The Titans won through to a home final in the Standard Bank Pro20 cricket competition when they snatched a thrilling victory over the Lions at Supersport Park in Centurion on Wednesday. They beat the Lions by four wickets with one ball to spare in front of a capacity crowd of 11 000 in the first semifinal.
Commuters left stranded by a bus drivers’ strike torched a bus and two cars at the Belle Ombre train station, Pretoria, on Wednesday evening. About 1Â 500 people were at the station when the bus was set alight, Pretoria emergency services spokesperson Johan Pieterse said.
Described as staunch by some and rigid by others, the appointment of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope was mostly welcomed in South Africa on Wednesday. Political leaders and church groups hailed his selection, as Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu expressed disappointment.
Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide charged on Tuesday that the United States and France are orchestrating a ”black holocaust” in Haiti that has killed more than 10Â 000 of his supporters since he was ousted last year. Speaking to reporters in Pretoria, Aristide said he remains the democratically elected president of Haiti.
An HIV/Aids housing policy launched by the Department of Housing in Pretoria on Tuesday is meant to assist those with the illness and the families and people around them affected by it. With 15% of the Gauteng population HIV-positive, the provincial housing department said it is critical to form a housing-sector response to HIV/Aids.
Despite publicity to the contrary, Zimbabwe was a stable and peaceful environment for business, that country’s envoy to South Africa said on Monday. ”Those who have been in Zimbabwe lately, including during the recent parliamentary elections, can testify to the peace and tranquillity … in my country,” said ambassador Simon Moyo.
A task team has been set up to find — within two months — ways to speed up the provision of classrooms, the education and public works departments said on Monday. The team will report by June with concrete plans to end the practice of teaching children outdoors, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor told reporters in Pretoria.
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota was ordered to hand over certain arms deal documents to Richard Young by the Pretoria High Court on Friday. Young’s company CCII Systems lost out on a contract to supply combat technology for the South African navy’s new corvettes.
He had no qualms over becoming a state witness in the Boeremag treason trial as he was ”not amused” with what the accused were doing, a self-confessed coup plotter told the High Court on Thursday. Willem Grobler testified that his attorney had advised him to become a state witness shortly after his arrest, as the evidence against him was overwhelming.
A 33-year-old Nigerian man died when he jumped out of a 10th-floor flat in Sunnyside during a police search for drugs on Thursday morning. Pretoria police spokesperson Inspector Anton Breedt said two other men were arrested after police found a matchbox containing 12 cocaine ”rocks” at about 4am.
All cellphones reported stolen are to be blacklisted in future — rendering them immediately unusable, in terms of a new crime-prevention initiative announced by police and cellphone operators on Wednesday. National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi said the initiative will remove the incentive for cellphone theft and robbery.
Teachers at a Pretoria high school were on strike over a staff shortage and unfavourable working conditions, a member of the school’s governing body said on Wednesday. ”There are 15 teachers to 1 050 pupils at Lotus Gardens Secondary school and the working conditions there are unacceptable,” said governing body member Marti Benolio.
The Tshwane Metropolitan Council followed due process in registering the name Tshwane with the South African Geographical Names Council, says the body. Meanwhile, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa found the South African Broadcasting Corporation has done nothing wrong by referring to the area as Tshwane in its bulletins.
Water may have to be taken from the ”haves” for redistribution among the ”have-nots”, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Buyelwa Sonjica said on Tuesday. To address inequities in access to water, ”it may be necessary to reallocate water between users”, she said at the launch of a draft position paper on water-allocation reform.
The Department of Education on Monday denied reports that schoolboys will be allowed to grow beards under the national guidelines on school uniforms. ”Nothing can be further from the truth,” the department said in a statement. It blamed the ”misconception” on ”second-hand reporting”.
Mamelodi Sundowns moved into second position in the Castle Premiership when they beat relegation-haunted Jomo Cosmos 2-0 in a scrappy league clash played at the HM Pitje Stadium on Sunday. Cosmos were reduced to 10 men in the 40th minute when Mokete Tsotsetsi was sent off for a second bookable offence.
