A University of Cape Town academic has been temporarily suspended from his research duties and his laboratory closed after an international journal associated him with a herbal tonic touted as an HIV/Aids treatment. ”The University of Cape Town is aware of the report … We regard the allegations in the report in a very serious light,” said spokesperson Skye Grove on Monday.
The controversy surrounding South Africa’s biggest arms-acquisition deal has resurfaced. That prosecutors in Düsseldorf at the weekend confirmed a probe into allegations that a German ship-building consortium supplying four Corvettes to the South African navy, handed over bribes, proves rather embarrassing and comes at a bad time for the two nations.
An independent investigation into the Jeppestown shooting is the only way to restore confidence in the police, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. DA spokesperson on safety and security Roy Jankielsohn said an investigation should look at who ordered the police into a situation in which they were ”outgunned and outmanned” by armed criminals, and why.
The National Prosecuting Authority on Monday started exhuming remains of eight Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) cadres who were killed in the apartheid era between the years 1984 and 1986 and buried as unidentified paupers at Mmabatho cemetery in the North West province.
Four men have been arrested in connection with the rape of two foreign missionaries and the shooting of one of them on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast. Captain Vincent Pandarum said the two women — one from Kenya and the other from the United States — were raped on Friday night as they were walking home on the Old Harding Road near Oslo Beach.
It seems the African Union (AU) is repeating the ”sad past” of the old Organisation for African Unity, particularly with regard to Zimbabwe and Sudan, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has again outwitted President Thabo Mbeki, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the AU, DA foreign affairs spokesman Douglas Gibson said.
A small outbreak of avian influenza was detected on an ostrich farm about 30km west of Mossel Bay in the Western Cape, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs said on Monday. Preliminary surveillance indicated that the outbreak was probably limited to the single farm on which it was detected and which had been put under quarantine, the department added.
South Africa’s revised Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations came into effect on Monday, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism announced. ”It’s all systems go … we are happy that the new regulations are now law in this country,” department spokesperson JP Louw said. The new regulations had been revised to be quicker, simpler and better, and resulted from a substantial consultative process.
German prosecutors have not approached the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to help investigate possible kickbacks in a sale of four corvettes to the South African Navy. NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said on Monday the office had received no requests from the German authorities on the issue.
Former president FW de Klerk was discharged from hospital on Monday morning following surgery to remove a malignant colon tumour and subsequent respiratory complications. With the aid of a cane, he walked out of the Panorama Medi-Clinic to a waiting car. De Klerk told journalists he was going to rest for a bit and then start working again.
Zimbabwe’s Parliament is to clamp down on Cabinet ministers not taking the legislature’s business seriously, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Monday. Its website said a parliamentary committee recommended on Sunday that the conduct of such ministers be brought to the attention of President Robert Mugabe.
South Africa is to take a further step away from Europe and towards its siblings in the East. Johannesburg and Pretoria will soon have ”tuk-tuks” — the three-wheeled motor vehicles that swarm through Asian cities such as Bangkok and Mumbai — buzzing along its streets.
A woman accused of having an affair with long-distance athlete Zola Budd-Pieterse’s ex-husband was arrested after an attempted suicide drama in Bloemfontein, media reports said on Monday. Pinkie Pelser — the alleged mistress — fired a gun while threatening to shoot anyone entering the premises of the house she rents from Mike Pieterse.
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Claims that South Africa could lose the 2010 World Cup were ”laughable” and ”absolute nonsense”, said Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the local organising committee for the event. ”What has changed since we won the World Cup? Why will we suddenly now lose it?” Jordaan asked from Germany.
Two of the three former apartheid spies who were released from a Zimbabwean prison at the weekend have been reunited with their families, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Sunday. Michael Smith, Kevin Woods and Philip Conjwayo were jailed for life for murder and sabotage in 1988. They were pardoned by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
The government is developing an ambitious plan for every household in the country to use gas for its cooking and heating needs. The plan, which includes regulating the price of gas, foresees the development of special import facilities at the country’s harbours to ship in vast quantities of liquid petroleum gas from gas-rich countries such as Algeria.
