Trapped beneath a 20-ton truck, two motorists spent their last moments alive watching emergency personnel frantically trying to rescue them in Pretoria on Tuesday. The runaway truck’s brakes failed, its unlicensed driver said, and it careered through seven sets of traffic lights, smashing five vehicles in its path.
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At least 99% of the 20,6-million South Africans who registered as voters are expected to turnout to make their crosses on polling day, the Independent Electoral Commission said on Monday — provided it did not rain.
Special Report: Elections 2004
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The ruling African National Congress (ANC) will win ”decisive” support in next week’s general elections, South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday, adding a ”great mood of optimism about the future” had swept the country.
Special Report: Elections 2004
Wet and windy conditions are set to make driving over the Easter long weekend even more perilous, Arrive Alive said on Thursday. Spokesperson Wendy Watson said traffic was expected to increase on all major routes as worshippers and holiday makers made their way to various destinations.
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The rest of Africa can learn much from South Africa’s election process, the visiting Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum said on Thursday. ”We have observed nine elections throughout the SADC since 1999 and realised how much other countries can learn from South Africa,” said the mission leader.
Special Report: Elections 2004
South Africa apologised to Rwanda on Wednesday for not ”crying out” loud enough when hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in 100 days of genocide in that country in 1994. ”We did not cry out as loudly as we should have,” President Thabo Mbeki told a commemoration ceremony in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.
One in 10 South Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 are HIV-positive — but there is hope, according to the findings of new survey, released on Wednesday. The 10,2% prevalence rate may amount to a stabilisation of infections in that age group, the survey report states.
The Pakistani High Commission on Wednesday was trying to establish the correctness of reports that South Africans were among 14 people arrested in Lahore on drug-smuggling charges. Pakistani authorities on Tuesday said they had busted an international drug smuggling ring headed by an airport customs official.
President Thabo Mbeki and his wife, Zanele arrived in Kigali, Rwanda, on Wednesday morning for the commemoration of the genocide in that country 10 years ago, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. They are accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and other senior government officials.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=33786">West ignores Rwanda anniversary</a>
Six South African soldiers serving in a peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo were believed killed in a road accident near Goma on Tuesday, the South African National Defence Force said. It is believed the troops were travelling in a Casspir vehicle, which swerved off the road and plunged into Lake Kifu.
The digital divide is growing rather than narrowing despite efforts to rectify the imbalance, said Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana in Pretoria on Tuesday. ”The information, communication and technology sector in our country reflects the skewed landscape of ownership, control and access to resources,” he said.
The state might challenge a Supreme Court of Appeal decision to substitute the life imprisonment imposed on a woman who hired two men to murder her abusive partner with a suspended sentence. The appeal court last week replaced the life sentence of Anieta Natasha Ferreira with one of six years.
Three of the Boeremag treason trial accused will find out next week whether their advocates will have to withdraw from the trial. The national director of public prosecutions launched an urgent application on Friday in the Pretoria High Court for an order forcing advocates Harry Prinsloo and Louisa van der Walt to withdraw from the trial.
More resources will be released to address a R10-billion backlog to improve the public health-care infrastructure, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday. She was speaking at the opening of the Colesberg hospital in the Northern Cape.
Government funding for HIV/Aids programmes was sufficient in terms of the country’s current spending capacity, but there needs to be better transparency and accountability regarding what provinces are allocating to the disease from their own budgets, says the Institute for Democracy in SA (Idasa).
The South African military and the United Nations are trying to determine if the shooting of a South African soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was related to a recent coup attempt in that country. South African National Defence Force spokesperson Colonel Kwena Mangope said the soldier was shot at about 11pm on Monday.
Taxi organisations will patrol the country’s highways with traffic officers this Easter in a bid to boost road safety, the Arrive Alive campaign announced on Tuesday. South African National Taxi Council president Tom Moufe said taxi drivers would respond better to those who knew the way they worked.
Veteran journalist, author and artist Hans Strydom (68) died in Pretoria on Sunday, his family confirmed on Monday. He had been ill for a long time. Strydom was a doyen of South African journalists and was the chairperson of the Southern African Society of Journalists. He also chaired the Johannesburg and Durban press clubs.
The South African government has expressed its outrage and condemnation of a reported coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The statement added that the government was convinced that the apparent plotters were a tiny minority in its body politic.
As a group of academics discovered, it takes just a quick trip to Soweto on the outskirts of Johannesburg to be confronted with the problems that still plague South Africa. The group of about 200 had been invited to review the first decade of democracy under the auspices of a conference entitled <i>South Africa: Ten Years after Apartheid</i>.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Academics and political analysts from around the world have gathered in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, for a conference on the achievements of the first decade of democracy in the country. "Post-apartheid South Africa has taught all of us that even those who are made into the worst enemies can overcome the trauma of such a tragedy," said Salim Ahmed Salim.
One of the Boeremag’s alleged leaders, Dr Lets Pretorius, smiled broadly and his wife burst into tears and hugged him after a Pretoria High Court judge granted him R500 000 bail on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the prosecution is to launch an urgent application next week for the withdrawal of two of the defence advocates.
The first medicine-dispensing licences, allowing health-care practitioners to provide medicine to clients, were handed out by the Health Ministry in Pretoria on Tuesday. This follows a law promulgated last year to prevent doctors from dispensing medicine without the licences.
Ten years after South Africa ended apartheid and returned to the international arena, the country is a model of good governance, freedom and democracy, Kenya’s agricultural attache in South Africa, Bernard Kitheka, said on Tuesday at a World Meteorological Day function hosted by the South African Weather Service.
The South African government has condemned the assassination of Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. The Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that such extra-judicial assassinations were in contravention of international law and United Nations conventions.
The three men who were arrested following the shooting of an ex-soldier outside former president Nelson Mandela’s home on Tuesday were to appear in court on Thursday afternoon. The matter would be postponed for seven days to allow the police to conclude its investigation, directorate spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said.
A third man has been arrested in connection with an incident outside former president Nelson Mandela’s home on Tuesday in which a disgruntled former soldier was shot dead, police said on Wednesday afternoon. The man was arrested in Knysna in the Western Cape around 10pm on Tuesday, according to police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Selby Bokaba.
A Pretoria judge reserved judgement on Wednesday on whether one of the 22 Boeremag treason trialists should be released on bail. Judge Anna-Marie de Vos has heard argument in Dr Lets Pretorius second bail bid and was asked on Wednesday to refuse his application.
Plastic and steel containers for dispensing condoms in prisons were used by inmates to manufacture lethal weapons, the Jali Commission of Inquiry heard on Wednesday. When cardboard boxes were used instead, the containers and their contents were often destroyed by prisoners, according to Correctional Services health director Maria Mabena.
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana was dismayed at the slow pace of negotiations between striking airport baggage handlers and Equity Aviation Services, his department said on Wednesday. He said the strike had dragged on for too long and should be resolved as a matter of urgency.
One of Pretoria’s most wanted criminal is dead and another was critically injured during anti-crime operations, police said on Tuesday. ”The first suspect — wanted on two charges of murder and two of attempted murder — shot himself in the head when he realised he could not escape,” said police spokesperson Percy Morokane.
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The United Democratic Movement urged its supporters on Friday to remain ”calm and patient” after the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) published incorrect versions of the party’s candidates lists. Spokesperson Malizole Diko said the order of candidates on all of the party’s 19 lists was ”completely wrong”.
Special Report: Elections 2004