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/ 10 October 2005
Health officials are monitoring 151 people for symptoms of the deadly Congo fever virus, which claimed the life of an unnamed farm labourer at Groote Schuur hospital on Monday. Confident the disease will not spread, officials on Monday discharged seven people, including the dead man’s wife and son, from the Riversdale hospital.
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/ 10 October 2005
Contrasting arguments on the future of the Scorpions were submitted by a police union and the Democratic Alliance at the Khampepe commission in Pretoria on Monday. The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union told the commission: ”The need for the Scorpions no longer exists.”
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/ 10 October 2005
The leading sponsors of South African rugby announced on Monday the appointment of former cricket supremo Dr Ali Bacher to represent their joint interests on the board of SA Rugby. The president of SA Rugby, Brian van Rooyen, welcomed Bacher.
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/ 10 October 2005
Workers marching for an end to unemployment and job losses warned the ruling African National Congress on Monday to ignore them at its peril. ”We cannot simply be election fodder,” Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha told protesters who converged at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
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/ 10 October 2005
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A major security operation comes into effect at the Durban Magistrate’s Court at 4pm on Monday ahead of the appearance of former deputy president Jacob Zuma. Zuma will appear in court on Tuesday on two charges of corruption following the conviction and sentencing of his former financial adviser, Schabir Shaik.
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/ 10 October 2005
Johannesburg’s Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC) has dismissed allegations of billing chaos and looting levelled at it by stall holders of the Bree Street Market on Monday. This follows the protest closure of stalls at the market in the morning in a demand to see the MTC CEO to discuss a list of stall holders’ grievances.
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/ 10 October 2005
”The first thought that came to my mind was that someone is bulldozing our house,” wrote a blogger from Islamabad, Pakistan, close to the epicentre of Saturday’s massive South Asian earthquake that killed up to 40 000 people. Read what other bloggers from Pakistan experienced in the disaster.
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/ 10 October 2005
The man accused of murdering missing constable Frances Rasuge laid a charge of conspiracy to commit murder against her after he was told she wanted him dead, Mmabatho Circuit Court heard on Monday. In previous testimony, William Nkuna told the court he had believed Rasuge was incapable of ordering his death.
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/ 10 October 2005
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The African National Congress has reaffirmed its support for its embattled deputy president, Jacob Zuma, and has called on its members and structures to back him too. Zuma is expected to make his second appearance in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on two charges of corruption.
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/ 10 October 2005
The wage strike at retail chain Clicks, owned by listed health and beauty group New Clicks Holdings, entered its fourth day on Monday with all Clicks stores open and operating as usual, Clicks said. Michael Harvey, brand leader of Clicks, estimated that 70% to 80% of staff within the bargaining unit in Gauteng remained away from work through Monday.
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/ 10 October 2005
The need for the Scorpions no longer existed and they should be transferred to the police, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) told the Khampepe Commission in Pretoria on Monday. The commission is deciding whether the Scorpions should be incorporated into the police service or remain part of the National Prosecuting Authority.
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/ 10 October 2005
Pretoria advocate Dirk Prinsloo asked on Monday for his sex-crimes trial to be split from that of his former girlfriend and co-accused Cezanne Visser. The application was based on Visser’s failure on Friday to challenge evidence that she had admitted to committing sexual deeds with Prinsloo in front of two children.
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/ 10 October 2005
Several promising young black gymnasts showed their mettle at the weekend’s acro-gymnastics nationals, which were held at Ermelo in Mpumalanga. Elizke Blofield, a 12-year-old pupil at Laerskool Delmas, and Alexander Demianenko stole the show with brilliant routines to finish with a world-class score of 55,182 (out of 60).
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/ 10 October 2005
Where to, Bafana Bafana? And where to, coach Stuart Baxter? These were the complex questions on the minds of most South African soccer followers on Sunday following the 2-2 draw against the Democratic Republic of Congo and the consequent qualification for the African Nations Cup tournament early next year.
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/ 10 October 2005
Workers in Gauteng and the North West stayed off work and held demonstrations on Monday to protest unemployment and job losses. Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) spokesperson Patrick Craven said demonstrations were being held in Pretoria, Rustenburg, Klerksdorp and Mafikeng.
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/ 10 October 2005
A 46-year-old Swiss lawyer was arrested at a top Sandton hotel on Sunday for sexually exploiting young boys as a ”sex tourist”, Gauteng police said. Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said the high-profile corporate lawyer was caught ”in the act” while having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old Alexandra boy.
