Police and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals (SPCA) were on Monday investigating an incident in which a cat was strangled and thrown into a garden at the Bluff yacht club in Durban. Meanwhile, there is still no progress in the search for those who microwaved a live cat at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Pinewood residence.
Television station e.tv has been given the rights to broadcast the judgement in the fraud and corruption trial of businessman Schabir Shaik on Tuesday and Wednesday, National Prosecutions Authority spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said on Sunday. Other media will have to apply for accreditation to cover the trial, he said.
The African National Congress’s disciplinary hearing of embattled Beaufort West politician Truman Prince has been postponed to June 6. Prince’s advocate, Charles Simon, said his client pleaded not guilty to all charges, including alleged intimidation and death threats.
The national executive committee of the African National has resolved to "act with firmness and resolve" against corruption in the party’s ranks. In a statement on Monday following a meeting of the committee at the weekend, the organisation said it act "against any members of the ANC found guilty of any misdemeanour".
Absa bank did not invite the Khulumani Support Group to discuss its multibillion-rand deal with Barclays, Khulumani said on Monday. Khulumani campaigns for the cancellation of apartheid-era state debt. Activist group Jubilee, however, maintained that it had received notice of the meeting.
Obesity is a great public-health problem, with 23% of men and 57% of women over 15 overweight, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Monday. Seventeen percent of adolescents were found to be overweight in the Youth Risk Behaviour Survey conducted in public schools in 2002.
Those involved in lawful protests have nothing to fear from an intelligence probe into such actions, Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils said on Monday. ”Anybody who transgresses the laws of the country and foments violence, then obviously that is a criminal offence and that is to be dealt with,” he told SAFM.
The disciplinary hearing of disgraced Beaufort West politician Truman Prince will resume on Sunday morning when the African National Congress will call its last two witnesses to testify. The hearing arises from a documentary on SABC3 on child prostitution that showed Prince flirting with under-age girls.
A Volkswagen Beetle-driving pensioner was arrested on Saturday for allegedly pulling out his gun and shooting a fellow motorist in the leg in an attack of road rage in Bruma Lake, Johannesburg, police said. The 64-year-old man said he was overtaken by a Jetta that pulled in front of him, let him pass and then cut him off again.
A group of protesters sang, danced and chanted anti-Barclays slogans in Johannesburg on Saturday morning against the British bank’s takeover of Absa. The protesters, from the Jubilee South Africa group, wore anti-privatisation T-shirts and carried banners with slogans such as ”Barclays economic terrorists”.
All prisoners on death row should be released, the South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights (Sapohr) said on Friday. ”After all, the majority of them have been behind bars for such a long time, they virtually have no life to fall back to,” said Golden Miles Bhudu, president of Sapohr.
Preventative measures have been taken to supply Johannesburg residents with gas until the Sasolburg plant is fully operational, Egoli Gas said on Friday. Sasol warned earlier on Friday that Johannesburg residents who use hydrogen gas could be left without gas for three weeks due to technical problems at the Sasolburg plant.
Media watchdogs have reacted with shock to the gagging order placed on the Mail & Guardian newspaper by the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday night. The Media Institute of Southern Africa, the Media Monitoring Project, the Democratic Alliance and the South African National Editors’ Forum have all responded critically.
A two-year-old boy was found by a neighbour locked inside his house with the bodies of his dead parents and siblings in Mhluzi, near Middelburg, on Friday afternoon, police said. A police spokesperson said the neighbour saw the child at a window after receiving no response when she knocked on the door.
SABMiller said trademarks are threatened by the Constitutional Court ruling on Friday that a T-shirt-maker had the right to mock its Carling Black Label brand. ”The decision suggests that the dignity or reputation of a trademark will not be afforded protection in itself,” the company said in a statement.
Many Johannesburg residents could be left without gas for three weeks due to technical problems at the Sasolburg plant, Sasol said on Friday. ”We regret the interruption of supply and inconvenience to Egoli Gas and their customers, and are doing everything possible to remedy the situation,” said Sasol Gas MD Hans Naude.
