Pretoria

Comment was withheld from official quarters on Monday relating to an accident allegedly involving the state vehicle of Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula. ”I am not making any comment on that story,” said ministerial spokesperson Trevor Bloem.

Deaths at the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Krugersdorp could have been prevented had there been enough medical capacity, Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Friday. On Friday, a report was released after an investigation into deaths at the centre by an independent committee.

Legislation and procedures governing intelligence services will be reviewed in a bid to avoid ”future abuses”, Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils said on Wednesday. This is aimed at determining ”whether there are any gaps or ambiguities that need tightening up”, the minister said in a statement.

Mamelodi Sundowns humiliated Bush Bucks 5-1 in a one-sided Castle Premier Soccer League match played at Loftus on Tuesday night. The home team certainly lived up to their motto ”the sky’s the limit”, even without the support of their coach, Angelo Kappa, who is still under suspension.

Infighting in the ruling African National Congress alliance is threatening the proper functioning of South Africa’s security apparatus and critical constitutional freedoms, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. Reports of hoax e-mails aimed at discrediting people such as ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe are cause for grave concern, it said.

The Freedom Front Plus has won the University of Pretoria’s annual student representative council elections for the ninth time in a row, party leader Pieter Mulder said on Monday. ”The result is of special importance seen in the light of the language debate which is currently taking place at historically Afrikaans universities,” Mulder said.

Hospital managers will ensure in future that their facilities are clean and tidy at all times, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday. This was one of the outcomes of a two-day workshop in Pretoria between managers and government officials to find ways of improving service delivery.

The sex-crimes trial of advocates Dirk Prinsloo and Cezanne Visser will be closed to the public for some weeks, it appeared on Wednesday. Pretoria High Court Judge Essop Patel ordered last week that the evidence of one of the alleged victims — a woman who had worked for Prinsloo and Visser — be heard in camera.

Northern Ireland unionists who fear change will learn, like white South Africans did, that they stand to gain rather than lose, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday. Mbeki was speaking to reporters after meeting Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in Pretoria. Adams said people in his country want what South Africans have.

Supersport United beat Golden Arrows 1-0 in a Premier Soccer League (PSL) match played at Super Stadium in Pretoria on Sunday afternoon. In other matches, Silver Stars beat a 10-man Black Leopards, and Sundowns hammered Tembisa Classic 3-0 in a pulsating PSL encounter played at the Harry Gwala Stadium.

The Pretoria High Court has refused an application by Pretoria advocate Dirk Prinsloo to separate his sex-crimes trial from that of his former girlfriend and co-accused Cezanne Visser. Prinsloo had failed to prove that the continuation of a joint trial would cause him to suffer real prejudice, Judge Essop Patel ruled on Friday.

The Pretoria High Court is to hand down judgement on Friday in an application by one of two city advocates for a separation of their sex-crimes trial. On Thursday, Dirk Prinsloo accused his former girlfriend Cezanne Visser of having ulterior motives in seeking to implicate him in indecent acts with two children.

Police have not echoed the willingness shown by the Scorpions to work together and create mechanisms to do so, it emerged on the final day of public hearings at the Khampepe Commission in Pretoria. ”We believe no number of committees can solve the problems until the institutional and constitutional problems have been solved,” said advocate Philip Jacobs for the South African Police Service.

Botswana’s Foreign Minister Mompati Merafhe on Thursday denied claims by Britain’s Survival International that it had launched an "ethnic cleansing" of San Bushmen from their ancestral land in the Kalahari. "Nothing could be further from the truth than those malicious allegations being marketed around by a one-issue organisation called Survival International," he said in Pretoria.

Sex-crimes accused Dirk Prinsloo claimed on Thursday that his former girlfriend Cezanne Visser had ulterior motives in seeking to implicate him in indecent acts with two children. ”There is an attempt by [Visser] to drag [Prinsloo] under the water,” his advocate Philip Loubser told the Pretoria High Court.

The Cabinet voiced concern on Wednesday at public displays of anger at President Thabo Mbeki at the corruption court appearance of his dismissed deputy Jacob Zuma this week. Concern was expressed about the burning of T-shirts displaying Mbeki’s picture and insults directed at him, a government spokesperson said.

Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy told the Khampepe commission on Wednesday it would be a ”nightmare” to relocate the unit and it should be left in place and enhanced by legislation. ”The DSO [Directorate of Special Operations] is a good institution,” he told the commission on its eighth day of public hearings.

Sensitive information falling into the hands of Scorpions investigators may be abused to the detriment of the country, the Khampepe commission heard in Pretoria on Tuesday. The National Director of Public Prosecutions, Vusi Pikoli, conceded that it is possible that his organisation is a threat to national security.

The sex crimes trial of two Pretoria advocates was waylaid in the city’s high court on Wednesday with an application by one of the accused to be allowed to give evidence. Dirk Prinsloo sought to take the stand to explain why he wanted his trial to be separated from that of co-accused Cezanne Visser.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot on Tuesday pledged €5-million to South Africa’s efforts to bring peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo and lauded Pretoria’s peacemaker role in Africa. ”If we can stay the course, our joint efforts can help create the conditions for free and fair elections in the DRC in the near future,” Bot told guests at his country’s new embassy building.

Contrasting arguments on the future of the Scorpions were submitted by a police union and the Democratic Alliance at the Khampepe commission in Pretoria on Monday. The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union told the commission: ”The need for the Scorpions no longer exists.”