Pretoria

A district surgeon has recommended that the man who allegedly held eight staff members of the Pretoria News daily newspaper hostage for several hours be evaluated by a psychiatrist. The surgeon’s report was handed in to the Pretoria Regional Court where Lionel George (32) of Danville appeared on Wednesday.

The government is seeking to change behaviour with the relaunch of its Khomanani HIV/Aids communication campaign, a senior health official said on Wednesday. This is how the success of the campaign will be measured, director general of the Health Department Thami Mseleku told reporters in Pretoria.

Motorists issued with traffic fines because the country’s new electronic national traffic information system (eNaTIS) was offline may have them cancelled, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Tuesday. Radebe apologised ”unreservedly” for the inconvenience the implementation of eNaTIS had caused.

Research is being done to determine the extent of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in South Africa, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya said on Tuesday. He was briefing reporters about the work of the government’s social cluster of departments — those of health, social development, housing, water affairs and forestry and education — in Pretoria.

A former law student who bludgeoned his friend to death with a dumbbell and cut off his genitals had acted with the direct intent to kill and was guilty of murder, a Pretoria High Court judge found on Tuesday. Lebogang Frank Mohlakoana (23) was convicted on charges of murder and attempting to steal the car of his friend in 2005.

Ghanaian President and current African Union chairperson John Agyekum Kufuor on Tuesday rubbished reports that the AU would be sending additional peacekeeping troops to Somalia. ”I never said immediately; I said the AU wants to send 8 000 peacekeepers as soon as possible, but we are having trouble finding the troops,” Kufuor said.

There should be concern about the crisis in Zimbabwe, Ghana’s President and current chairperson of the African Union, John Agyekum Kufuor, said on Tuesday. He was speaking shortly after arriving at the Union Buildings in Pretoria where the Zimbabwean issue was high on the agenda of talks between himself and President Thabo Mbeki.

Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride received his BTech degree in policing from the Tshwane University of Technology on Friday. ”I work hard, I study hard. I’m really committed to everything I do, so I gave it a good shot,” said McBride, who was also the best performer during the course.

The Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court has withdrawn charges of fraud and theft against former Scorpions director Ayanda Dlodlo, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Friday. ”I am very excited, but at the same time I am very angry because I knew from the onset that they did not have a case against me,” she told the broadcaster.

The government has asked the public to be patient while the problems with the new electronic National Traffic Information System (eNaTIS) are being worked out. Transport Minister Jeff Radebe briefed the Cabinet about the problems following the introduction of eNaTIS last month, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said at a post-Cabinet meeting media briefing on Thursday.

Judgement was reserved in an application by the state for a blanket media ban on the trial of two foreign businessmen accused of involvement in an international nuclear-smuggling ring in the late 1990s. Judge Joop Labuschagne reserved judgement on the heatedly debated application, which pitted two of South Africa’s foremost senior advocates against each other.

South Africa’s soap-opera wars were pushed aside as actors from opposing television soaps 7de Laan and Binnelanders took hands in an anti-crime march to the government’s Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday. They were joined by actors from various stage plays, artists and singers.

The man accused of holding advertising staff of the Pretoria News newspaper hostage last week will be evaluated by a district surgeon for a possible referral for psychiatric evaluation. Lionel George (32), of Danville, west of Pretoria, was arrested on April 25 after a hostage drama that lasted nearly four hours.

The Afrikanerbond has condemned a Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) Freedom Day message suggesting that farm workers are being abused and murdered. ”To accuse farm owners that their workers are being treated like slaves and that workers are being abused and even murdered is extremely irresponsible,” it said.

The Bulls kept up their hunt for a semifinal place with a massive 40-19 win over the Blues at Loftus Versfeld on Friday. Overcoming a bad start, they rallied back to take the lead before half-time and then showed tenacity to keep the Blues attack frustrated for most of the game.

The man who held eight people hostage and wounded a police officer at the Pretoria News building will appear in court on Monday on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping and possession of an unlicensed firearm, police said.

The Pretoria News will definitely be published and be on the streets on time on Thursday, said acting editor Zingisa Mkhuma on Wednesday night following a hostage drama during which eight newspaper advertising staff were taken hostage and a police officer was shot and injured.

A man who took at least nine people hostage at a Pretoria newspaper and wounded a police officer on Wednesday afternoon told them he was ”sick of crime”, said witnesses. By 5.30pm, the man was still in the building with at least one hostage. Police said the hostage-taker had fired a shot, wounding a police officer.

Andrew Jordaan, the man accused of murdering seven-year-old Sheldean Human, appeared briefly in the Pretoria Regional Court on Wednesday, where his case was transferred to the Pretoria High Court for trial. His trial at the high court will start on August 2. Along with the murder charge, Jordaan now faces charges of kidnapping, rape and possession of dagga.

The United Nations’s chief housing watchdog called on Tuesday for a halt to forced evictions in South Africa, saying people were being left homeless in breach of the country’s Constitution. ”I am calling for a moratorium on evictions across the country until policy is brought in line with constitutional provisions,” Miloon Kothari, special rapporteur on adequate housing, said.

The chairperson of the Commission on Gender Equality, Joyce Piliso Seroke, said it was significant to receive a National Order for her contribution to the struggle against gender oppression in the same building on which women once marched to demand their rights. She was one of 24 recipients who received the country’s highest honours.

Annanias Mathe, the C-Max prison escapee, was brought to the Pretoria Regional Court in a wheelchair for a brief appearance there on Tuesday. Mathe, who was arrested in December after he escaped from C-Max prison the previous month, was still wearing shackles and handcuffs in his wheelchair.

South Africa’s Cabinet has urged Zimbabwe’s government and opposition to stop pointing fingers at each other in public. ”We are aware, as we move closer and closer to getting negotiations on track, chances are that both parties would be making all kind of statements about and against each other,” said government spokesperson Themba Maseko.

Singaporean President Sellapan Ramanathan again pushed for a free-trade agreement between his country and South Africa during discussions with President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria on Thursday. ”As South Africa we indeed want this free-trade agreement,” Mbeki answered, but said the issue was still being discussed in the Southern Africa Customs Union.