A briefing to the Pan African Parliament on progress made with the continent’s development plan and peer review system was postponed on Friday to the body’s next sitting later this year. The briefing was cancelled on account of the unavailability of Wiseman Nkhuhlu — chief executive officer of the secretariat of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head Vusi Pikoli led a team of senior managers to help revamp Pretoria’s Mamelodi District Court on Friday, the NPA said. The derelict Mamelodi Court was the first target of a project, ”Thusa batho — Making a difference” aimed at improving service delivery to the affected communities.
The West Indies took an unbeatable lead in their three-match one-day international series against the South African women’s cricket team at the Tshwane University of Technology Oval on Thursday, with a seven-wicket victory over the home side.
The West Indies won the toss and sent South Africa in to bat.
One of the men accused of the kidnapping and murder of a Pretoria-based Chinese businessman and his family implicated a state witness in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Siyuan Liu was testifying against an application by the state to withdraw his R3 000 bail and keep him in custody until his October 10 trial.
Côte d’Ivoire political, rebel and opposition leaders on Wednesday formally declared an end to the war in that country. ”The parties … hereby solemnly declare the immediate and final cessation of all hostilities and the end of the war through the national territory,” stated an agreement signed in Pretoria, South Africa.
Schoolchildren may soon be allowed to wear beards if the proposed national guidelines on school uniforms are introduced later this year, Parliament was told on Tuesday. ”A uniform may not impede or infringe upon any constitutional right,” said the deputy director for education and training in the Department of Education.
A sea of umbrellas met Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti as the skies over Pretoria opened on Saturday night for his farewell concert from Africa. Persistent rain did little to dampen the spirits of the thousands of faithful, but an undisclosed malady compelled the Maestro, as he is popularly known, to finish his performance early.
Supersport United were held to a 1-1 draw by Dynamos in an entertaining Castle Premier League clash played at Loftus on Saturday. United opened the scoring in the 22nd minute from the header of veteran defender Themba Mnguni, who was at the end of a corner kick taken by Tony Tsabedze.
South Africans now have until June 30 to hand in illegal firearms, the government said on Friday. An amnesty period that came into effect on January 1 was to have ended on March 31. ”After this extension, people will have no excuse to say they didn’t know about the campaign,” a Department of Safety and Security spokesperson said.
Research will be done into the demand for Afrikaans as a medium of school instruction, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said after talks on Wednesday with a group of Afrikaner representatives. The meeting, in Pretoria, was arranged at the request of the FW de Klerk Foundation, and facilitated by the former president.
Protesters from the Young Communist League and the Swaziland Solidarity Movement have called for sanctions against the Swazi king and his government in a demonstration outside the Swaziland embassy on Wednesday. The monarch has come under scrutiny for the expensive purchase of a number of luxury vehicles while his country is beset by poverty and HIV/Aids.
Emphatic victories by Australia and India saw them to the top of the league table after the fourth round of matches in the Women’s Cricket World Cup on Monday. Tournament favourites and four-times world champions Australia head the table after their 97-run win over South Africa at the LC de Villiers Oval.
Diesel and 95-octane petrol users will feel the pinch when new fuel specifications come into operation next year, eliminating leaded petrol from the market. Diesel users will fork out more for a new, low sulphur version of the fuel, while motorists insisting on using 95-octane petrol rather than 93- or 91-octane will pay a special levy, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Thursday.
The Women’s Cricket World Cup got off to a soggy start on Tuesday when heavy rain descended over Pretoria, causing all four opening matches to be abandoned. At Supersport Park, a partnership of 90 between Shandre Fritz and Claire Terblanche restored South Africa’s fortunes, after Ireland appeared to have got the better of the home side.
Almost R700 000 was given to the South African Red Cross towards the tsunami relief fund by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies in Pretoria on Tuesday. ”We are proud as Jewish people to be part of South Africa where people care about those in suffering halfway around the world,” said Zev Krengel on behalf of the board.
Corruption is a scourge of development in Africa, Business Unity South Africa’s Cas Coovadia told the second national anti-corruption conference in Pretoria on Tuesday. President Thabo Mbeki earlier told the conference that South Africa has to remain vigilant against new manifestations of corruption.