Pretoria

The Boeremag High Court treason trial was once again delayed on Thursday to enable defence counsel to study possible further evidence. Police spy Johan Smit revealed, during cross-examination, that police had secretly taped some of the Boeremag meetings at which a coup plot was allegedly discussed.

South Africans consuming imported poultry are not at risk of contracting the avian influenza that has claimed at least eight human lives in Asia, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said on Monday. A ban on chicken imports from Thailand has ensured that no infected meat will reach South Africa.

Police spy Johan Smit revealed for the first time on Monday that police had made secret tape recordings of several Boeremag meetings at which an alleged coup plot were discussed. Prosecutor Paul Fick, however, said the state could not use the tapes as evidence as they were not audible.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=30163">Boeremag back in court</a>

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Friday wrapped up his visit to South Africa with a tour of a health centre named after a black activist and lunch at a German-run factory. President Thabo Mbeki applauded Schroeder’s ”concern to support our continent to meet its political and social goals”.

Efforts to criminalise human trafficking in terms of South African law received a kick-start on Friday with the release of an issue paper on the topic by the South African Law Reform Commission. South Africa is viewed as a country of destination for trafficking victims, but existing legislation does not deal with the problem.

Former transport minister Mac Maharaj and ex-African National Congress intelligence operative Mo Shaik have welcomed the release and content of the Hefer Commission of Inquiry’s report regarding allegations that national prosecutions head Bulelani Ngcuka might have been an apartheid spy.

South Africa will announce draft regulations on Friday that aim to slash medicine prices by up to 70%, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in Pretoria on Thursday. These regulations on transparent pricing had been delayed by four years due to legal action by pharmaceutical companies.

The report of the Hefer Commission of Inquiry into allegations that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid spy was handed to the government on Wednesday. Hefer would not disclose the report’s contents, but the former judge said his final decision had been easy to reach.

The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) lamented on Thursday what it described as a grotesque distortion of its programmes by the media, and denied having any violent or lawless intentions. It said it has no plans to ”launch ‘revenge attacks’ or any other ‘vigilante’ action against abusive white farmers or any other landowners”.

Of an estimated 27-million eligible voters in the country, about 19,4-million have registered to date, the IEC said on Thursday. According to IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam, this is a high rate. If two or three million more people register during the next targeted enrolment weekend, that will amount to a world record, she said.

The South African government on Tuesday called a special media conference in which it again defended President Thabo Mbeki’s attendance at Haiti’s celebration of its independence bicentennial. It also criticised the media for spreading ”deliberate falsifications” about an alleged attack on the presidential contingent in Haiti.

By Sunday, December’s road death toll was more than 10% lower than last year’s, the Department of Transport said on Tuesday. A total of 846 people had died in 690 accidents, compared with 947 deaths in 734 crashes by the same date last year, it said in a statement.

The Presidency has hit back at religious leaders for criticising the South African government’s stance on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Their ”attack” on the government had been based on untested information, Director General Frank Chikane said in a statement published on Wednesday.

Year-on-year consumer price inflation less mortgage costs (CPIX) slowed to 4,1% last month from 4,4% in October, Statistics SA (Stats SA) reported on Wednesday. November’s headline inflation — the increase in the consumer price index (CPI) — declined to 0,4% from 1,5% in October, Statis SA said in a statement.

South African society remains divided and not all have embraced the concept of national unity, President Thabo Mbeki said at Reconciliation Day celebrations in Pretoria on Tuesday. Much progress has been made to reconcile and reconstruct the country, he told revellers gathered on the lawns of the Union Buildings.

Only 3% of African refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa were unemployed before their arrival, and two-thirds have at least the equivalent of matric, according to a new survey. Nearly a third were tertiary students before they came to South Africa, and of the rest almost 70% held skilled or semi-skilled jobs in their countries of origin.

No fewer than 580 corruption probes are currently under way against Department of Correctional Services employees, a senior official revealed on Wednesday, speaking at a briefing by senior departmental officials on the draft White Paper on Corrections, which was recently approved in principle by the Cabinet.

Significantly lower Aids drugs prices are expected to result from agreements reached with two pharmaceutical companies. GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to allow a second company to manufacture generic versions of three of its anti-retroviral drugs, and a similar settlement has been reached with Boehringer Ingelheim.