Pretoria

Pharmacists billing fridges and television sets to the medical-aid accounts of prison staff are among the types of fraud uncovered in the Department of Correctional Services in recent years. The department saved about R500-million in medical-aid claims in the 2004/05 financial year by clamping down on fraud and corruption.

A 24-year-old United States citizen was found murdered at a Pretoria school
on Saturday, police said on Monday. Edward Rector was found in a classroom at the Ubuntu Private School in Boschkop on Saturday morning, Inspector Anton Breedt said.

Although environmental lobby group Earthlife Africa is not part of a team probing health concerns at the Pelindaba nuclear facility, it will be allowed to make submissions, a spokesperson for the investigator said. ”We couldn’t have included the stakeholders because it would have taken away the independence,” the spokesperson said.

Earthlife Africa expressed concern on Friday over the exclusion of its nominees to a team conducting a health study at the country’s nuclear facility in Pelindaba. ”We now have no hope that the Necsa [Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa] study will be independent. It looks like a whitewash,” said spokesperson Mashile Phalane.

The South African Police Service announced downward trends in 17 of the country’s most serious crime categories on Wednesday. Murder dropped by 5,6% in 2004 and 2005 from the previous financial year, attempted murder by 1,8% and serious assault by 4,5%, it announced in Pretoria.

Private Andries Nhlengethwa jumps from planes and lifts 45kg weights. He also happens to have HIV. The 31-year-old parachutist and bodybuilder is one of the few South African soldiers living openly with the deadly virus, presenting a new face of the pandemic on a continent where Aids drugs are rare and infection is often a death sentence.

Pre-trial detention conditions in South Africa do not meet international guarantees, a United Nations working group reported on Monday. ”Harsh” prison sentences, police brutality and the unjust treatment of asylum seekers were also raised as issues of concern following a two-week study by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

The Blue Bulls edged closer to guaranteeing themselves a home semifinal with a clinical 39-3 victory over traditional foes Western Province at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening. The dominance of the home team was superbly illustrated by the five-tries-to-none score line.

Municipal workers were finishing up a repair on a sewage leak into the Hartbeespoort Dam in the North West on Friday night, the Madibeng municipality said. The leak was brought under the council’s attention at about 3pm on Thursday. A pump was burnt out, causing the pump station to overflow into the dam.

A Pretoria High Court judge on Friday told a self-confessed male prostitute and killer that it is up to him to rehabilitate himself, before jailing him for 14 years.
Acting Judge Kobus van Rooyen sentenced Charles Peter Barker to direct imprisonment for the 2004 murder and robbery of high-school opera teacher Allen Sim.

A sewage leak into the Hartbeespoort Dam in the North West was being fixed and posed no danger, the Madibeng municipality said on Friday. The extent of the pollution was being measured, but ”it is nothing to write home about”, said council spokesperson Kenneth Ngubegusha.

The current government of Côte d’Ivoire should remain in place until elections are held, even if this does not happen by October 31 as planned, South Africa said on Thursday. Regarding the rejection of South Africa’s mediation by the New Forces, Lekota said the country will continue its work until its mandate is withdrawn.

LJ van Zyl, South Africa’s brilliant 20-year-old 400m hurdler, has escalated from sixth to joint third place in the latest International Association of Athletics Federations world rankings released by the world body in Monaco on Wednesday. The highest-ranked South African athlete is Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (second in the 800m).

Three senior officials of the collapsed Saambou Bank were granted bail of R50 000 each when they appeared in the Pretoria Regional Court on Wednesday on 13 charges involving about R640-million. They each face 10 charges of fraud, one of theft and two of contravening the Companies Act.

Crime levels in South Africa are decreasing but negative perceptions on crime have doubled since 1994, a conference on prison overcrowding heard on Wednesday. ”Crime in general has come down between 1994 and 2004. The public perception is contrary to that,” said Anton du Plessis, head of the crime and justice programme at the Institute for Security Studies.

Civil society, business, labour and political parties are set to participate in South Africa’s evaluation under the African Peer Review Mechanism. Representatives of various sectors of society met in Pretoria on Tuesday to discuss their role in the review, which is expected to cost the country about R8-million.

A Dutch citizen living on a smallholding north of Pretoria and his South African wife were arrested on Tuesday for various charges related to dagga, police said. ”The man from Holland and his South African wife had established a dagga plantation on their Hammanskraal smallholding from dagga seeds smuggled in from Holland,” said Constable Brenda Kgafela.

He felt sorry for his son-in-law and even invited him over for meals after his daughter’s murder, a young murder victim’s father told the Pretoria High Court on Monday. Koos Britz testified in the trial of Pretoria mechanic Pieter Viljoen (30), who was being retried for the alleged murder of his pregnant wife, Amelia.

Two police officers accused of corruption were refused bail in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Monday. ”Bail was not granted for the two men and they remain in custody,” said Superintendent Andy Pieke, of the East Rand police. Pieke said the case was postponed for further investigation.

The Freedom Front Plus’s statements about an alleged alteration to the Tshwane municipality’s emblem were ”misplaced and incorrect”, the mayor’s spokesperson said on Monday. According to the FF+, the words ”Miraculous change — Pretoria to Tshwane” would be added to the metro’s emblem.

Apartheid-era chemical and biological warfare expert Dr Wouter Basson is to know on Friday whether he will be re-tried for crimes he was acquitted of more than three years ago. The Constitutional Court is to pass judgement in an appeal bid by the state aimed at paving the way for Basson’s re-prosecution.

Four South Africans are still missing after Hurricane Katrina struck the United States city of New Orleans last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. The South African embassy in Washington is in constant touch with the US State Department about citizens in the affected area.

South African junior shot-put champion Marli Knoetze was one of South Africa’s stars on the final day of the African Junior Athletics Championships held in the Rades Stadium, Tunis, on Sunday. South African athletes won 25 medals at the championships, 10 more than Kenya, with Sudan third on the list with 13.

Medical-aid scheme payments to brokers increased by 21% last year to R704-million without any perceptible increase in the number of new members joining, the Medical Schemes Council said on Monday. Council head Patrick Masobe was speaking at the release of an annual report into medical-aid schemes.

Pretoria police arrested four men, including a teacher, and confiscated 43 000 rounds of ammunition in Pretoria West on Saturday, police said on Sunday. A 55-year-old teacher at Pretoria West High School was arrested after 18 000 rounds were discovered in the school’s safe on Saturday morning.