A ”frightening” number of police officers have died in Gauteng so far this year, with almost as many slain in the first six months of 2006 as in the whole of last year, said the office of National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. The deaths of four police officers in a bloody siege in Jeppestown last Sunday brought the tally to 19 since the start of the year.
Western Province carried on from where the Stormers left off by snatching defeat from the jaws of victory as they went down 28-25 to the Sharks in their Currie Cup match at Newlands on Saturday. The Sharks were heavily favoured going into the match and seemed well on their way as they took a 10-0 lead after 20 minutes.
The Blue Bulls showed glimpses of a championship outfit when they recorded a morale boosting 39-24 win over the Lions in their Currie Cup encounter played at Ellis Park on Saturday. It may not have been the prettiest game to the eye but pretty was not what Heyneke Meyer and his troops crossed the Jukskei River for.
Budget cuts on the upgrading and maintenance of railway signals is to blame for the train accident that claimed a life and left 42 people injured in Kempton Park on Friday night, the Democratic Alliance said. ”The government must take full responsibility for deaths and injuries,” DA transport spokesperson for Gauteng James Swart said on Saturday.
Any agreement reached at faltering World Trade Organisation Doha Round talks on liberalising global commerce had to meet developmental needs while not further burdening poor countries, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Saturday. It has rejected the idea that developing countries accept deep cuts in tariffs in exchange for an end to unfair trade practices in the north.
The Cheetahs proved why they are Currie Cup champions with a 66-9 demolition job on the Valke in Brakpan on Friday night. Led by a rampant Willem de Waal, who controlled the game throughout, the Cheetahs overwhelmed the home side and scored a massive ten tries without reply to underline their dominance at this level.
The cellphone industry will introduce number portability on September 18, the Argus reported on Friday. Its website said this would allow a subscriber, whether on prepaid or contract, to move to another operator while keeping the same number. Communication experts predicted better service for cellphone users is bound to follow.
A man was killed and 42 people injured when two Metrorail trains collided north of Kempton Park on Friday night, Ekurhuleni emergency services said. Spokesperson Sugan Naidoo said the accident happened just after 7pm between the Pinedene and Olifantsfontein stations when two trains that were both on their way to Pretoria collided.
A 37-year-old police officer died after he and a colleague were wounded in a shooting with robbers in Soweto on Tuesday morning, police said. Inspector Leslie Mashaba (37) and Captain Simon Matladi (38) tried to arrest two armed robbers at a shack in Kliptown at 3am when the shooting began.
Music and storytelling marked the celebrations of former president Nelson Mandela’s birthday in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
South Africa’s Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development says there is no truth in a recent <i>Mail & Guardian</i> story where it was asserted that President Thabo Mbeki had intervened and stopped the "judges Bills". The <i>M&G</i>, however, stated on Friday that it stands by the story, which it holds to be "of immense public interest".
The maximum-earnings ceiling for contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) will on Saturday increase from R10 966 to R11 662 per month, the Department of Labour said on Friday. ”All workers who earn above the maximum level will only contribute up to the maximum,” the department said in a media statement.
Petrol will go up by 25 cents a litre at midnight on Wednesday, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. That means 95-octane unleaded petrol will now cost R6,73 a litre in Gauteng, 93-octane unleaded petrol and lead-replacement petrol will cost R6,61, and 91-octane unleaded petrol will cost R6,60.
The police ordered into the Jeppestown incident to face 20 armed murderers were used as cannon fodder, the official opposition Democratic Alliance said on Friday. This follows a South African Cabinet statement sending condolences to the families of police personnel killed at Jeppestown. Four members of the South African Police Service lost their lives.
A man suspected of murdering his wife and then trying to disguise the crime as a hijacking has confessed to the murder, police in Durban said on Friday. On Wednesday night, the man was fished out of Durban harbour near the landmark sugar terminals after he drove his bakkie through a security boom.
The African Christian Democratic Party has called on Christians to boycott the Comrades Marathon after the announcement that the race is to be run on a Sunday. ”You undermine the importance of family and you undermine the sanctity of the Sunday as a special day to get in touch with the Lord of lords and the King of kings,” the party’s Western Cape leader Hansie Louw said on Friday.