Pretoria

The youth league of the trade union Solidarity launched a campaign from behind the bars of an animal enclosure at the Pretoria Zoo on Monday to exempt young people from affirmative-action policies. ”We agree with the concept of affirmative action, but the way it is being implemented is incorrect,” said a Solidarity spokesperson.

Rebels from Côte d’Ivoire wrapped up two days of talks with South African President Thabo Mbeki on Friday, pledging they will not stand in the way of peace in their war-divided West African country. Mbeki now plans to consult with other concerned parties, including the government and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Côte d’Ivoire.

Former president Nelson Mandela and the Nelson Mandela Foundation were granted an interdict in the Pretoria High Court on Friday to prohibit Investgold from importing and selling gold coins bearing his image and name. Investgold sought permission from the foundation in October to import 24-carat gold coins minted in the United Kingdom.

President Thabo Mbeki gave South Africa’s reconciliation process a glowing report card on Thursday, saying black and white citizens are standing up for freedom together. ”We have begun to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and sisterhood,” he said at Reconciliation Day celebrations in Pretoria.

The government has made R4,2-billion rand available over the next three years to improve police salaries, National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi announced on Monday. He said the ”long overdue” salary improvements are intended to boost morale and improve service delivery to the public.

Less than 100 people carrying placards gathered outside the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria on Friday to protest against ”human-rights abuses and repressive legislation” in that country. The group sang protest songs such as We Shall Overcome and Sangena (We Are Arriving).

The case of four Chinese accused of murdering a Pretoria family was postponed to Tuesday by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court. The postponement followed a dispute as to whether Shen Lin, Yanbo Zang, Jain-hen Bai and Siyuan Liu were originally arrested for kidnapping only or murder as well, as the charge sheet now states.

Five members of a Johannesburg youth group were on hunger strike at the Union Buildings on Monday in an attempt to get President Thabo Mbeki to address their problems with obtaining funding from the Umsobomvu Youth Fund to help finance the building of houses and establish commercial and industrial infrastructure south of Johannesburg.

Two Pretoria advocates who will go on trial next year for allegedly indecently assaulting and soliciting children will not have access to the personal files of two of their alleged victims. The judge said it is clear from affidavits filed by the advocates that the evidence they seek is not concerned with the offences with which they are being charged.

President Thabo Mbeki hopes to travel to Côte d’Ivoire ”as quickly as possible” to meet all parties to the ongoing conflict in that country and discuss a solution. ”I want to go back very, very quickly,” Mbeki told reporters in Pretoria at the start of discussions with the leader of the rebel-held north.

Two more bodies were discovered in a drain pipe on the Samrand road in Centurion on Saturday morning, bringing the total number of bodies found in the area to four, Pretoria police said. Spokesperson Captain Piletji Sebola said a team of detectives made the discovery when it returned to the scene to search for possible clues.

Any delay in the development of economic ties between South Africa and the Russian Federation could cost the two countries dearly, Russian Resources Minister Yuri Petrovich Trutnev said on Friday. ”Those who are late are losers and we don’t want to be losers,” Trutnev said, referring to the competitiveness of the global trade arena.

Three men who broke the Foreign Military Assistance Act were fined a total of R350 000 or jail time by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Harry Carlse, Lourens Horn and Crause Steyl pleaded guilty under a plea bargain between the defence and the state to involvement in a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Africa&ao=125671">’Coup confession came after torture'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Africa&ao=125630">Thatcher to be tried in absentia</a>

The Durban High Court’s dismissal of an application by television and radio stations to broadcast from the Schabir Shaik trial was a blow for freedom of expression, the National Press Club said on Tuesday. The trial is an event of national importance, it said, as it involves the spending of taxpayers’ money.

A clinical psychologist has described Pretoria’s high-security C-Max prison as ”inhumane, depressing, debilitating and destructive”. Dr Jurgens van Olselen on Monday testified in the Pretoria High Court trial of a convicted murderer who is claiming R500 000 in damages for allegedly being sent unlawfully to C-Max.