The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) has come out in support of the South African Rugby Union’s decision on Thursday to resolve its differences internally. President Brian van Rooyen and deputy Andre Markgraaff will try to resolve their considerable differences following Sascoc’s intervention.
Israeli security forces interrogated African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) leader Fikile Mbalula on Friday when he entered Palestine to attend a meeting. ANCYL spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said Mbalula was on his way to attend a meeting of the Socialist International Council in Palestine.
South Africa’s retail petrol price for all grades will drop by only 16 cents a litre (c/l) from June 1, as an extra 6c/l levy for the reduction of the slate with oil companies was added, the Department of Minerals and Energy announced on Friday. This reduces the price of a litre of petrol to R5,06 from a record R5,22 in Gauteng.
Peddlers of doom for South Africa remain hard at work, but the real story of South Africa is one of hope, South African President Thabo Mbeki argued on Friday in his weekly online column, <i>ANC Today</i>. The reality in the country is a story "of a growing and resilient economy", said the president.
The name change of Pretoria to Tshwane took another step forward on Thursday when the South African National Geographical Names Council unanimously approved the recommendation. Tommy Ntsewa, chairperson of the council, said in Bloemfontein the approval was granted after thorough deliberation.
Very cold and wet conditions are due to hit parts of the country this weekend, but for many people a weekend of hot chocolate and romantic snuggling is a remote thought — finding ways of keeping warm safely is far more pressing. But makeshift measures such as illegal electricity connections can be deadly.
The Zimbabwean government is trying to quash the local trade union movement and send its own representatives to an International Labour Organisation conference, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said on Thursday. ”This is a sinister move,” ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe said.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will start strike action on June 27 in a programme of action that will run into February next year, against continuing job losses. At a press conference in Johannesburg on Thursday, Cosatu called on the business sector to make more serious efforts to avoid job losses.
The Cabinet has agreed to extend by two years, until March 2007, South Africa’s participation in a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Cabinet also approved the extension of participation in the UN and African Union missions in Ethiopia and Eritrea for another two years.
The person responsible for microwaving a live cat at the University of KwaZulu-Natal could be slapped with a fine of up to R20 000 or a prison sentence of up to four years, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said on Thursday. R31 700 has been pledged for information leading to the arrest and conviction of this person.
Most of the major players in South African rugby were present when the crisis meeting of the South African Rugby Union (Saru) president’s council kicked off at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Thursday. Saru president Brian van Rooyen is expected to respond to allegations of mismanagement.
Zambian striker Collins Mbesuma was named South African Footballer of the Year at an end-of-season awards ceremony on Wednesday. Another striker, Sandile Ndlovu, topped the Players’ Player of the Year poll and former national team striker Pitso Mosimane of Supersport United won the Coach of the Year category.
Old Mutual, South Africa’s largest financial-services group, made good progress in the area of black economic empowerment (BEE) last year, it has emerged from the company’s <i>2004 Old Mutual Corporate Citizenship Report</i>, released on Thursday. During 2004, Old Mutual facilitated empowerment deals worth R500-million.
In the high-stakes nuclear game, will a radioactive waste-management policy be foisted on an unsuspecting public or will ”transparency, consultation and stakeholder participation” be a reality? A draft policy containing those words remains ungazetted while the government looks at prototype pebble-bed nuclear reactors for commercial use.
Anyone who claims vitamins are a cure or treatment for Aids is a charlatan, United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids) director Peter Piot said in Johannesburg on Wednesday. ”It’s really unfortunate that there will always be people who try to make money out of the misery and suffering of others,” he said.
The City of Johannesburg will spend about R1,4-billion over the next four years to prepare for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, executive mayor Amos Masondo said on Wednesday in presenting the city’s budget for the 2005/06 financial year. R675-million will go to City Power to upgrade the city’s ageing power network.