Certain limitations on a Congress of South African Trade Union picket on the Zimbabwe border were arbitrary and unreasonable, Cosatu argued in papers before the Pretoria High Court on Friday. Cosatu is bringing an urgent application to contest an official decision to limit the number of picketers to 200.
Crime cost South Africa’s 46 000-odd commercial farmers about R1,2-billion in the financial year ending February 2002 — more than a quarter of their total losses, Statistics South Africa revealed on Thursday. Stock theft accounted for about R484-million of farmers’ total R4,4-billion losses for the year.
The Zimbabwean ambassador to South Africa was scathing about a protest by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) outside his embassy in Pretoria on Wednesday, saying he pities the protesters. ”I hesitate to give an iota of dignity to these misguided malcontents,” Simon Khaya Moyo said.
The upcoming Zimbabwean elections should be postponed, a leader of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said at a picket outside the Zimbabwe embassy in Pretoria on Wednesday. Meanwhile, South Africa’s ambassador to Zimbabwe has not been advised of the appeal of Zimbabwe’s attorney general against the early release of 62 suspected mercenaries.
Josh Cunliffe of Dainfern Country Club in Johannesburg won the men’s Sanlam South African Amateur Stroke-Play Golf Championship at Wingate Park Country Club on Tuesday. The 21-year-old closed with a 70 in the afternoon’s fourth round for a 10-under-par 278.
The Tshwane City Council voted on Monday to retain the name Pretoria for the city centre only, whereas the name Tshwane will refer to the greater metropolitan area. The council authorised the municipal manager to affect all the necessary legal and administrative procedures to register the geographical area that constitutes the municipality as a city with the name Tshwane.
Josh Cunliffe (21) eagled Wingate Park Country Club’s par-five 18th hole on Monday to take a one-stroke lead at the halfway mark in the men’s Sanlam South African Stroke-Play Championship. Cunliffe, from Dainfern, carded a 71 for the day and is on 139, five under par, with the third and fourth rounds to be completed on Tuesday.
A photograph of a Pretoria advocate couple in the nude is to be the topic of an application against a tabloid newspaper in the city’s high court on Tuesday. Lawyers for the pair, who stand accused of an array of sexual crimes against women and girls, have asked Judge Essop Patel to force the newspaper to reveal the source of the photograph.
The widow of a former body guard of South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni has instituted a claim for more than R2,9-million from a former Pretoria traffic officer and the Tshwane city council. Myra Smith’s husband, Davis Smith, was 29 when he was shot dead on the N1 highway near Rooihuiskraal on May 26 2000.
The wheels were in motion late on Thursday afternoon for the homecoming of 64 suspected South African mercenaries jailed in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean authorities were processing deportation papers for the men, after which they would be handed over to immigration officials, a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said.
The chief executive of the National House of Traditional Leaders, Malungisa Gobe, has died in a car accident in Zimbabwe. Two other members of the House, spokesperson Sibusiso Nkosi and North West chairperson Chief ME Mabi, were injured in the accident on Wednesday, as was a Zimbabwean national travelling with them.
White South Africans living in gated communities think of crime as a type of ethnic cleansing forcing them into semi-migration, a study showed on Tuesday. The study, titled Fear and Loathing in Johannesburg: Constructing New Identities within Gated Communities, was presented at an international symposium on gated communities or townhouses.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) hoped to speedily set up a team to observe Zimbabwe’s elections on March 31, South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Aziz Pahad, said on Tuesday. South Africa, as chair of SADC’s organ on politics, defence and security, has sent letters to member countries asking for nominations for the observer mission.
The United States should put in context its criticism of ”widespread” abuses by South African security forces, the government said on Tuesday. ”Our track record speaks for itself,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told reporters in Pretoria. ”I hope they put it in the context that we are trying to address whatever problems do exist.”
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/ 28 February 2005
A former patient at Weskoppies psychiatric hospital in Pretoria was arrested on Monday after forcing his way into the facility wielding an axe. ”The man, who was a former patient, came here holding a home-made axe and threatened security guards at the front gate,” said Weskoppies hospital’s chief executive.
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/ 24 February 2005
The Pretoria High Court has made an order compelling the government to provide information on all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) brought into or manufactured in South Africa. The court made the order on Thursday, on the application of the environmental lobby group Biowatch.
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/ 24 February 2005
A statement from the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) condemning violence was welcomed by Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour on Wednesday. Popcru can reinforce its commitment to discipline and order, Balfour said, by condemning other criminal acts, often committed in prisons.
