A man wearing a black top was captured on camera withdrawing money from missing Constable Frances Rasuge’s bank account days after she disappeared, the Mmabatho Circuit Court heard on Wednesday. In other testimony on Wednesday, Rasuge’s mother said accused William Nkuna had threatened to kill Rasuge and himself.
Cool and conditions moving over the northern parts of the country brought some relief on Wednesday for firefighters still battling veld fires in Mpumalanga. Earlier in the day, a fire that raged through the North West veld overnight was brought under control near the Vredefort Dome. However, the fire risk remains high in the northern parts of the country.
It is ”patently obvious” that the rights of patients in state hospitals are not being respected and that urgent action is needed, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday. DA MP and health spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard released a damning report on the country’s ”five worst hospitals” during a press conference at Parliament.
The International Federation of the Red Cross on Wednesday appealed for R175-million to help 10,6 million people currently facing hunger in seven Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. The countries are Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia.
Judge Sisi Khampepe on Wednesday ruled that commission hearings into the Scorpion’s future will be open to the public. Police advocate Philip Jacobs earlier submitted that discussions around intelligence functions in relation to the Constitution and those about cases that are pending should be held in camera.
Murder accused William Nkuna had threatened to kill missing police Constable Frances Rasuge and himself, her mother told the circuit court sitting in Garankuwa on Wednesday. Answering questions from the state, Caroline Rasuge said she had called Nkuna on January 1, last year, asking him to leave her daughter alone.
Listed beauty, health and pharmacy retailer New Clicks is facing strike action by members of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union, who are set to embark on what they termed would be a "protracted" stayaway over wage differences starting on Friday.
A Pretoria advocate facing an array of sex charges along with his ex-girlfriend was denied leave in the city’s high court on Wednesday to question the integrity of two of the pair’s alleged child victims. Dirk Prinsloo sought permission to cross-examine a social worker on the backgrounds of the two girls.
A Springbok Radio classic, The Diary of Anne Frank, is to be rebroadcast on Saturday after being unearthed in the South African Broadcasting Corporation archives, publicist Peter Feldman said on Wednesday. The new production features Frank Graham as Mr Frank, Caroline Smart as Mrs Frank and Margaret Milner-Smyth as Margot Frank.
Former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s attorney Mike Hulley will not lodge an application in the Durban High Court on Wednesday for the return of documents seized during recent raids by the Scorpions, according to his secretary. On Monday, Hulley said the application would probably be lodged on Wednesday.
There is still no progress in the hunt for the killer or killers of mining magnate Brett Kebble, police said on Wednesday. It is still not known whether the killing of the controversial businessman was an assassination or a botched hijacking. Meanwhile, police returned to the crime scene on Wednesday.
Two Pretoria advocates, charged with a variety of sex crimes, attacked the credibility of two of their alleged child victims on Wednesday, claiming they lied. Advocates Dirk Prinsloo and Cezanne Visser are seeking the Pretoria High Court’s leave to cross-examine a social worker on the backgrounds of the two girls.
South Africa’s two hockey teams in action at the Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday remained on course for places in Saturday’s finals, although the women had a much more satisfactory day than their male counterparts did. The women’s team took their Nigerian opponents apart at Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria.
Africa won the battle of the continents on Tuesday when Team Shosholoza chalked up her third victory of the week-long Trapani Louis Vuitton Act 8 off Sicily with a walk-over win of four minutes and 22 seconds against China Team.
The withering sentence imposed on Kaizer Chiefs for the widespread violence of their supporters during the recent Supa8 Cup game against Bloemfontein Celtic at the FNB Stadium was on Tuesday diluted a step further. The arbitration hearing into the controversial affair waived the suspended sentence of two games that had been imposed on Chiefs.
According to the latest Absa house-price index, nominal house prices rose by 17,6% year-on-year in September, versus a revised 19,6% in August, the lowest year-on-year growth since December 2002, when it was 17,3%. On a month-on-month basis, nominal growth in house prices was 0,6% in September.
