More than R13-million is still missing after a Benoni police safe containing airport heist money was broken into, the town’s magistrate’s court heard on Wednesday. Only R340 000 of the R14-million — in US dollars and rands — that had been stolen had been recovered so far, said state prosecutor Peter-John Smith.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) and security sector employers have deadlocked over an apparent misunderstanding of the terms of a revised wage offer. Jackson Simon, Satawu’s national coordinator for the security industry, said on Wednesday that parties will meet again on Monday in an attempt to iron out the differences.
The South African government repeated denials on Wednesday that the deportation of Pakistani illegal immigrant Khalid Mahmood Rashid amounted to unlawful rendition. Rashid’s lawyer Zehir Omar seems bent on portraying the government as breaking its own laws and constitutional provisions, government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said in Cape Town.
The death toll in Angola’s cholera epidemic has surged risen to more than 1 700 and the number of cases is over 45 000, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday. Over the past four months ”Angola has reported a total of 45 133 cumulative cases and 1 727 deaths in 14 out of the 18 provinces”, a WHO statement said.
Former businessman and politician Themba James Maseko is the new head of government communications, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad announced on Wednesday afternoon. Maseko, a former African National Congress MP, becomes CEO of the Government Communication and Information Systems, which makes him spokesperson for the government.
The anti-Aids ABC message — abstain, be faithful and use condoms — has left many of the continent’s youth confused, an Aids conference in Durban heard on Wednesday. In a survey of 1Â 766 pupils conducted in the Valley of a Thousand Hills near Durban, only one schoolgirl said abstinence is ”not having sex until one is married”.
The Scorpions welcomed an appeal against a precedent-setting Cape High Court judgement on Wednesday, in which illicit diamond trader Tony Dos Santos was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment. The appeal ”will allow the jurisprudence relating to racketeering to be developed so that it finds national application”, the Scorpions said.
The Power Alert system, launched on May 22, has taken only three weeks to prove its value, Eskom said on Thursday. The power utility said it expected a turbulent weekend in the Cape after the shutdown of the Koeberg nuclear power station’s unit one on Friday afternoon.
Teachers need to ensure that their colleagues behave professionally, a teachers’ union said on Wednesday in reaction to a South African Human Rights Commission report according to which violence and abuse, including sexual abuse, is widespread in schools.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) ”ongoing marginalisation” by the tripartite alliance aggravates unemployment and poverty, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Wednesday. Vavi told a press briefing in Johannesburg that the African National Congress-led alliance continues to marginalise some of its members.
A 29-year-old blockman from Meyers Park, Pretoria, was referred for mental observation by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court for a second time on Wednesday. Daniel Petrus van der Walt was arrested after he had allegedly confessed that he killed 20-year-old Marlene Mauer with a hammer.
”Oh Lord, I’m burning.” These were the last words of 21-year-old Pollsmoor prisoner Marilyn Syfers as flames engulfed her cell on the evening of April 4 this year. They are recorded in an affidavit from a fellow inmate, which forms part of the documentation of the official inquiry into the incident. Some details of the tragedy have already been made public.
The start of the Soccer World Cup has had an unexpected benefit for blackout-plagued Cape Town, the city’s manager for public lighting, Charles Kadalie, said on Wednesday. He said a drop in evening peak electricity demand in residential areas has been noticeable since Friday, when the tournament got under way in Germany.
The aroma of meat sizzling on the side of the road was an incongruous distraction at the entrance to Virgin Active’s new Khayelitsha ”township gym”, which aims to educate local residents about the advantages of a healthy diet and exercise. ”It’s not going to be easy to convince them, but we must convince them bit by bit,” said trainee assistant Noxolo Jaho on Wednesday.
Injuries have forced Springbok coach Jake White to make three changes to his Test-winning side, including dropping star centre Jean de Villiers for the weekend’s second Test against Scotland. Both De Villiers and centre partner Jaque Fourie have been ruled out. De Villiers had left the field in the second half of the first Test with rib injuries.
