Police will launch special operations in the coming six months to combat serious and violent crimes, Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula announced on Friday. ”We would bring to the attention of the criminals out there that we’re going to be on their necks,” Nqakula vowed.
The plastics on Thursday finally came off the controversial statue of the man said to have inspired the naming of the metropole of Tshwane. The 6,2m bronzed figure of Chief Tshwane was unveiled in a low-key ceremony outside the Pretoria city hall, months after it was erected and put under wraps.
The ”recklessness” with which some South African lose their identity documents (IDs) is a concern, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba said on Wednesday. ”Some people in South Africa have been applying for an ID five times a year,” Gigaba said.
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Affairs has budgeted R1-billion to update its management of money in trust programme (MMIT), its chief operations officer Khotso De Wee said on Wednesday. His remarks come after Auditor General Shauket Fakie tabled a report in Parliament on Tuesday identifying serious financial and administrative inefficiencies in the MMIT.
More than 240 experts have been placed at problem municipalities to help them improve their affairs, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Wednesday. Gigaba said a total of 112 experts, 18 graduates and 80 students had been mobilised and deployed to the 69 Project Consolidate municipalities.
French arms dealer Thint on Tuesday lost its application to have a search warrant declared invalid and documents seized from its offices by the Scorpions returned. The search-and-seizure warrants, granted by Judge President Bernard Ngoepe, form part of the Scorpions’ investigation into allegations of corruption, money laundering, fraud and related offences.
Speaking during the July update on the government’s programme of action for 2006, the second report back since the State of the Nation address, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said in Pretoria on Tuesday that all of the programmes of the economic and investment cluster were "well on track".
An independent investigation into the Jeppestown shooting is the only way to restore confidence in the police, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. DA spokesperson on safety and security Roy Jankielsohn said an investigation should look at who ordered the police into a situation in which they were ”outgunned and outmanned” by armed criminals, and why.
German prosecutors have not approached the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to help investigate possible kickbacks in a sale of four corvettes to the South African Navy. NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said on Monday the office had received no requests from the German authorities on the issue.
Employees of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and the office of the compensation commissioner could go on strike in July, the public service union (PSA) said on Wednesday. PSA and several other unions’ members were planning ”full-blown strike action” over what they called the Department of Labour’s ”unilateral phase-out of a production bonus scheme”.
South Africa must move away from its ”stubborn” obsession with race and focus on the socio-economic backgrounds of people to transform the country, political analyst Frederik van Zyl Slabbert said on Wednesday. ”If you make yourself hostage to a racist past you could budget on a racist future,” Van Zyl Slabbert said.
The government will look at buying up commercially available agricultural land in an attempt to speed up land reform, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana said on Tuesday. She was speaking after a presidential working group meeting on agriculture in Pretoria.
The South African mediator in the Burundi peace talks on Tuesday shot down claims of a walkout by the country’s last remaining rebel group. South African Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said the perceived walkout was ”participants breaking into small groups to continue talks”.
If Israel invades Gaza it would be the beginning of the end to finding a political solution in that country, South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. He said South Africa had sent messages to both Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, urging them to put pressure on groups who kidnapped an Israeli soldier over the weekend.
The case against an IT salesperson involved in an alleged hoax e-mail conspiracy within the African National Congress was postponed in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday. Muziwendoda Sikhona Kunene, who stands accused of contravening the Intelligence Services Oversight Act will again appear in court on July 14.
Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said on Monday that he was very concerned about the serious and violent nature of crimes against ”soft targets”. He said police action in high-crime areas sometimes drove criminals out to other areas and places considered to be soft targets.
Four armed robbers on Monday overpowered a Coin security guard and made of with tens of thousands of rand that he had collected at the offices of Sunday newspaper publisher RCP Media in Pretoria. Police spokesperson Inspector Katlego Mogale said: ”He was accosted by four suspects, all armed. They made off with the money in a black Toyota Tazz.”
The Blue Bulls were lucky to scrape home 18-16 against a motivated Falcons side in a game on a cold and bitter evening at Loftus Versfeld on Friday night. The Bulls struggled in a second-half performance that must go down as one of the worst in years as the Falcons stormed back in the game.
Invalid decisions by the Free State premier, unlawful payments by two Northern Cape municipalities and problems at the Commission on Gender Equality were the major focus of reports released by Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana on Tuesday. He has also completed his probe into Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s controversial trip to the United Arab Emirates.
The Commission on Gender Equality has structural problems, which has strained relations between its CEO and its commissioners, the Public Protector said on Tuesday. Mabedla Lawrence Mushwana released a report on his investigation into various allegations made against the commission, including abuse of power and mismanagement.
The Pretoria High Court will rule on Monday on the urgency of an application for it to declare the arrest, detention and removal from South Africa of a Pakistani national unlawful. Attorney Zehir Omar asked on Thursday that the arrest, detention and removal of Khalid Mahmood Rashid be declared unlawful.
A 29-year-old blockman from Meyers Park, Pretoria, was referred for mental observation by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court for a second time on Wednesday. Daniel Petrus van der Walt was arrested after he had allegedly confessed that he killed 20-year-old Marlene Mauer with a hammer.
South Africa will send a 128-member observer mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to monitor that country’s election, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. Pahad said the observer team will be deployed in key areas in all the provinces of the DRC ahead of the election scheduled for July 30.
South African President Thabo Mbeki will visit Sudan next week to evaluate the peace process in the war-ravaged western Darfur region, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. Mbeki is to meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and Vice-President Salva Kirr during the one-day visit on Tuesday.
Another man has been arrested in connection with the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) hoax e-mail saga, police said on Monday. The NIA’s manager for electronic surveillance, Funokwakhe Madladla. was arrested on Monday morning after he handed himself over to the police.
Advocate Cezanne Visser will not take the stand in her sex-crimes trial, the Pretoria High Court heard on Monday. The state finally closed its case against Visser more than a year after the trial started. Her trial was postponed to August 15 for final argument. It is expected that judgement will take several days to complete.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was asked on Monday to investigate the disappearance from South Africa of Pakistani national Khalid Mahmood Rashid. Rashid’s lawyer, Zehir Omar, has spoken with and subsequently sent a fax to the ICC office of prosecutors in The Hague asking it to investigate the ”enforced disappearance” of Rashid.
Advocate Cezanne Visser, also known as Advocate Barbie, was forced to call her lover, Advocate Dirk Prinsloo, her ”sex god”, the Pretoria High Court heard on Thursday. Prinsloo was a narcissist and a control freak, and became abusive when he did not get his way, his former personal assistant told the court.
The Department of Labour on Wednesday said it was too early to say if Sasol would be charged with culpable homicide for the September 2004 blast at its Secunda plant. The report on the explosion was with Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana and he still had to study it, his spokesperson Mokgadi Pela said.
More arrests in the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) hoax e-mail saga are expected, police said on Monday. Speaking outside the specialised Commercial Crime Court in Pretoria where Muziwendoda Kunene appeared on a charge of fraud relating to the e-mails, Captain Dennis Adriao said more arrests are expected.
The minister of home affairs will hear on Monday whether she will have to give reasons why her department should not be compelled to supply information about the deportation of Pakistani national Khalid Mahmood Rashid. This follows an application by Rashid’s lawyer, Zehir Omar.
Pretoria police said on Wednesday it is too early to draw conclusions about the discovery of a number of bodies in Centurion, south of the city, as investigations are still underway. Van Wyk said the police will not disclose the number of bodies recently found.