Documents discovered in the possession of Boeremag treason-trial escapees Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws describe a plot to kill ”treacherous whites”, the Pretoria High Court heard on Friday. Captain Sietze Albertse testified that the documents were found in a townhouse in Centurion where Van Rooyen and Gouws were recaptured in January.
The Freedom Park Trust handed over the remains of four former freedom fighters to their families in Pretoria on Friday, 20 years after their deaths. Harold Sefolo, Andrew Makupe, Jackson Maake and Justice Mbizana, who were suspected of being internal Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) members, were tortured and killed by apartheid-era police in 1987.
The South African media are covering the events in Zimbabwe with ”too much sensationalism”, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Friday. ”There has been a tendency on many of these occasions to make generalised statements without checking the facts,” Pahad said.
South Africa’s proposed amendments to a draft United Nations resolution on Iran sanctions were designed to open discussion not scuttle an agreement forged by major powers, a senior official said on Friday. ”It is not written in stone. It is a negotiating position,” Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said in a briefing.
South Africa, a key contributor to the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), expressed deep concern on Friday about renewed violence in that country and called for a ceasefire. ”The South African government appeals to all forces in the DRC to immediately stop fighting” and take part in negotiations, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said.
A complete meltdown in troubled Zimbabwe appears inevitable, neighbouring South Africa said on Friday while rejecting rising international calls to condemn President Robert Mugabe’s regime. "It is difficult to see how a total meltdown won’t take place," South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told reporters in Pretoria.
A R370-million asset-seizure order — one of the largest ever — against a tobacco mogul and his co-accused was confirmed in the Pretoria High Court on Thursday. Judge Willie van der Merwe confirmed a provisional restraining order against the assets of tobacco millionaire Hendrik Delport and his 12 co-accused.
South Africa’s current-account deficit swelled to 7,8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2006 on a surge of oil imports and higher service payments, the central bank said on Thursday. The shortfall widened from a revised 5,7% in the third quarter and 6,1% in the second quarter, bringing the deficit for the year to 6,4% of GDP, the highest yearly gap since 1981.
Household debt relative to disposable income reached a new high of 73,75% in the fourth quarter of 2006, the South African Reserve Bank said in its quarterly bulletin released on Thursday. The gross savings ratio as percentage of gross domestic product declined to 1,5% in 2006 from 1,75% percent in 2005.
The deterioration of South Africa’s national savings ratio to 13,75% of gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2006 has brought the annual savings ratio to an historic low of 14% in 2006, South African Reserve Bank (SARB) data showed on Thursday.
A Pretoria High Court judge issued a strong warning on Tuesday against media reporting that could defeat the ends of justice. Judge Ronnie Bosielo said a possible travesty of justice could have resulted from the way the arrest and first court appearance of serial rapist Simon Malatji was reported.
Newspaper reports suggesting something untoward in a deal between Russian companies and the African National Congress-aligned Chancellor House firm are nonsense, the ANC said on Tuesday. ”It is a deal between private companies that has nothing to do with government or the ANC,” said ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama, adding that he did not want to comment on it.
An eight-year-old boy who nearly drowned when his arm was stuck for more than two hours in an intake pipe in a public swimming pool in Pretoria has died, paramedics said on Monday. Halaletsang Nkome was swimming at the Danville municipal pool in Pretoria when his arm was sucked into the pipe on Sunday afternoon.
South Africa is looking to Russia to acquire nuclear and space technology, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Monday. Mlambo-Ngcuka said the trade between the two countries could be ”much better”, naming vehicle and chemical exports as areas that could improve drastically.
Shopkeepers in Pretoria’s city centre barricaded their stores on Friday as a few thousand protesting students, demanding free education, marched to Pretoria Station after handing over a memorandum to education officials. The students belonged to the Congress of South African Students.
The kidnapping and murder case against Andrew Jordaan, accused of murdering seven-year-old Sheldean Human, was again postponed in the Pretoria Regional Court on Friday. Jordaan, wearing black jeans and a purple jacket, was surrounded by heavily armed police officers while standing in the dock.
