Pretoria

Former African National Congress (ANC) chief whip Tony Yengeni was sentenced to four years in prison on Wednesday for defrauding Parliament.

The SA Police Service has challenged the trade union Solidarity to substantiate its claim that 40% f the force were threatening to resign over a massive restructuring programme currently underway.

The South African Navy’s corvette acquisition programme is back on track after a delivery delay, chief of navy staff Rear-Admiral Johannes Mudimu said on Thursday. A hitch with defective cables late last year had delayed the delivery of the first of four new corvettes under South Africa’s arms procurement package.

Two agreements have been struck to settle all claims involving asbestosis against mining group Gencor for a total amount of R460,5-mllion, Gencor announced on Thursday.

Six coaches of South Africa’s luxury Blue Train were damaged by fire at the Pretoria station on Tuesday night, Spoornet said. Representative Mike Asefovitz said on Wednesday the blaze appeared to have started in the kitchen.

Professional blaster Deric Barrett convicted last year of culpable homicide for a deadly explosion at his Villieria home in 2000, was previously found guilty of a related crime, the Pretoria Regional Court heard on Wednesday.

The Pretoria Regional Court will hand down judgement next Wednesday in the bail application of Johan ”Lets” Pretorius who was arrested in September last year for his alleged role in a right-wing plot to overthrow the government.

South African President Thabo Mbeki spoke to his French and British counterparts about Iraq on Monday night, presidential representative Bheki Khumalo said in Pretoria.

South Africa has consistently opposed the imposition of sanctions against the government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and on Saturday repeated its call for diplomacy to solve the crisis affecting its northern neigbour.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said on Friday she did not understand why she was charged with fraud for loans she was supposed to have secured for other people, none of whom said they shared the money with her.

The main rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is backed by Rwanda, rejoined a final plenary session of peace talks in Pretoria late on Thursday after walking out earlier in the day.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s co-accused, broker Addy Moolman, testified on Tuesday that he stated in loan applications that people who did not work for the ANC Women’s League, were in its employ, and that she signed them.

Closing arguments are to be heard in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday in the trial of two former policemen accused of taking part in a 1998 dog ”training exercise” using illegal immigrants as bait.

A witness in the fraud and theft trial of African National Congress Women’s League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela testified on Monday she was made to sign a blank loan application which was fraudulently completed later.

Almost a quarter of all dagga seized world-wide last year was found in Southern Africa, mostly South Africa, according to the annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), released on Wednesday.

The South African economy grew by three percent last year, compared to a 2,8%expansion recorded in 2001, Statistics SA reported on Tuesday.

South African and Zimbabwean immigration officials are to meet on Tuesday to find a solution to the current congestion of trucks at the Beit Bridge border post, the home affairs department said on Monday.

A ”key member” of the right-wing Boeremag group appeared briefly in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday morning on charges of terrorism, treason and sabotage.

The fraud and theft trial of African Women’s League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and broker Addy Moolman is to resume in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday.

”Simplistic and literal” reporting was to blame for suggestions that the African National Congress (ANC) was anti-American, the party said on Thursday.

The number of Aids-related deaths in South African prisons was estimated to have grown by 750% since 1995, says an Institute for Security Studies (ISS) research consultant.

The number of natural deaths in South Africa’s prisons has increased six-fold since 1995, of which between 90 and 95% were believed to be Aids-related, an Institute for Security Studies research consultant said on Tuesday.

Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni was described as a rotten apple on Monday by the prosecution in his fraud trial, but the defence argued he was an honourable man vilified by the media.

Arguments in mitigation and aggravation of sentence are to start in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Monday for convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni — former chief whip of the African National Congress.

President Thabo Mbeki denied on Sunday that the government was backtracking on a framework agreement it reached with labour and business on a plan to treat people with HIV/Aids.