Pretoria

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.

Côte d’Ivoire rebel leader Guillame Soro will visit South Africa soon to discuss with President Thabo Mbeki solutions to the Ivorian civil war, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. The United Nations Security Council is currently considering imposing financial and movement sanctions on Côte d’Ivoire.

The Department of Home Affairs has again come under the spotlight with the arrest of an ”illegal agent” caught issuing legitimate documents, Pretoria police said on Friday. ”Top-level discussions will be held with the Department of Home Affairs to find what the problem is,” said police spokesperson Captain Piletji Sebola.

An official of the Department of Correctional Services has been arrested in connection with the deaths of Pretoria’s C-Max prison head, a warder and two inmates in a failed escape bid on Sunday. The official, who was employed at the maximum-security jail, was arrested on Monday.

There was a stunned silence when Madeleen Bredenhann (29) was convicted in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday of hacking to death her mother, Elma Bredenhann, and her grandmother, Albertina (Dassie) Wambach. Judge Chris Botha said his opinion was that Bredenhann’s version must be rejected as false.

A thwarted escape attempt by three inmates appears to have been behind the deaths of two officials and two prisoners at Pretoria’s C-Max jail on Sunday, the Department of Correctional Services said on Monday. ”It appears that they shot themselves when they realised their plan was not going to work,” said a spokesperson.

The South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights called on Monday for a probe into weapons smuggling in jails following Sunday’s killings at Pretoria’s C-Max high-security facility. It condemned Sunday’s shooting, apparently by a prisoner who killed another inmate and two warders before turning the gun on himself.

The judge in the Boeremag treason trial made assurances on Wednesday that he has not yet decided on the guilt of anyone after being accused of ”helping” a state witness. Alleged Boeremag leader Tom Vorster had complained that the judge was ”helping” state witness Deon Crous during cross-examination.

Aids lobby group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is to take the Department of Health to court on Thursday for allegedly obstructing its attempts to obtain information on government targets for the roll-out of anti-retroviral drugs. It says the department compiled a document setting out targets and timetables for the roll-out.

Black empowerment projects in agriculture could be jeopardised if the government does not ensure farmers’ safety, said AgriSA in Pretoria on Tuesday. AgriSA president Lourie Bosman said in a statement it is cause for concern that an increasing number of incidents are reported where the attackers wore police uniforms.

A Namibian national accused of assaulting and attempting to rape a Pretoria advocate was granted R50 000 bail in the city’s magistrate’s court on Monday, radio news reported. Twenty-year-old Ismail ”Zondi” Ashipembe is the grandson of the third secretary at the Namibian High Commission.

The grandson of a Namibian diplomat based in Pretoria was arrested on Friday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. He was first arrested by police last week after an alleged attack on a former National Prosecuting Authority prosecutor in her townhouse in Pretoria, but was released from custody as he had diplomatic immunity.

”Feeling great” and accepting his award on behalf of all New Zealanders who fought apartheid, was how Trevor Richards expressed himself after receiving the Order of OR Tambo on Friday in Pretoria. Amid much pomp and ceremony, President Thabo Mbeki bestowed national orders on 30 recipients at the Union Buildings.

The public protector ruled on Friday against a complaint that the Cabinet acted improperly when it approved the Department of Health’s plan for the treatment of HIV/Aids. This followed a complaint by Johannesburg woman Anita Allen, who said the assumption that HIV causes Aids has not been proved.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) may be disarmed of its service pistols if no police officer is killed over a two-year period, said National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi on Tuesday. Selebi also said he will shortly turn schools into gun-free zones where not even police officers will be allowed to enter with their weapons.

Self-confessed coup plotter Deon Crous testified on Tuesday in the Boeremag treason trial in the Pretoria High Court that he and five of the Boeremag accused had decided to assassinate Mandela with a home-made bomb after reading in a newspaper that he would open a school near Tzaneen in Limpopo.