Pretoria

The Turkish foreign ministry has advised the South African diplomatic mission that two South Africans died in a gas pipeline explosion at Izmik on Thursday. The mission was in the process of verifying the nationalities of the two deceased, ”with a view to advising the next of kin of these unfortunate developments”.

It is not his duty or task to play director in deciding if the now-infamous Kamp Staaldraad DVD should be changed and then released, a high court Judge said on Thursday. Judge Pierre Rabie said possible cuts to the DVD, suggested in argument by legal counsel for former Springbok security consultant Adriaan Heijns and Jan Steyn, are a matter for debate and negotiation between them and the players.

South Africa is in danger of becoming an African country where its citizens cannot speak, read or write African languages, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Thursday. Speaking at the official opening of the University of South Africa’s academic year, Mlambo-Ngcuka pleaded that students should be able to study in African languages.

Cape Town mayor Helen Zille has been voted Newsmaker of the Year for 2006 by the National Press Club, Pretoria. Zille had regularly made the headlines, press club chairperson Patrick Hlahla said on Wednesday. ”Following the municipal elections in March, she eventually became mayor after deals with smaller political parties,” he said.

South Africa has been informed that more South Africans are to be listed on the United Nations Security Council list of terror suspects, Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad said on Wednesday. Pahad did not say which UN member country was planning the listing, when it would be done or how many South Africans would be listed.

Syria is hoping that South Africa can help it with key problems in the Middle East, its Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Faisal Mikdad, said on Wednesday. Mikdad has been sent to South Africa as a special envoy of Syrian President Bashar al-Asad to deliver a letter to President Thabo Mbeki highlighting problems in the Middle East.

The case of Annanias Mathe, the man who escaped from the top-security C-Max prison, was postponed to February 15 in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Mathe, who was still limping, had no legal representation as the court had not yet provided a Portuguese lawyer that he requested for translation.

A joint committee has been set up to further discuss whether names of South African Defence Force (SADF) soldiers killed in the apartheid era should be included on the wall of names in Freedom Park. On the agenda will be defining what the SADF was, collecting names of SADF soldiers and discussing concerns regarding the portrayal of history at Freedom Park.

As a new nation facing challenges, South Africa needs fruitful cooperation and partnerships to better the lives of its people, Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya said at an inter-governmental seminar in Pretoria on Tuesday. ”Collaboration amongst us can only take us forward in pursuit of the goal of a better life for our people,” Skweyiya said.

The Waterkloof Four have been sentenced by the Pretoria Regional Court to 12 years’ imprisonment for the murder of an unidentified man. Christoff Becker, Frikkie du Preez, Gert van Schalkwyk and Reinach Tiedt stood throughout the hour-long reading of the sentence on Tuesday by magistrate Len Kotze.

The names of more South Africans could be added to international lists of suspected terrorists, an unnamed United States senior official said on Monday. The US has listed Junaid Dockrat, a Johannesburg dentist, and his cousin, Pretoria cleric Farhad Dockrat, as suspected terrorists with links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Contrary to media reports, the Africa Peer Review Mechanism was tabled and will be discussed at the next African Union summit, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told reporters on Monday. ”It was tabled last night [Sunday]. As it is with all reports that are tabled, the country that is reviewed gives its own view in relation to the report.

Recaptured Boeremag escapees Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws will remain in shackles for now, it emerged in their Pretoria High Court treason trial on Monday. Their legal representative, advocate Piet Pistorius, initially indicated that they had instructed him to oppose a prosecution move to have them remain shackled while in court.

The South African Police Service has welcomed the apology of two newspapers for the ”factually incorrect” story that a young prostitute was beaten into a coma by police officers. ”The correction, however, addressed only certain of the incorrect statements,” national police spokesperson Sally de Beer said on Friday.

The two unions representing most of the country’s commercial farmers said they hope President Thabo Mbeki will intervene in a dispute between them and Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana. AgriSA and TAU SA walked out of a meeting with Xingwana on Friday where they wanted to discuss tensions between them and her.

South Africa should have condemned Burma’s military regime and supported a call for sanctions against it, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Thursday. It joined others who have criticised the country using its inaugural vote at the United Nations Security Council earlier in January to vote against a resolution demanding an end to human rights abuses in Burma.

Farmers’ unions and Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana will thrash out their differences at a meeting in Pretoria on Friday. The unions have lashed out at Xingwana after she commented last year that violence against women and children was rife in the sector and accused farmers of inhumanely evicting workers.

Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour is scheduled to appear before a parliamentary committee next week to explain how a high-profile prisoner escaped from the country’s most secure prison. Balfour has to explain how Annanias Mathe, who faced more than 50 charges, including murder and rape, escaped from C-Max last year.

South Africa has expressed concern about the increasing incidents of its citizens being deported on arrival in foreign countries. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told a media briefing in Pretoria on Wednesday that the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates are countries where South Africans are regularly deported from.

South Africa will decide before the end of the week whether or not to send troops to Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission in that country, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Wednesday. He said the issue is being discussed at the Cabinet lekgotla (meeting) being held at the Presidential Guesthouse in Pretoria.

Award-winning Tsotsi star Presley Chweneyagae appeared briefly in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday when his case was postponed to February 27. His lawyer, Shane Lowley, asked the magistrate for the postponement on the grounds that the defence had no documentation and statements to work with as his client was arrested the previous day.

President Thabo Mbeki and top decision makers in the government gathered for a meeting to discuss the state’s programme action for the year at the Presidential Guesthouse on Tuesday. The reason for the meeting is partly to decide on the contents of Mbeki’s State of the Nation address next month, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Springbok utility back Jaco van der Westhuyzen will join the Bulls squad for the upcoming Super 14 season. Van der Westhuyzen has negotiated an early release from his Japanese club, NEC, and has returned to South Africa to help the Bulls with their Super 14 campaign this year.

The Correctional Services Department declined to comment on Tuesday on reports that two alleged Boeremag members are bound in handcuffs at all times at the C-Max prison in Pretoria. ”We do not discuss security arrangements concerning any inmate with the media,” said spokesperson Manelisi Wolela.

The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) intends opposing an African National Congress (ANC) plan for massive resettlement in Tshwane, it said on Monday. FF+ Tshwane councillor Cornelius Jansen van Rensburg claimed the ANC wants to build 212 000 low-cost houses on every council-owned park and piece of open land in Pretoria and Centurion in the next five years.

A R600-million community survey to collect demographic, geographic, social and economic data was launched by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Monday. ”This allows the government to provide services and to plan so that we can understand the trends and patterns of our people,” Manuel said, encouraging the people polled to share information about their households and themselves.

Police will go after those who helped two accused Boeremag members evade capture, National Commissioner Jackie Selebi said on Saturday. He attended the short court appearance of Rudi Gouws (29) and Herman van Rooyen (33), who escaped from custody in May last year. They were re-arrested early on Saturday morning.

Media reports that Pretoria police had beaten a Sunnyside prostitute into a coma were an ”absolute thumb-suck”, national Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi said on Friday. Talking to a South African National Editors’ Forum delegation about media communications, Mbeki said these reports show how difficult police work can be at times.

The Waterkloof Four will know on January 30 if they will go to jail for the murder of an unknown man and the assault of another. On Friday magistrate Len Kotze heard final arguments from the defence and in the case of Christoff Becker, Frikkie du Preez, Gert van Schalkwyk and Reinach Tiedt.