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/ 10 October 2005
Drought, depressed commodity prices and a strong rand value have taken their toll on commercial and emerging farmers in South Africa, the Land Bank said on Sunday. In the bank’s 2004/05 report published this week, chairperson Jethro Mbau said South Africa’s agricultural sector is going through ”difficult times”.
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/ 10 October 2005
The Inkatha Freedom Party on Sunday urged its members to vote in great numbers in the coming municipal elections to increase the party’s councillors as well as municipalities to govern. ”The strength of the IFP is in its members,” Zanele Magwaza, the IFP’s national chairperson, told crowds at an IFP rally in Soweto.
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/ 10 October 2005
The condition of a 46-year-old Southern Cape farm labourer hospitalised with Congo fever was deteriorating on Monday morning, said Western Cape health official Dr Keith Cloete. The unnamed man, a farm labourer from the Riversdale area, was admitted to Groote Schuur hospital on October 5.
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/ 10 October 2005
The percentage of Zimbabweans aged between 15 and 49 infected with HIV has fallen from 24,6% to 20,1%, the country’s Herald Online reported on Monday. It said this made Zimbabwe the second country in Sub-Saharan Africa — after Uganda — to see its HIV infection rate start dropping.
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/ 10 October 2005
A 77-year-old man is to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s court on Monday after Metro police issued him with 118 warrants of arrest at a weekend roadblock. Metro police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the warrants were linked to unpaid traffic fines to the value of R64Â 300.
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/ 10 October 2005
Fifty people arrested on Saturday following protests sparked off by the murder of a six-year-old girl in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg will appear in the Protea Magistrate’s court on Monday, according to the police. Gauteng spokesperson Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said the 50 were all adults and included both men and women.
Tourism linked to bird watching has provided an alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal. Its viability has also been recognised as a worthwhile source of income in industrialised Richards Bay, according to Duncan Pritchard, Rio Tinto’s programme director of the Zululand Birding Route.
Western Province boosted their confidence ahead of their home semifinal against Free State by beating the Lions 23-17 in their Currie Cup clash at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday evening. In Bloemfontein, the Free State Cheetahs put in a morale-boosting 17-3 win over the Sharks.
While the Spar South African women’s hockey team cantered to victory in their Africa Cup of Nations final, the men’s final between South Africa and Egypt was a thrilling affair that went right down to the wire. The men had to weather an immense effort from the Egyptians as the two teams ended full-time goalless.
Eldorado Park residents promised to continue protesting over the murder of a six-year-old girl on Saturday after a day of violent demonstrations in the township. The residents, who threw stones, broke windows and damaged cars outside of the Eldorado Park police station, dispersed on Saturday afternoon but promised to come back to protest about the death of Gairoenisha Ganchi.
Big business in South Africa has become a leading force in the fight against HIV/Aids, investing effort and money into treatment programmes to put ailing workers back on the job. ”It’s absolutely essential,” said Alex Govender, head of Volkswagen South Africa’s health services.
Sibusiso Zuma laid the ghost of an eerie international goal drought to rest by scoring the goals that gave Bafana Bafana a 2-2 draw against the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at Durban’s Absa Stadium on Saturday and a nervy, at times uneasy place in next year’s 16-team African Nations Cup finals in Egypt.
Community members handed over a man to the Eldorado Park police station, south of Johannesburg, on Saturday in connection with the murder of six-year-old Ghairoenisha Michaela Lee Canchi. The girl went missing on Thursday afternoon and her body was found close to her home on Friday morning. She was buried on Friday afternoon.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and diamond mining giant De Beers have reached an agreement on wage increases and employment conditions. This follows weeks of unsuccessful negotiations between the two parties. NUM chief negotiator Peter Bailey said on Saturday that although the deal was not what the union initailly wanted, it was ”comfortable” with it ”for now”.
Gauteng community safety MEC Firoz Cachalia urged Eldorado Park residents to stay calm on Friday and let police investigate the disappearance of a six-year-old girl who was later found murdered. He made his appeal in response to their outrage at the police’s alleged tardiness in handling the case.
Two organisations came out against a merger of the Scorpions and the police in oral submissions at the Khampepe commission in Pretoria on Friday. The Foundation for Human Rights held that incorporating the Scorpions into the police service would be detrimental to South Africa’s ability to combat crime.