Pretoria

Eight of the Boeremag treason trialists refused to attend their trial in Pretoria on Monday because of the alleged inhumane conditions at Pretoria’s local prison. Their counsel, Piet Pistorius, told the court he had instructions to launch an urgent application about the jail conditions, which he said prevented them from preparing properly for the trial.

Twelve South African cabinet ministers are to attend a conference with British and European partners in London this weekend to review the country’s first decade of democracy and plan for the next ten years. Dubbed the London Solidarity Conference, the gathering will also be attended by an array of senior corporate, parastatal and government officials.

Talks to finalise the details of a power-sharing agreement for war-torn Burundi are to resume in Pretoria on Monday afternoon following a session which lasted right through Sunday night, a government spokesperson said.

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and health MECs met the task team developing an operational plan for a national anti-retroviral treatment programme in Pretoria on Thursday. The plan, which ensures that the proposed programme becomes an integral part of current health services, was discussed late into the night.

A government-appointed team on Tuesday handed over to the health minister a detailed plan on how to fight the scourge of Aids in South Africa, including the provision of anti-retroviral drugs, a spokesperson for the team said.

To argue whether or not black economic empowerment (BEE) would benefit an elite group was a non-debate, Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said on Saturday. The issue was broad-based empowerment, he told reporters after a two-day meeting of the presidential black business group in Pretoria.

The Boeremag treason trialists have distanced themselves from a so-called ”new” hit list, which includes the names of the trial judge and prosecutors, describing it as a deliberate attempt to blacken their names. One of the accused has also blamed the police for waging a ”campaign” against them.

A judicial commission of inquiry is to probe claims that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was an apartheid-era spy, the government revealed on Thursday. In terms of a Cabinet decision on Wednesday, a retired judge would head the investigation.

Extensive publicity on an alleged gang rape at the University of Pretoria has led to sharp exchanges in the city’s regional court. Prosecutor Brandon Lawrence accused defence counsel Deon Cloete of breaching the sub judice rule by ”leaking” information about the merits of the case to the media.

The government of South Korea wants to buy uranium from Namibia, Ambassador Han Hwa-Ghil, who is based in Pretoria, told Namibian Foreign Minister Hidipo Hamutenya on Wednesday.

Deputy President Jacob Zuma’s bid for a court order to get hold of a document allegedly implicating him in a bribe has suffered a major setback. Pretoria High Court Judge Jerry Shongwe struck the matter off the roll due to lack of urgency and instructed Zuma to pay the legal costs of the respondents.

Deputy President Jacob Zuma cannot use the court process to save his reputation, counsel for the national director of public prosecutions said in the Pretoria High Court on Monday. It was argued that Zuma was the victim of a political process, and that the director of public prosecutions was doing a ”political hatchet job”.

The state has a bona fide belief that the alleged gang rape that took place at the University of Pretoria last week was not the first, the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court heard on Monday. However, defence lawyers have rejected the notion.