Despite slow progress, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan believes it is possible to achieve the organisation’s Millennium Development Goals by 2015 through cooperation, former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano said on Tuesday. ”What is needed is for us to work together,” Chissano said.
The Durban health department intends taking Engen to court after sulphur-dioxide emissions at its Durban oil refinery were found to be ”excessive”. The oil refinery exceeded its sulphur-dioxide emissions 64 times in just more than a month, according to a World Health Organisation report.
Attempted murder and rape cases will have to be reinvestigated after a probe by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) into the activities of police in Kensington, Cape Town, found four police officers guilty of corruption. These are among the findings of an ICD investigation into alleged corruption at the Kensington police station.
Bafana Bafana’s derided, makeshift squad may have exited the Gold Cup in a tense quarterfinal penalty shoot-out against Panama on Monday morning, but the players are walking with their heads held high after regaining their pride — and the respect of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football.
South African Rugby has suspended the executive committee of the Eastern Province Rugby Union with immediate effect. A South African Rugby Union (Saru) spokesperson said union representatives held a meeting with the Eastern Province executive committee on Monday night to discuss various problems.
A Durban schoolgirl has approached the Equality Court to fight possible disciplinary action for wearing a nose stud, media reports said on Tuesday. The grade-11 pupil at Durban Girls’ High School claimed she was being unfairly discriminated against because of her cultural identity.
The alleged abductor and murderer of Leigh Matthews (21) will not testify at his trial or call a single witness in his defence, media reports said on Tuesday. The decision comes in spite of the 47 witnesses who might testify for the state against Donovan Moodley (24).
”When President Robert Mugabe ploughs up neighbourhoods that coincidentally voted against him, he should be criticised,” former United States president Bill Clinton told guests at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg on Monday.
There was no evidence of ”crispy, fried monkeys” at the fire-ravaged premises of the Animal and Reptile Park in Muldersdrift, an International Wildlife Welfare Organisation inspector said after visiting the private sanctuary on Monday, contradicting claims of animal deaths by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
”No shocks, no headlines, no surprises,” said Fifa director of communications Markus Siegler after arriving in Johannesburg on Monday as part of a delegation that is in South Africa to study facilities for the 2010 World Cup. But he followed his comment up with bad news for some of the country’s World Cup venues.
The names of Department of Home Affairs officials found to have been corrupt or to have committed serious acts of misconduct were released by the department on Monday. Sixty-six officials were dismissed between April last year and June this year for serious acts of misconduct, Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said.
Schools will not be obliged to offer new, updated subjects when the National Curriculum Statement is introduced for grade 10 from next year, the Department of Education said on Monday. The new curriculum has updated and sometimes renamed versions of subjects currently on offer.
The African National Congress in the Western Cape on Monday plastered over its cracks with an announcement that provincial transport and public works minister Mcebisi Skwatsha is to quit his post on July 27. This followed a politically damaging dispute between Premier Ebrahim Rasool and the recently elected ANC provincial leadership.
South African investors should put some of their savings in offshore markets in order to take advantage of the opportunities not available in South Africa, as well as for diversification and risk reasons, it emerged at Stanlib’s second investment cnference in Cape Town on Monday.
Urgent national legislation is needed to curb irregular and unethical practices in the country’s hunting and wildlife industry, animal welfare groups said on Monday. This has become clear in private workshops and talks with industry role players, said the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and others.
![]()
Durban businessman Schabir Shaik’s application for leave to appeal against his fraud and corruption conviction and 15-year jail sentence will be argued in the city’s High Court next Tuesday. ”It could take 10 minutes or two days,” Shaik’s attorney, Reeves Parsee, said on Monday.
Tributes poured in for South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela who turned 87 on Monday.
Detectives are investigating the murder of a woman who was hacked to death with a garden spade, Free State police said on Monday. The body of the 40-year-old woman was found at midnight on Saturday in front of a house in Marico Street at Saaiplaas in Virginia.
In front of a capacity crowd at Mafikeng’s Mmabatho Stadium, Kaizer Chiefs beat defending Vodacom Challenge champions AS Vita of the Democratic Republic of Congo 6-5 in a penalty shootout after playing to a 1-1 draw on Sunday afternoon. AS Vita were leading 1-0 at the break.
The African National Congress on Sunday extended its ”warmest wishes and congratulations” to former president Nelson Mandela on his 87th birthday.
Embattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has appealed to South Africa for a loan of several hundred million rands to buy fuel, food, seed, and fertiliser. According to media reports, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are preparing to call in Zimbabwe’s debt of R4,5-billion next week.
President Thabo Mbeki has promised support for church relief efforts for people displaced under Zimbabwe’s so-called urban clean-up campaign. He made the undertaking during a meeting with representatives of the South African Council of Churches in Pretoria on Friday afternoon, church leaders said.
Just seven out of 162 train passengers hospitalised after two trains collided in Soweto on Wednesday night are waiting to be discharged, Metrorail said on Friday. ”We are encouraged by the improvement in the condition of the injured train passengers,” spokesperson Thandi Mlangeni said.
The Springbok rugby team joined former president Nelson Mandela to see off the 46664 vehicle.
Uncertainty over the position of Western Cape public works minister Mcebisi Skwatsha continued on Friday, the day he was supposed to — according to his premier — quit the post. Provincial African National Congress chairperson James Ngculu said on Friday that as far as he is aware, Skwatsha is still a provincial minister.
The Western Cape education department will not take the Mikro school language case to the Constitutional Court, provincial minister of education Cameron Dugmore said on Friday. He said this decision was taken after consultation with both provincial Premier Ebrahim Rasool and the national Department of Education.
Decisions made at the G8 Gleneagles Summit last week mark an historic new step in fundamentally redefining the relationship between Africa and the countries of the North, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Mbeki said the discussions on African development focused on the interlinked obligations of Africa and the G8 arising out of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (Icasa’s) discussion document on cellphone pricing — due for release on Monday — will also deal with the call-centre industry which the regulator describes as part of its renewed policy imperative.
About 40 babies died at the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital in Durban during two months in 2003 of ”various neonatal ICU infections,” the director of the non-profit organisation Voice said on Thursday. ”A report on the deaths of the 40 babies in 2003 was given to me by a high ranking official of the health department in KZN yesterday [Wednesday].
South Africa’s application to have the world heritage status of Sterkfontein’s fossil hominid sites extended to include the Taung Skull fossil site in North West province and the Mokopane Valley in Limpopo province was accepted on Friday. The Department of Arts and Culture said the Taung Skull site exhibited the same characteristics as hominid sites such as Sterkfontein, Swartkrans and Kromdraai.
”Operation Most Wanted” led to 11 arrests on a variety of charges on Thursday and Friday, the Pretoria police said. The Rietgat tracing unit made four arrests for armed robberies and attempted murder, the Pretoria flying squad arrested five men for hijacking and the city’s organised crime unit made two arrests for drug dealing, said Constable Brenda Kgafela.
The treatment that ”illegal foreigner”, ”prohibited person” and Hollywood star Wesley Snipes received from the National Immigration Branch showed that the new immigration system worked, the Department of Home Affairs said on Friday.