African National Congress Youth League executive member and former Randgold and Exploration director Songezo Mjongile appeared in the Germiston Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on charges of tax fraud tin the amount of R1,8-million, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Not all of the eight robbers shot dead with four policemen in a house in Jeppestown on Sunday have been identified yet, Gauteng police said on Wednesday. Police were also still considering whether to make their names public once their identities had been established, Senior-Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said.
South Africa’s Commission for Employment Equity — which monitors transformation in the South African workplace — has come out with all guns firing against a Solidarity trade union employment-equity plan that proposes a code of good practice for affirmative action, which promotes the commitment of a non-designated group (whites).
The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) inquiry into alleged blacklisting of commentators should be broadened to include bias against the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Wednesday. The DA’s Donald Lee said: ”The SABC’s coverage of the DA’s 2006 local election campaign was indicative of the public broadcaster’s aim to cut out the opposition.
Three-million people remain short of food in Southern Africa as a result of poverty and HIV/Aids despite recent good harvests, the United Nations’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday. WFP executive director James Morris said that although the region, plagued by drought in recent years, saw bumper crops, it paradoxically made the task of the UN agency more difficult.
South Africa must move away from its ”stubborn” obsession with race and focus on the socio-economic backgrounds of people to transform the country, political analyst Frederik van Zyl Slabbert said on Wednesday. ”If you make yourself hostage to a racist past you could budget on a racist future,” Van Zyl Slabbert said.
Shareholders in South African mobile giant MTN have approved plans to buy Dubai-listed Investcom in a deal to create the biggest mobile operator in Africa and the Middle East, MTN said on Wednesday. The ,5-billion (€4,3-billion) deal, first announced on May 2, was expected to lead to operations in 21 countries and serving nearly 30-million subscribers.
Western Cape police have completed their investigation into the death of a rugby player in a match last week and are waiting for a decision from the public prosecutor, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. Riaan Loots (24), a flyhalf for Rawsonville Rugby Club, died during a match with the Delicious Rugby Club last Friday.
One of the parents whose baby died recently during a power failure at an East London hospital plans to sue the government, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday. Another parent was seeking legal advice. Parents of the dead babies were outraged at comments by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in Parliament that they would not receive compensation.
An armed man was killed and a police reservist wounded in another shoot-out between police and men who allegedly held up two fast food outlets in Fordsburg, police said on Wednesday. This follows a shoot-out in Jeppestown on Sunday in which four police officers and eight susepcts were killed.
The city of Cape Town is to institute claims against the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) for damage caused during the union’s protest march last month, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. Pieter Cronje said 248 people had reported personal injuries and damage to their property totalling R1,15-million.
South African Airways (SAA) on Wednesday launched a project to fight baggage pilferage and theft at Johannesburg International airport. From July 1, all baggage on SAA flights will be wrapped in plastic by an automatic machine, SAA’s chief risk officer, Vishnu Naicker, said.
South Africa’s transport sector is in crisis, African National Congress MP and chairperson of Parliament’s transport portfolio committee Jeremy Cronin said on Tuesday. ”We’ve got a very, very substantial crisis around transport mobility and accessibility,” he told journalists at a Cape Town Press Club meeting.
More than 30 media commentators on Tuesday handed a petition to the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) protesting their alleged ”blacklisting” at the public broadcaster, the South African Litigation Centre said. The petition called for a ”clear refutation of any erosion of free speech at the public broadcaster”.
Eleven of 16 people arrested for Sunday’s Jeppestown siege were remanded until July 27 by the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. Sunday’s shootout in Johannesburg left 12 people dead, four of them police officers. On Tuesday at least 10 police officers with rifles and handguns blocked the doors to the court as the first nine men laboured up the steps from the holding cells.
A split in the alliance between the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions will ”seriously” damage South Africa at this point, the SACP’s deputy general secretary warned on Tuesday. ”I think fragmentation of the alliance … wouldn’t be good for South Africa,” Jeremy Cronin said.