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/ 22 February 2005
South African President Thabo Mbeki criticised the United States for calling Zimbabwe an ”outpost of tyranny” saying, in an interview published on Tuesday, that it went against Washington’s efforts to promote democracy. South Africa has served as an important mediator with its troubled neighbour, trying to encourage reforms through a controversial ”quiet diplomacy”.
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/ 21 February 2005
The lead changed hands repeatedly on the final day of the Telkom PGA Championship at the Woodhill Golf Estate on Sunday but in the end it was Warren Abery who came home best of all to claim the spoils. The Mount Edgecombe Country Club professional rounded the course on Sunday on three-under-par 69.
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/ 18 February 2005
The Tshwane University of Technology obtained an urgent High Court interdict on Friday prohibiting protesting students from disrupting classes, damaging property or harassing students and staff. On Thursday morning, more than 1 000 students ran amok at the university’s Soshanguve campus.
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/ 18 February 2005
The media was in the dock again on Friday in the ”advocate Barbie” sex-crimes trial after the tabloid Die Son published a picture of the accused — Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo — naked. On Thursday, a newspaper editor and a columnist invoked their right to remain silent when appearing in court to explain errors in a commentary piece about the trial.
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/ 18 February 2005
Killarney professional Jaco van Zyl led the way after the opening round of the Telkom PGA Championships played at the par-72 Woodhill Country Club layout on Thursday. Despite the announcement that the course was playing tougher than ever, 66 golfers in the 156-man field shot below par with another 19 lying on level par.
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/ 17 February 2005
Police found four types of sedative drugs at the house of two Pretoria advocates, accused among other things of drugging and raping a woman and a girl, a court heard on Thursday. Pharmacologist George Muntingh testified in the Pretoria High Court trial of Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo about the sedative effects of the drugs.
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/ 17 February 2005
Supersport United were held to a 0-0 draw by Ajax Cape Town during their Castle Premier League encounter at Odi Stadium in Mabopane on Wednesday night. There were very few highlights in this game as both teams squandered one opportunity after another in front of an almost empty stadium.
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/ 16 February 2005
Beeld newspaper editor Peet Kruger and freelance columnist Jeanne Goosen were ordered on Wednesday to appear before a Pretoria judge to explain why a column on the ”advocate Barbie” sex-crime trial contained wrong information. Judge Essop Patel ruled that the column appeared at first glance to be in contempt of court.
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/ 16 February 2005
Students threatened to render Tshwane University of Technology ungovernable on Wednesday after talks with management over fees fell through. Unrest has broken out on the university’s Ga-Rankuwa campus, said a university spokesperson who would not elaborate. The protest started spreading through the university’s six campuses on Wednesday.
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/ 15 February 2005
Pretoria advocate pair Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo, accused of an array of sex crimes, appear to have had e-mail correspondence with websites dealing in child sex and bestiality, the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday. Two apparent child-pornography pictures were also found on their computer’s hard drive.
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/ 15 February 2005
The gates to Tshwane University of Technology’s Ga-Rankuwa campus were blockaded on Tuesday morning by about 1Â 000 students who used burning tyres to keep out lecturers. They were protesting against a recently announced 6% fee increase imposed on them to bring the campus into line with the university’s other six campuses.
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/ 15 February 2005
The African National Congress in Tshwane’s rejection of a proposal raised in its ranks to remove the name Pretoria was welcomed by the Democratic Alliance in the city on Tuesday. ”If the move to remove Pretoria had gone ahead it would have had serious, irreversible repercussions to national reconciliation,” said DA regional chairperson Gert Pretorius.
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/ 15 February 2005
Telkom has withdrawn an appeal against a 2003 Pretoria High Court ruling which found that least-cost routing was a legal practice, parties to the matter said on Monday. Telkom advised Nashua Mobile, one of some 12 respondents in the matter, of the withdrawal on Monday.
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/ 14 February 2005
Former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka denied on Monday having promised politician and convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni a maximum R5Â 000 fine in exchange for a guilty plea. ”This is a distorted version of the truth,” Ngcuka, now a businessman, said through spokesperson Sipho Ngwema.
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/ 14 February 2005
The City of Pretoria no longer exists, the African National Congress’s Tshwane region said in a statement issued on Monday. The statement was released after the party’s strategic planning lekgotla (meeting) at the weekend, attended by its women’s league, youth league and alliance partners.