The Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed an application by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela for leave to appeal against various fraud convictions by the Pretoria High Court. Madikizela-Mandela approached the Bloemfontein court in March this year with an application for leave to appeal.
Students who fail perpetually should not be allowed to continue their higher education studies indeterminately, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said on Friday. The minister sought to explain a draft proposal she has submitted to the higher-education sector for consideration.
Failure by the state to protect farmers from land invasions will be ”a recipe for anarchy”, the Constitutional Court found on Friday in a landmark judgement upholding farmers’ property rights. The ruling given by acting Chief Justice Pius Langa for a unanimous court brings to an end five years of legal wrangling.
The court case against vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath is a distraction from the real work of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), its national chairperson Zackie Achmat, said on Friday. Earlier, Rath’s lawyer argued Rath should have a chance to reply to ”vilifying statements” Achmat and the TAC made against him in their papers.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress on Friday called on South Africans to support the people of Haiti in campaigning for the return of stability, the rule of law and democracy to the Caribbean state. It has also called for the charging or release of a former Haitian prime minister from prison.
Billionaire businessman Mark Shuttleworth has offered to pay for the costs of satirical T-shirt-maker Laugh It Off’s Constitutional Court action, founder Justin Nurse told the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday. Nurse told his audience that he is ”flat broke” after several projects of his company were derailed.
An expert witness in the Richtersveld land claim on Thursday added more than R100-million to the estimated cost of rehabilitation of land ravaged by Alexkor’s diamond mining. An environmental consultant told the Land Claims Court in Cape Town there was an error in the figure he gave the court earlier.
Protests over municipal service delivery went on for a second day in Port Elizabeth, with dissatisfied residents setting tyres alight and blockading roads on Friday. The police’s deputy area commissioner for Port Elizabeth said about 300 to 400 residents were protesting against the slow pace of housing delivery.
An application by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) for an urgent interdict against vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath got under way in the Cape High Court on Friday morning. However, proceedings were disrupted minutes after they started by the noise of demonstrators outside the building.
Old Mutual, South Africa’s largest financial services group, is in preliminary talks to acquire Skandia Insurance Company of Sweden, Old Mutual confirmed on Friday. In a statement, Old Mutual said discussions are at an early stage and may or may not lead to it making an offer for Skandia.
It is unclear whether the 62 alleged mercenaries jailed in Zimbabwe will return to South Africa on Friday, their lawyer, Alwyn Griebenow, said from Harare on Thursday. The men were supposed to have been released from Chikurubi maximum-security prison on Tuesday.
A waste-recycling plant in Johannesburg — described as a danger to the health of employees and the environment — was ordered on Thursday to comply with new regulations or face closure. ”You are in deep trouble. My advice to you is no smart talk,” said Gauteng’s environment minister, Khabisa Mosunkutu.
South Africans are not scared of this year’s unluckiest day, Friday May 13. But if you, along with more than 20-million Americans, suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th), then perhaps you should be extra careful. It also seems there are no couples brave enough to tie the knot on a Friday the 13th.
The government denies it has ”ring-fenced” Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in an effort to limit her controversial pronouncements on HIV and Aids, and on treatment for victims of the disease. According to a Business Day report on Thursday, the government has ”thrown a ring” around Tshabalala-Msimang.
The seizure of the assets of alleged brothel keeper Andrew Phillips was not for any ”legitimate purpose”, but to punish him even before his trial was over, the Constitutional Court heard on Thursday. Those assets were placed under a preservation order in February 2000 and a restraint order in December that year.
The Eastern Cape health department vowed on Thursday to prosecute officials responsible for letting clinics in the East London area run out of chronic medicines. ”We view this as gross negligence,” a departmental spokesperson said. ”We are going to charge people. There are people that are going to face the music.”
The Cabinet has welcomed the progress made in finalising the deal between Britain’s Barclays and South Africa’s Absa. However, activist group Jubilee South Africa on Thursday urged the government to withdraw its approval of Barclays’ bid to buy a 60% stake in Absa, as the British bank supported the apartheid government.
Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) beneficiaries are to have their grants paid directly into their bank accounts in future, in terms of an initiative launched by the fund and First National Bank on Thursday. ”This is the second phase of our struggle — to liberate people from queues,” UIF commissioner Shadrack Mkhonto said.
South African Rugby Union president Brian van Rooyen and three other top officials in the organisation face a possibly crippling blow to their leadership positions when a special general council meeting of SA Rugby is called within the next 10 days. At that meeting, the positions of SA Rugby’s top brass will come under intense scrutiny.
Mamelodi Sundowns kept up their hopes of finishing second in the Castle Premiership after they scored a hard-fought 1-0 win over Supersport United in a Tshwane derby played at Loftus on Wednesday night. The winner came from a diving header from Downs’ new teenage sensation Lerato Chabangu.
Nelson Mandela metro mayor Nceba Faku was on his way on Thursday to a protest by Port Elizabeth residents demanding houses, police said. ”The crowd was told that the mayor is on his way,” said a police spokesperson. The group demanded that Faku talk to them about the houses he promised, but never delivered.
Police warned Pretoria businesses on Thursday to beware of criminals using stolen cheques to buy goods costing thousands of rands. The scam artists, who usually purport to be professional people in order to win the trust of their victims, place telephonic orders and request the companies’ bank particulars to ”deposit” money.
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A vaccine supplier is poised to release much-needed flu vaccines — delayed by formulation problems earlier in the year — and only needs the go-ahead from the Medicines Control Council. ”If we receive authorisation from the MCC, we can provide all the vaccines needed,” the MD of Sanofi Pasteur, Stephen Alix, said on Wednesday.
The body of the last missing miner was found at Carletonville’s Driefontein mine on Wednesday afternoon, bringing the death toll since Tuesday to five. The five were among 10 miners trapped almost 2km underground after seismic activity at the mine’s Number 2 shaft on Tuesday morning.
The Inkatha Freedom Party says it is ”shocked” by the government’s call on universities to reduce student numbers, and refuse readmission to those who fail their first year. Earlier this week, the government identified the high drop-out rate among first-year students as a big financial drain on universities and other higher-learning institutions.
The owners of the hake trawler that collided with a container vessel killing 14 people near Port Elizabeth on Sunday are still investigating ways to reach the trawler with the aim of recovering bodies that might be trapped in the wreckage. This is according to a statement issued on Tuesday by the Mossel Bay municipality.
The 62 South African alleged mercenaries in Zimbabwe are only expected to arrive in the country on Thursday, their lawyer Alwyn Griebenow said on Wednesday. ”If everything goes according to plan we will leave [Zimbabwe] at 9am tomorrow [Thursday] morning,” he said from Harare.
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance is alarmed at reports of a proposal being discussed in the South African Cabinet for a "super-ministry" to oversee the economy, calling it an "outdated idea that will result in the overcentralisation of power and more bureaucratic red tape".
Even developed countries are not prepared for the possibility that the virulent avian flu could develop into a full-scale pandemic, the director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Professor Barry Schoub, said on Tuesday. He said the question is not if, but when, the next flu pandemic will hit the world.
The Medicines Control Council and the Department of Health confirmed on Wednesday that they are investigating the South African activities of the Dr Rath Health Foundation. Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been criticised for not condemning vitamin entrepreneur Matthias Rath’s activities.
One of South Africa’s leading sports journalists, Ray Williams, was on Tuesday night inducted into the South African Journalists’ Hall of Fame. Williams was one of the great characters in what could be termed the golden age of South African sports writing during the 1960s and 1970s.