Police impounded 63 taxis in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, for operating with possibly fraudulent documents, Inspector Lucas Sithole said on Monday. ”Pretoria police and metro police impounded 63 taxis in an operation in Soshanguve on Monday for operating with possibly fraudulent registration and taxi operating documents,” said Sithole.
President Thabo Mbeki would have to decide if he wants to change the Donen commission’s terms of reference before it could call further witnesses. The commission is tasked with probing alleged illicit payments by South Africans of oil surcharges and kickbacks to the former Iraqi regime under the United Nations oil-for-food programme.
The Donen commission probing South Africa’s alleged involvement in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal adjourned its public hearings on Monday without having heard any evidence. The commission is facing a challenge in the Pretoria High Court by one of nine people subpoenaed to appear before it.
The defending champion Canterbury Crusaders routed South Africa’s Bulls 35-17 and clinched semifinal berths for them and New South Wales in rugby’s Super 14 on Friday. Wellington also confirmed a playoffs spot for the third time in four years when it escaped with a 26-22 home win over the Queensland Reds.
Crusaders and All Blacks flyhalf Daniel Carter put on a clinically perfect performance, grabbing 15 points in guiding his side to a well deserved 35-17 win over the Bulls in their Vodacom Super 14 encounter at Loftus Versveld on Friday night.
Anyone who has seen the escaped accused in the Boeremag treason trial should phone a newly set up hotline, police said on Thursday. More than 24 hours after Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws disappeared from the Pretoria High Court where their trial for treason was being heard, police were no closer to catching them.
Police have worked through the night in the search for two Boeremag treason trial accused who escaped from the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday, police said on Thursday. Herman van Rooyen (33) and Rudi Gouws (28) went missing during the lunch hour recess. One of them had allegedly bankrolled the organisation.
The two Boeremag accused escaped under the police’s watch, not that of his department, Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour said on Thursday. ”I want to make it clear that it was not my people who took [the Boeremag trialists] to court,” Balfour said. Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws went missing during the lunch hour recess of the treason trial at the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday.
The Cabinet approved draft legislation on Wednesday regulating the tapping of telephones and intercepting of e-mails. Outstanding matters had been settled with cellphone companies, and the Bill would be submitted to Parliament for processing, government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe told reporters in Pretoria.
Two accused in the Boeremag treason trial, Herman van Rooyen (33) and Rudi Gouws (28), both from Bela Bela in Limpopo, went missing on Wednesday afternoon, police said. ”We have launched a massive search to track down these two,” national police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said.
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) is to boycott a pay agreement signing ceremony with Minister of Education Naledi Pandor scheduled for Thursday. ”There is nothing wrong with the agreements,” the union said. However, it blames the Department of Education for delaying the signing of the agreements.
Breeding large predators such as lions, cheetahs and leopards for hunting will become illegal if draft regulations unveiled on Monday become law. ”The days of captive breeding of listed species for any purposes except science and conservation are over,” said Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk.
Three young women whose naked bodies were discovered on Monday morning in Mamelodi, eastern Pretoria, have been positively identified by their next of kin, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. Police spokesperson Brenda Kgafela said all three were residents of Section R in Mamelodi.
The Bulls held on grimly for a thrilling 34-17 win over the Sharks in an action-packed Super 14 match played at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday night. The Bulls led 27-3 at the break and played such complete rugby that one would have been forgiven for writing the Sharks off after just 40 minutes.
The search for a South African-registered aircraft that has gone missing in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) had not yielded any results by Saturday evening. The plane went missing only a day after captains Andre Nel and Charles Greyvenstein died when the South African plane they were flying crashed in the DRC.
The Department of Correctional Services Department was accused by the South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr) on Friday of diverting R800-million from a prison-building project promised by the government about four years ago.
Two South African pilots were killed on Thursday when their plane crashed on approach to the town of Lubutu in the northern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The pilots died when the South African-registered Convair 580 aircraft they were piloting fell from the sky on approach to the Amisi airport at Lubutu.
Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni moved one step closer to a jail cell on Wednesday when two Pretoria High Court judges dismissed his application for leave to appeal against his sentence. The judges emphasised that Yengeni was a public official who had abused his position of trust for personal gain.
The Bulls kept their semifinal dream alive with a thorough 46-17 beating of a clawless and clueless Cats team in their Super 14 encounter played at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday. Coming into this game desperately needing a win to salvage their season from hell, the Cats did not disappoint their critics.
A ”thorough” investigation into reports of rat-tailed maggots in three provinces has found no evidence of contaminated drinking water, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry said on Friday. Neither health officials nor anyone else saw rat-tailed maggots coming from drinking water out of a tap.
Police opened fire with rubber bullets on protesters against municipal boundary changes who had broken away from a dispersing crowd at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Friday. Earlier, about five or six small groups, from a few hundred protesters, set patches of the Union Buildings’ lawns alight.
South Africans will not be getting access to explicit pornographic television channels soon if a Pretoria High Court judge has his way. Judge Ben du Plessis on Friday turned down an application by a Pretoria company, OtherChoice, to legalise the distribution of its smart cards, which give access to pornographic programmes.
A total of 179 schools identified two years ago as having pupils who were taught under trees have been given proper classrooms, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said in Pretoria on Friday. Pandor was speaking after a joint ministerial meeting between the departments of public works and education.
Public hearings to probe South Africa’s alleged illicit payments of oil surcharges and kickbacks to the former Iraqi regime under the United Nations’s oil-for-food programme will start next month. The Donen commission, which will start the hearings on May 8, said on Friday subpoenas were being served on key witnesses.
The Competition Commission will hold a public inquiry into bank charges and access to the payment system, it said on Thursday. It was releasing a research report into the national payment system (NPS) and competition in the banking sector. The NPS is the accounting and transaction system between banks and other financial institutions.
South Africa has seen a ”phenomenal increase” in the number of asylum seekers in the past few years, the Department of Home Affairs said on Thursday. Although there are only 29 000 people with refugee status living in the country, there are 103 410 outstanding asylum applications.
Sickness prevented Epainette Mbeki from travelling to Pretoria to receive the Order of the Baobab on Thursday, said the chancellor of the national orders, Frank Chikane. Mbeki was to have been conferred with the honour by her son, President Thabo Mbeki, for her ”exceptional contribution to the economic upliftment of the underprivileged communities of the Eastern Cape and her commitment to the fight against apartheid”.
Zimbabwean international Esrom Nyandoro kept Mamelodi Sundowns’ dream of winning the Castle Premiership alive with a late goal to sink city rivals Supersport United 1-0 in their Premier Soccer League (PSL) encounter played at Super Stadium in Atteridgeville on Wednesday evening.
Thousands of striking security guards marched peacefully to the offices of G4 Security in Hatfield, Pretoria, on Wednesday, handed over a memorandum of demands and dispersed. A police helicopter, heavily armed police officers and a water cannon were on standby in case of trouble, but the march proceeded without incident.
Revised regulations aimed at making the processing of environmental impact assessment (EIA) applications ”quicker, simpler and better” were unveiled by Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk on Wednesday. Among the features of the new regulations is the introduction of compulsory timeframes.
The case of the so-called Waterkloof four was referred back to the regional court for sentencing on Wednesday, after the Pretoria High Court found it was improper for it to sentence the four former schoolboys. The four white accused were found guilty of the murder of an unidentified black man and assaulting another in 2001.
Makhaya Ntini and Dale Steyn put in match-winning performances to wrap up the New Zealand innings on the fifth morning of the first Castle Lager Test at Supersport Park on Wednesday. The two pace bowlers needed just 33 minutes to bowl New Zealand out for 120 runs, to give South Africa victory by 128 runs.