunene, the man caught up in the hoax-email saga, will be charged with murder, the Atteridgeville Magistrate’s Court heard on Monday. Prosecutor Simon Maluleka told the court that Kunene would be charged with the October murder of Ballito real-estate agent Lynne Hume. His eldest son is a witness in that case, Maluleka told the court.
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/ 3 December 2007
Muziwendoda Kunene, the man caught up in the hoax-email saga, had his attempted murder case postponed on Monday. Kunene appeared in the Atteridgeville Magistrate’s Court ion the morning for allegedly shooting his 24-year-old son, Msebenzi Kunene.
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/ 30 November 2007
Statistics that indicated HIV/Aids numbers were lower than previously thought was cold comfort, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Friday. Speaking in Pretoria a day before World Aids Day, Tutu said that while the country might say things had improved, it was unacceptable that 600 people died of Aids everyday in South Africa.
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/ 30 November 2007
President Thabo Mbeki will receive an African Union report into the country’s governance standards on Wednesday next week, the Ministry of Public Service and Administration said on Friday. Mbeki had to postpone a handover ceremony at his office on Thursday because of other urgent government matters.
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/ 29 November 2007
The handover of a controversial report drawn up by an African Union watchdog into standards of governance in South Africa was postponed indefinitely on Thursday, officials said. President Thabo Mbeki was expected to have received the African Peer Review Mechanism report at a ceremony in Pretoria to which journalists had been invited.
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/ 29 November 2007
Almost 80% of South African pupils do not develop basic reading skills by the time they reach grade five, a new international study released on Thursday shows. The Progress in International Reading Literacy study was conducted in 40 countries and carried out locally by the University of Pretoria.
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/ 29 November 2007
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A ”final briefing” on whether African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma would have to face new corruption charges would be given to the acting National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) on Thursday. The National Prosecuting Authority said in a statement that the prosecution team was due to brief Mokotedi Mpshe on the case.
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/ 28 November 2007
Former spy boss Billy Masetlha was on Wednesday found not to have contravened the Intelligence Oversight Act by the Hatfield Community Court in Pretoria. His acquittal on charges of withholding information from Inspector General of Intelligence Zolile Ngcakani was greeted by loud applause from the public gallery.
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/ 27 November 2007
Tertiary institutions do not have the capacity to enrol an estimated 100 000 extra students by 2015, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said on Tuesday. ”We need to look at the carrying capacity and whether it should not be considered for expansion to take on more young people,” Pandor said.
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/ 27 November 2007
The trial of the Swiss design engineer Daniel Geiges, who was allegedly part of an international nuclear smuggling ring, was postponed on Tuesday because he was too ill to stand trial. The Pretoria High Court was earlier told that Geiges (69) had been diagnosed with cancer of the rectum and was undergoing ”severe treatment”.
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/ 27 November 2007
South African third-quarter growth rose to an annualised 4,7%, beating forecasts and backing the case for another interest-rate hike. Statistics South Africa on Tuesday said the annualised quarter-on-quarter growth in real gross domestic product (GDP) has increased to 4,7%, compared with a downwardly revised 4,4% in the second quarter of 2007.
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/ 27 November 2007
After a decade-long struggle in the courts, Richtersvelders will on Saturday celebrate the return of their land in a handing over ceremony in Alexander Bay. Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin and Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana will hand over to the community the deeds to 194 600ha of land.
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/ 26 November 2007
Former Springbok hooker James Dalton and his wife, Andrea, who are involved in a bitter divorce battle, reached an interim settlement on Monday. The couple made headlines when Andrea Dalton (49) launched an urgent court application for a protection order against James (35), who she claimed physically and mentally abused her.
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/ 26 November 2007
Police have defended National Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s undertaking that crime would not mar the past weekend’s World Cup qualifying draw in Durban. ”The commissioner was 100% correct in that he was talking about what the police could be responsible for,” said national police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Vish Naidoo on Monday.
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/ 21 November 2007
The Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled that the Road Accident Fund treat women in customary marriages claiming support the same as those married under the Marriage Act (civil marriage). The director of the Women’s Legal Centre, Jennifer Williams, said on Wednesday the ruling was a victory for women married in terms of customary law.
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/ 21 November 2007
South Africa was experiencing a possible decline of new HIV infections, Health Director General Thami Mseleku said on Wednesday. Speaking on the same day as the release of a United Nations report stating that South Africa had the highest prevalence of HIV in the world, Mseleku said there were signs that there was a turnaround in the number of new infections.
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/ 21 November 2007
South Africa’s land restitution is a big success story, acting director general of land affairs Tozi Gwanya said on Wednesday. Five thousand claims out of the 79 696 lodged still needed to be settled, of which about a third would not be concluded before next year’s deadline for completion, Gwanya said at a media briefing.
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/ 20 November 2007
South Africa’s transport sector faces a ”huge challenge” in reducing HIV infections, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Tuesday. Opening a two-day national policy dialogue on HIV and Aids in the transport sector, Radebe said the negative developments of HIV and Aids in the sector could not be allowed to gain momentum.
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/ 20 November 2007
Projected costs for South Africa’s preparations to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup could be up to 20% higher due to factors such as rising steel and cement prices, Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi said on Tuesday. Officials in the host cities have delivered cost escalations between R2,8-billion and R3,4-billion above budget.
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/ 20 November 2007
The hearing of germ-warfare expert Wouter Basson has been postponed until September next year, after prosecutors on Tuesday said they were embarrassed by the testimony of their own expert witness. Basson on Monday pleaded not guilty to six charges brought against him at the Health Professions Council of South Africa.