South Africa needs to step up its development of people working in the field of nuclear energy and technology, Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena said on Thursday at the opening of the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy conference at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, Gauteng.
Police were asked to have another look at the charge of reckless driving against Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said. On Thursday, Beeld reported that the NPA had asked police to clear up a few points.
Muslims in South Africa could be incorrectly suspected of being involved terrorism due to comments by intelligence officials that the country has become a haven for terrorists, Muslim organisations warned on Wednesday.
South African intelligence agencies are concerned that people involved in international terrorism are spending time in the country, an intelligence official said on Tuesday. Barry Gilder, coordinator of the National Intelligence Coordinating Committee, said that agents are watching certain individuals and organisations who might be involved in international terrorism.
Murdered seven-year-old Sheldean Human should not be forgotten, and her death should be used as an instrument for ”change in our communities”, mourners said at a memorial service in Pretoria on Tuesday. Sheldean, a grade two pupil at Laerskool Tuinrand, was found murdered on March 5 after she went missing from her Pretoria Gardens home on February 18.
The child-sex trial of Cezanne Visser, alias advocate Barbie, was postponed on Tuesday because the judge is ill. Judge Essop Patel was recently released from hospital where he was treated for cancer. He started presiding over the case in the Pretoria High Court about two years ago.
The community survey carried out in February yielded a 95,3% response, which is the highest of any survey conducted by Statistics South Africa, deputy director general Kefiloe Masiteng said on Tuesday. Data collected from the 274 344 homes surveyed around the country will now be processed in time for the results to be released at the end of this year.
Public impressions of corruption and the actual size of the problem are hugely different, a study presented at the National Anti-Corruption Forum in Pretoria on Monday shows. While bribes occurred at only 11,5% of the private-sector companies surveyed, 74% believed there was corruption.
Trust in police in Africa’s economic powerhouse is near the lowest on the continent, a researcher said on Friday. Experts at a seminar on crime and public perception said the lack of trust resulted from a failure of leadership and communication in the police force, coupled with a spike in some crimes last year — despite overall decreases.
Several hundred protesters dressed in pink tops and jeans in sympathy with the family of murdered seven-year-old Sheldean Human dispersed peacefully from outside the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Earlier in the day, the case of the man suspected of murdering the girl was postponed in the court.
Video footage showing South Africa’s best-loved rugby players naked, tired, scared and embarrassed violates their right to privacy and dignity and is not for public viewing, the Pretoria High Court ruled on Friday. Judge Pierre Rabie interdicted the organisers of the infamous 2003 Springbok boot camp, Kamp Staaldraad, from publishing or distributing a DVD about the camp.
There will be no overspending on the R8,4-billion budgeted for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Deputy Sport Minister Gert Oosthuizen said on Thursday. ”We’ll be in on R8,4-billion,” he said at a media briefing following a two-day workshop on the 2010 World Cup African Legacy programmes.
The levels of physical and sexual abuse experienced by South African women and children are unacceptably high and unfortunately still growing, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Thursday. She was speaking at the Union Buildings in Pretoria at the launch of the 365 Days national action plan to fight and eradicate gender-based violence.
Students at the University of Pretoria’s Mamelodi campus were prevented from attending classes on Tuesday by fellow students who were protesting, university authorities said. Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania president Sebei Mametlwe denied, however, that anyone had been prevented from attending class.
South African high jumper Jacques Freitag and his training partner, Zeegfriedt Veenemans, will have to attend a diversion programme before charges of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm can be withdrawn against them. The two men appeared in the Hatfield Community Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
Hosting a memorable Soccer World Cup might just banish Afro-pessimism, Sport Minister Makhenkesi Stofile said on Tuesday. He said the improvement of football management would go a long way in improving Africa’s image. ”For as long as we are perceived as this corrupt people who cannot manage anything … this Afro-pessimism will not go away,” he said.