Springbok coach Jake White announced a new centre pairing to face Scotland in the second Test in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. Injuries to centres Jean de Villiers and Jaque Fourie forced White to select the untested combination of Olivier and Snyman.
Hospitalised former president FW de Klerk had a ”peaceful” night after a tracheotomy was successfully performed, Panorama Medi-Clinic said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Melissa Rademan said De Klerk was in a stable condition in an intensive-care unit at the hospital.
More safe blood is needed in Africa, said the World Health Organisation (WHO) on World Blood Day on Wednesday. ”The need to collect enough blood and to make it available for patients is more acute in developing countries, and particularly in Africa,” said Dr Luis Gomes Sambo, the regional director of the WHO regional office for Africa.
A statuette depicting the famous photograph of a wounded Hector Pieterson cradled in a friend’s arms was presented to former president Nelson Mandela.
A high-ranking diplomat from South Africa’s High Commission in Zimbabwe was shot dead outside a house he had recently bought near Midrand, police said on Tuesday. North Rand police spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman said Kingsley Sithole, a counsellor at the office in Harare, was attacked by unidentified people late on Monday night.
Aids-treatment programmes need to expand dramatically in Africa, an expert said on Tuesday, suggesting nurses do some of the work of doctors and more people be trained as counsellors in order to meet the enormous need. ”We need to expand four- or fivefold from where we are now,” said Dr Mark Dybul, the United States State Department’s deputy global Aids coordinator.
Sex between teachers and pupils is inexcusable, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said on Tuesday. There could be no excuse for ”inappropriate behaviour” between teachers on school premises, said Sadtu general secretary Thulas Nxesi. Equally unacceptable are the exploitative and predatory activities of some male teachers towards female pupils.
Talks about the continuing security guards’ strike were adjourned on Tuesday for the parties to ”clarify and reflect on issues still in dispute”, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) said. ”Given the fact that discussions continued to approximately 2am, parties agreed to adjourn to clarify and reflect on issues,” CCMA spokesperson Lusanda Myoli said.
Former South African president FW de Klerk is to undergo a tracheotomy, his spokesperson Dave Steward confirmed on Tuesday afternoon. De Klerk originally went to hospital the weekend before last to have a cancerous growth removed from his colon. He has been sedated for about a week.
Mushin Ertugral has been appointed Ajax Cape Town head coach with immediate effect, Ajax CEO John Comitis announced on Tuesday. The former Kaizer Chiefs coach is a replacement for Gordon Igesund, who was fired last week although he still had 12 months to go on his contract.
South Africa will send a 128-member observer mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to monitor that country’s election, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. Pahad said the observer team will be deployed in key areas in all the provinces of the DRC ahead of the election scheduled for July 30.
Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils’s failure to make public a report on hoax e-mails by former intelligence head Billy Masetlha raises suspicions of a conspiracy against African National deputy president Jacob Zuma. This is according to Young Communist League national chairperson David Masondo.
The former commander of detectives at the Maitland police station was among three police officers remanded in custody by the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. The former commander — Captain Trevor Chetty — and inspectors Ronnie Matthews and John Stevens face charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice.
The African National Congress archives committee handed tapes and transcripts of 100 interviews with struggle veterans to the University of Connecticut and the University of Fort Hare on Tuesday. Among the veterans interviewed are Walter and Albertina Sisulu and Govan Mbeki.
South African President Thabo Mbeki will visit Sudan next week to evaluate the peace process in the war-ravaged western Darfur region, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. Mbeki is to meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and Vice-President Salva Kirr during the one-day visit on Tuesday.
Members of Parliament have been told to lay off the bottle and stick to tap water. ”There is no need to use bottled water in Parliament; you can use tap water … there is nothing wrong with it,” Water Research Commission CEO Dr Rivka Kfir told members of the National Assembly’s science and technology committee.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille was acting as if she was a ”mayor in opposition”, unable to rise above the interests of her party, the Democratic Alliance, African National Congress Western Cape chairperson James Ngculu said on Tuesday. Ngculu was addressing a media briefing in the city after a two-day meeting of his provincial executive.