The nucleus of Bafana Bafana’s top stars on Wednesday joined the squad in Durban for Saturday’s decisive African Nations Cup qualifier against the Democratic Republic of Congo as scheduled. ”Everything is running smoothly,” commented general manager Stanley ”Screamer” Tshabalala.
M&G Media, owner of the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> newspaper, announced on Wednesday that Jason Zeelie has been appointed as the group’s managing director of publishing with effect from November 1. Most recently, Zeelie has worked at Independent Newspapers, where he was Gauteng retail and special projects advertising manager.
A solid final-round 66 in the Vodacom Origins of Golf Tour at Erinvale reignited Eugen Marugi’s career after a rather non-descript 2004 season. Last week, Marugi underlined his comeback at the Seekers Travel Pro-Am. With back-to-back top-10 finishes, the 21-year-old Johannesburg golfer is finally back on the Sunshine Tour fairways.
A new war of words erupted between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Tuesday sparked by the recent establishment of the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco). The ANC rejected as ”preposterous” an assertion by IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi that the ruling party was behind the birth of the new party.
The closure of the Pretoria suburb where President Thabo Mbeki and Cabinet ministers live has nothing to do with the Presidency. The municipality said on Tuesday: ”The closure and rezoning of streets in Bryntirion has nothing to do with the erection of booms, as reported in some sections of the media.”
The grieving father of murdered mining magnate Brett Kebble told mourners at his son’s funeral service in Cape Town on Tuesday that he would do everything in his power to get to the bottom of his son’s murder. ”Of one thing I am sure, I will do all within my power to get to the bottom of Brett’s death,” vowed Roger Kebble.
South Africa would put processes in motion to open a mission in Iraq, deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. The matter was raised in talks with his Iraqi counterpart Talib Hamid Al-Bayati in Pretoria on Tuesday afternoon. ”We will be looking at sending an advance team to Iraq sooner rather than later,” said Pahad.
Water restrictions have been imposed on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, where there has been little rain and river water levels are low. The north coast — particularly the Tongaat area — was being closely monitored, eThekwini municipality water and sanitation head Neil Macleod said on Tuesday, appealing to residents to use water sparingly.
Some of the media were ignoring Brett Kebble’s fundamental right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, said Essop Pahad, Minister in the Presidency, at the mining magnate’s funeral in Cape Town on Tuesday. Pahad said Kebble’s murder has thrown into sharp relief the relationship between rights and responsibilities under the South African Constitution.
Missing police constable Frances Rasuge laid and withdrew rape charges against murder accused William Nkuna three months before she disappeared, the Mmbatho Circuit Court heard on Tuesday. She subsequently filed a withdrawal statement on May 24 and the charges were withdrawn three days later.
Advocate Cezanne Visser pretended to be a married woman in order to gain supervision over two children who were later allegedly abused, the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday. Social worker Annemarie Malan was testifying in the sex-crimes trial of Visser and Dirk Prinsloo.
An African National Congress mayor and a councillor in Bothaville, respectively facing charges of attempted murder and assault, have been suspended, the party announced on Tuesday. Controversial Nala mayor Godfrey ”Baarde” Tsoai and another councillor, Khumisi Letsoara, have been suspended as councillors and party members.
Firefighters on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast were on Tuesday monitoring the situation in a pine plantation in the Nyalazi area outside Mtubatuba after they managed to extinguish a ”vicious” fire that started on Sunday. ”We are still assessing the situation and the damage,” said a supervisor for protection services in the area.
The South African Communist Party’s Red October campaign will focus this year on fighting hunger and demanding food security for all, the party said on Tuesday. It said the campaign will be based on four pillars, including demanding accelerated land and agrarian transformation to help ensure access to land for food production and security.
The South Africa Foundation on Tuesday launched a new report that focuses on 12 specific proposals for ways to lower telecommunications costs and widen access. The report comes a week ahead of the telecommunication-pricing indaba. The second round of the government-hosted two-day colloquium will take place in Gauteng.
Indian defence journal SP’s Land Forces has defended the accuracy of a report that the country’s defence ministry has initiated action to cancel all contracts with Denel. The South African arms maker has denied the report and the Indian high commission in Pretoria has indicated the contracts may just have been suspended.