The government will look at buying up commercially available agricultural land in an attempt to speed up land reform, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana said on Tuesday. She was speaking after a presidential working group meeting on agriculture in Pretoria.
Health care in the Eastern Cape faces a collapse in surgical services if a shortage of general surgeons continues, Dispatch Online reported on Tuesday. It quoted Association of Surgeons in South Africa chairperson Dr Sats Pillay as saying: ”I have nobody to train as surgeons.”
Veteran anti-apartheid activist Helen Suzman is still recovering in hospital after a fall 10 days ago, said an official at Johannesburg’s Milpark Hospital on Tuesday. ”She is still in the general ward and making slow progress, as one does at her age,” said Milpark spokesperson Amelda Swartz. ”Yesterday [Monday] she was up and moving with her walker.”
South African mining company JCI has agreed to sell its majority stake in Lesotho’s only diamond mine in a multimillion-dollar deal, the buyer announced on Monday. Gem Diamonds said in a statement that JCI and its black empowerment partner, Matodzi, agreed to sell its 76% share in Letseng diamond mine in a deal worth R879-million.
The sharing of information between businesses about cash-in-transit heists and robberies will play an important role in the reduction of the crime rate in South Africa, Business Against Crime South Africa said on Tuesday. Chief executive Kenny Fihla said 18 businesses signed an agreement in Johannesburg on Tuesday to exchange ideas and information on robberies.
The South African mediator in the Burundi peace talks on Tuesday shot down claims of a walkout by the country’s last remaining rebel group. South African Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said the perceived walkout was ”participants breaking into small groups to continue talks”.
The chairperson of the Boland rugby team being investigated after the death of a rugby opponent says racism sparked the incident, Independent Online reported on Tuesday. Delicious Rugby Club chairperson Bennie Leendertz claimed racial taunts caused the outbreak of on-field violence that eventually led to the death of 24-year-old flyhalf Riaan Loots.
Eight Chinese men were arrested on Tuesday for operating a counterfeit clothing syndicate from a farm in Honeydew, West Rand police said. The clothing, valued at more than R2-million, had labels such as Nike, Reebok and Levi’s printed on them, Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said.
If Israel invades Gaza it would be the beginning of the end to finding a political solution in that country, South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. He said South Africa had sent messages to both Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, urging them to put pressure on groups who kidnapped an Israeli soldier over the weekend.
South Africa’s Department of Health was "not considering" paying compensation to the families of four deceased children who died at the Cecilia Makiwane hospital in East London recently, as it was "not a deliberate action or a result of negligence", said Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang this week.
The court appearance of the 11 men arrested after a bloody shoot-out with police in Jeppestown on Sunday has been brought forward to Tuesday, Gauteng police said. The men were initially scheduled to appear in the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, but the date was changed around 9am on Tuesday, said police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht.
Another circumcision initiate has died in the town of Port Shepstone, bringing death toll to seven in two weeks since the start of the mid-year initiation season, the Eastern Cape health department said on Tuesday. Another boy, from Ngqeleni near Mthatha, faces possible amputation.
South African media group Naspers on Tuesday reported a 63% increase in its core headline earnings per ordinary N share to 696 cents for the year ended March 2006 from 427 cents for the 12 months to March 2005. Naspers declared an annual dividend per N share of 120 cents, up 71% from 70 cents previously and 24 cents from 14 cents per unlisted A ordinary share.
The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) has expressed concern at Zwelakhe Sisulu’s involvement in a commission of enquiry set up to probe whether the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) sought to gag commentators critical of President Thabo Mbeki.
Alexandra, Gauteng’s "township of rhythm", is ready to jump aboard the tourism train. Efforts are being made to lure visitors into the heart of a place that was once ruled by gangsters and considered strictly off-limits to anybody with a hint of common sense. But times have changed.
The Boland Rugby Union has launched an urgent investigation into the incident that left a rugby player brain-dead, the union said on Monday. ”The shocking incident between Rawsonville and Delicious is a cause for concern and the board has appointed a senior advocate to uncover the real facts of the incident,” the union’s spokesperson, Rayaan Adriaanse, said.